These days, almost everyone seems willing to share everything on social media. Some even take it to the extreme, commercialising their entire family’s lives, including their children’s, in exchange for a few free products. Most companies love it. They get to turn people into walking advertisements for peanuts. But actress-turned-filmmaker Bojana Novakovic, who has been…
Co-directed by Jared Nicholson and Ben Lawrence, Aftermath is a narrative steeped in paranoia, fear, trauma, conspiracy theories and some questionable mistruths. On the surface, however, it’s a delicate, sensitive and well-considered psychological examination of Wendy Scurr and the extreme mental anguish she experienced in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre. Scurr witnessed unimaginable…
For most of us, our personal idea of adventure comes in all shapes and sizes. For some, a fishing trip is an adventure. For others, it might be a spontaneous overseas trip with friends. For others still, it could be something more extreme, like skydiving or rock climbing. For three young Australian men, Valerio De…
Tracy Bolton’s journey into filmmaking has been anything but conventional. With a background in community theatre and professional acting, including appearances alongside some of Australia’s best-known screen performers, Bolton eventually found herself stepping behind the camera. What began as a screenwriting exercise became Edith, a 20-minute short, before an unexpected expansion transformed Descent into her…
A trip, a missed handshake, going in for an uncomfortable hug, accidentally treading on someone’s toes, forgetting someone’s name, or having no idea how to pronounce it. We’ve all been there when meeting or being introduced to someone we’ve never met before. For filmmaker Branden Wittchen, his most uncomfortable experience came when he was first…
Filmed across Australia and The Netherlands over almost two years, the powerful new Australian documentary Invisible Injuries explores the unseen wounds carried by soldiers long after service. Directed by Western Australian filmmaker Kelly Bergsma, Invisible Injuries follows Australian veteran Andy Fermo as he confronts the invisible wounds of military service. Far from the battlefield, Andy’s…
They say you can start over. But if the music in your head sounds different, the smells aren’t the same, and everything that once felt familiar exists only in memory, where exactly does that new beginning start? That question sits at the heart of Morning Afternoon Night, a new short film from Perth-based filmmaker, Dasha…
Of the Australian sports feature documentaries released over the past decade, it’s no surprise that such a large number of them have focused on AFL, the biggest sport in the land. At least nine have centred on the sport, including two documentaries released in the same year about the same person: Adam Goodes (The Australian…
If you were around during the late ’90s and early 2000s, and you enjoyed driving around for hours with more people in the car than there were seatbelts, wagging school, partying until dawn every weekend, or taking part in any activity that involved bongs and buckets, dropping tabs, popping pills, or funnelling full bottles of…
Welcome to the latest episode of the Cinema Australia Podcast. In this episode, I’m joined by Harvey Zielinski – writer and director of Sweet Milk Lake who also stars in the film as two twin brothers, Jake and Sam. I won’t repeat my adoration for Harvey and his career here, because you can hear a…