Kino #4 - Debrief!

Kino #4 took place May 15th at the wonderful Chalkhorse gallery in Surry Hills. It was a good mix of regulars and newcomers, amateur filmmakers and established professionals, people seeking to get involved or just there to watch.

Marianne was our lovely emcee for the evening, in which quite a few made-for-Kino shorts were shown to an appreciative audience.

Jack Feldstein presented his new neon animation, The Culinary Adventures of Jack Kerouac, finished just in time for Kino #4. Make sure you catch his new film, A Wondrous Film About Emma Brooks, a Dendy Awards finalist at the upcoming Sydney Film Festival.

We screened a couple of films by Jamie Kennerley, of Kino Manchester (a.k.a. Filmonik). The hilarious Boy and Guitar and Stolen were preceded by a short intro filmed in Paris the week before, in which Jamie invited Sydney kinoites to send their films to England.

Kino is a worldwide phenomenon, and once again we caught some great shorts made at Kino Montreal (the birthplace of the Kino movement): Olivier Gilbert's Interference and Simon Laganiere's Hands On, 2 Fingers Off.

Closer to home, Caroline Moise screened the world premiere of her new short, which she'd originally shot in Adelaide as part of Kino Adelaide's Kabaret, a series of 48-hour film challenges as part of the Adelaide International Film Festival.

During the break we ate sushi and cake, met future collaborators, had a beer with old mates and congratulated the brave Kinoites who'd made work specially for us that night. As usual, there were plenty of giveaways on the night, including movie tickets for Noise, My Best Friend and the Sydney Film Festival.

A couple of local filmmakers presented recently completed films: Seán Byrne screened An Dúshlán (Defiance), Dean Bertram was here to present his horror short Foresta Rossa and John Trefry introduced 4Word Thought's Impetus.

Finally two very brave members of the audience accepted filmmaking challenges. Nils took on the job of creating a Choose Your Own Adventure Film, which will then be sent to South Australia, where members of Kino Adelaide will continue the story. Meanwhile Lawrence accepted the challenge of making a film according to audience specifications. The crowd voted for a "an exploitation film" featuring "butter". Check out the wierd and wonderful results of these experiments at Kino #5 next month!

Check out the pics from the evening on our Flickr page!

We recommend: 60 Second Journeys

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL – MOBILE MOVIE COMPETITION



The festival has added two new award categories to recognize screen stories made through the lens of a mobile phone.

One winner, decided by a panel, will take home winnings worth more than $10,000 including cash of $4000, while the People’s Choice winner, decided by downloads from a website, will be given a mobile phone valued at $649.

Entries must be no more than a minute long, based on a theme “transport yourself” and MMS’d to 044SYDFILM. Submissions accepted up until June 21, with winners announced at the Sydney Film Festival’s Gala Closing Night, June 23.

Read all about it here and watch the current submissions there. Come on Kinoites, represent!

Photos from Kino #4!

Check out pictures from Kino Sydney on our flickr site!

Kino #4 - May 15th @ Chalkhorse

Want to sign up to show a film at KINO #4 ?
Email Marianne at kino@thefestivalists.com asap.

For more info, visit our temporary kino page.

Kino #3 - Debrief!

KINO SYDNEY #3: DEBRIEF

Tuesday March 27th 2007 - 6:30pm

Could Kino be the victim of its own success? Audiences doubled for our second night at the lovely Chalkhorse gallery, with 70 film buffs joshing for position in our cosy screening space. It was great to see so many familiar faces, and thrilling to meet a whole new batch of Kinoites.

A few filmmakers premiered brand new films finished just in time for Kino #3. Frances Anderson followed up Kino #2's In Africa (which was recently selected for the St Kilda Short Film Festival following its world premiere at Kino) with the abstract horror of Hotel. David Gacs gave the experimental animation Hegemons, while Minto Macpherson presented his first ever Kino film, the animated Technik.

We screened recently completed films from Shane K. (H.R. Pufnsnuf and Sky High), Garnet Mae (Kung Fu Shuffle) and JackFeldstein (The Great Oz Love Yarn).

Finally we showed two films made at other Kino chapters worldwide. From Kino Montreal we had Stéphane Lafleur's Inventaire (Inventary) and from Kino Adelaide we screened Dave Wade's Detached.

In between films, there was a lot of networking going on, and a few projects for Kino #4 were being discussed around the room and outside on the sidewalk. The open bar served red wine, white wine, beer and soft drinks until stocks ran out, while our sushi and homemade cakes buffet proved v. popular. A big thanks to the people at Chalkhorse for the friendly venue!

If you're making a film for Kino #4, don't forget to check out the rules, and to inform us of your intentions by emailing kino@thefestivalists.com.

Kino #4 is May 15th at Chalkhorse!

Coming soon: the Kino Sydney website!
In the meantime check us out on Myspace or see pics of Kino #3 on our Flickr page!

We recommend: SFF website

We Festivalists can't get enough of film festivals. We've just wrapped the 2nd edition of Young at Heart and the Possible Worlds Tour. We're about to host Kino#3 and are already planning for a mystery event to be held later this year. It's exhausting work!

So today I thought I'd take some time off and see a movie at the French Film Festival, Christophe Honoré's amazing Dans Paris. It's my ninth film (and one of my favourites) at a festival with its share of great titles. But of course, the one we're all really waiting for is just around the corner... the Sydney Film Festival is back in June!

So you can imagine how excited I was to receive a text on my way home: a reliable source informing me that the new website of the Sydney Film Festival had just gone live! I ran the rest of the way home, and I wasn't disappointed. This is not just some cynical marketing exercise... Not only do we get a preview of the stunning visual identity for 2007 (including some moody photography and a sh*t-hot new logo), but more importantly, there's a sneak peak at the program.

We learn that there will be a spotlight on Turkey (which is great news as it's a national cinema I know very little about - and I'm sure I speak for many of us), a sidebar just for kids (though I suspect a few adults might sneak in too), a John Huston retrospective and a program of films about or made by people with a disability.

The World Views program will bring us some of the best titles in new world cinema - films sourced at major festivals around the world by Artistic Director Clare Stewart and programmer Jenny Neighbour. Manoel de Oliveira's Belle toujours (a sequel of sorts to Luis Buñuel's Belle de jour) is in there, as is Jia Zhang-Ke's thought-provoking Still Life. André Téchiné's Les Témoins gets an Australian premiere, and there's an intriguing South African comedy named after a curry bun. Just enough to whet our appetite.

What impressed me most about the website is that it draws you in, providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what it takes to put on an event of this scale. There are insights into the programmers' travels (which if expanded, would make for a very readable blog), a bit about the making of the visual identity, and you even get to know the (mostly) new members of the team a little (the instant noodle moment in The Host rocks). For all of us Sydneysiders, this is, after all, our festival.

The Festival takes place June 8th to 24th and the full program will be announced on May 9th. I, for one, can hardly wait.

-MR

Kino #3 - Mar. 27th @ Chalkhorse