MIFF to date

Due to a comination of a nasty cold that I don't seem to be able to shake, and the general malaise of post-work procrastination (ever since I finished up at Express Media at the end of June, I don't seem to be able to get anything done: a result, I suspect, of going from an over-worked and over-regimented lifestyle to one with almost no demands on my time at all. The last few weeks I've been finding it difficult to do even simple things, let alone meet deadlines and schedule my day productively...) I've missed several of the film's at the Melbourne International Film Festival that I'd intended to see to date.

This isn't entirely a bad thing, mind you. As I splashed out and bought a festival passport (entitling me to see everything bar opening and closing night) I booked a ridiculous number of films, sometimes as many as five or six sessions in one day. I've actually seen only one-three films a day. So, by today (day six of the festival) I've only seen seven films. By most people's standards of course, seven films in six days is rather a lot...

I've also seen David Page's superb, hilarious, and moving Page 8 at The Malthouse, and urge you all to go and see it. It's deft, brilliant, and simply stunning.

I have two equally-placed MIFF highlights to date.

The first is the South African film Forgiveness (dir. Ian Gabriel, 2004, 112 minutes), a complex debut feature that examines the aftermath of South Africa's Truth and Reconcilation Commission. An ex-policeman visits the family of a young man who he killed, provoking anger and grief, and a lust for vengeance. A deeply moving, meditative, and cathartic film whose sun-bleached imagery balances out its emotional punch.

Equally good, equally important, although an uncomfortable viewing experience, is the remarkable, beautiful and harrowing feature film Mysterious Skin by American director Gregg Araki. Based on the novel by Scott Heim, this novel unflinchingly explores the emotional damage caused by childhood sexual abuse. Its protagonists are two teenage boys, the emotionally-crippled Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who believes that what happened between him and his baseball coach when he was an eight year old boy was the only loving relationship he has ever known; and the awkward, isolated Brian (Brady Corbet), who thinks that the reason he cannot recall a particular stretch of time when he was a child, and the nightmares he now suffers, are because he was abducted by aliens. Only by helping each other confront the past can these boys begin to find healing. Despite its difficult subject matter this is a poetic and dreamlike film. It is also deeply disturbing, and remarkably powerful, and Araki's best best work to date. That conservatives are trying to have it banned is repellent.

I'll list my MIFF disappointments to date in my next post; right now I have to go write a letter to the OFLC and the Attorney General...