MAN ABOUT TOWN

Tribute for Pro Hart Jane Scott, Director of the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) and curator of the travelling exhibition, Pro Hart: Retrospective , pays tribute to one of Australia's most popular contemporary artists, Pro Hart who died today aged 77. "We are deeply saddened to hear the news that Pro Hart has passed away at his Broken Hill home this morning after battling motor neurone disease. "Self-taught and unashamedly Australian, Pro Hart produced some of the Nation's most recognisable images. His love affair with colour, paint and its application endeared him to audiences around the world. "Pro's uncompromising and often unorthodox political views mirrored his non-conformism in his art practice and his approach to the art world. At a time when so many reputations are the result of spin, Pro Hart was an artist of genuine conviction and character. "For Pro, painting was like inventing. He experimented with media and invented different techniques of appl...

The Commonwealth Games closed tonight. Hurrah! Farewell traffic jams, insanely crowded streets and trams, and endless droning helicopters overhead. Admittedly, the sense of excitement in the CBD was rather cool, and I enjoyed the opportunity to play impromtu tour guide whenever I noticed lost travellers looking confused and consulting maps... I just can't stop myself from helping people. My mum would be proud, I'm sure. I walked down to the Fitzroy Gardens to watch the fireworks tonight- a pretty good view, although the countless panicked fruit bats wheeling overhead were (I suspect) an unplanned addition to the show... but I couldn't help thinking, even as I grinned like a delighted child at the beauty of the colours exploding and sparkling across the sky, about just how much money was being spent before my eyes. $50 million on the combined opening and closing ceremonies apparently, for a second-rate international sporting carnival that's unfairly balanced in favour ...

Over at Reasons You Will Hate Me , Ms Fits has raised the perenial question of whether or not Ned Kelly (pictured left, the day before his execution) was a wooly woofter. Oddly enough, I wrote an article for the national fag-mag DNA on just such a topic a couple of years ago, as a tie-in with the lamentable 2003 film Ned Kelly. Here's a slightly abridged version of it for the salacious history-buffs among you: AS NELLY AS NEDDY As early as 1879 stories were circulating that at least one member of the Kelly Gang had a fondness for lady's clothing. In December the previous year the gang had held up Euroa's National Bank; before the raid Ned and the boys had burnt their old clothes, and disguised themselves as toffs. Among the ashes of their old clothes was found what was thought to be the remains of a lady's bonnet. As Steve Hart (below, right) was the youngest, most slender member of the gang, police decided he must have been dressed as a woman, perhaps to reconoite...

Tuesday 14th March was the official opening night of the 2006 Next Wave Festival , with the theme of 'Empire Games' (the title by which the Commonwealth Games was previously known). It was held at Shed 14 at the Docklands, the site of a tremendous group exhibition called The Containers Village , which represents the work of 43 artists' collectives from around the contemporary Commonwealth. Each group's work is displayed in a shipping container, which are placed around the cavernous space of Shed 14. Some are on the ground, others suspended above the ground by a series of scaffolds, walkways, ramps and bridges that connect them all. This is a fantastic exhibition, almost overwhelming in its scale, and highly recommended. You'll probably want to go back several times for a repeat visit. The opening night party was also fantastic, with a throng of artists and freeloaders in attendance, speeches kept to a minimum, and a warm and excited atmosphere. *** Friday night I at...

WOMEN TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT THIS YEAR'S FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS Friday 21 - Sunday 30 April Australian Centre for The Moving Image, Federation Square Tickets: ACMI Cinema box office / online www.acmi.net.au/tickets or phone 8663 2833 Opening Night tickets $ 40 // Single Session Pass : Full $15 Concession $12 // 6 Session Pass: Full $75 Concession $60 The Goethe-Institut's annual Festival of German Films, which tours nationally in April, this year showcases an eclectic range of films where the trials and tribulations of women are all brought into sharp focus. Stories of pioneers, heroines and regular women have captured the imagination of German filmmakers, and this year's offerings include: 2006 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film , Sophie Scholl, The Final Days tells the true story of the only female member of peaceful resistance group The White Rose, an organisation dedicated to the downfall of the Third Reich. Scre...

Goya Award and San Sebastian International Film Festival winners feature in the 9th Spanish Film Festival in Australia Sydney: Wed 3 May to Sun 14 May Palace Academy Twin & Norton Street Cinemas Melbourne: Wed 10 May to Sun 21 May Cinema Como Brisbane: Wed 17 to Sun 21 May Palace Centro The 2006 Spanish Film Festival is back with the most challenging, confronting and funny films out of Spain in the last year, featuring many of the award winners from the recent Goya Awards and Spain’s premiere international film event, the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Now in its 9th year the Spanish Film Festival tours Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane at Palace Cinemas throughout May. Festival director Natalia Ortiz said “Spain’s film industry is thriving, producing some of the most challenging and fascinating films in the world right now. The films are a reflection of society as it is now in Spain, and have enormous breath of maturity in their subject matter.” “From documen...

This morning I had the great pleasure of interviewing Georg (pronounced Ge-or-ch, with a hard 'G' as in 'glen' and a hard 'ch' as in 'loch') Holm , the bassist with and a founding members of Iceland's Sigur Rós (pronounced 'Si-er Rose', and meaning 'Victory Rose'), who are touring Australia next month. We only had 15 minutes to talk, but from my point of view the interview went very well, and covered such diverse topics as songwriting, Hopelandish, the perils of touring, and catching trout with your teeth. I'll put it to air on Thursday 6th April, the week before the band play The Palais in St Kilda.

And here's part two (of which the previous post is part one). Now you get to decide what my best traits are: could it be that I'm unaware of what people really like about me? Oooooh, the anticipation is killing me! Choose my positive personality traits here: http://kevan.org/johari?name=burntime I look forward to the results. Check my last post to help me identify my unknown negative social traits - who knows, this could send me shrieking to therapy, or skipping happily down the street! *grins*

Just found this neat thingy on the web that helps you - yes, you - map out a picture of how you see my personaility traits, and which in theory, helps me identity previously unknown flaws (as if I'm not already neurotic enough?). Go here: http://kevan.org/nohari?name=RichardWatts Then follow the instructions. Please.

Sunday 13th March The final official day of the festival, although due to popular demand three films will have encore screenings on Monday evening. I kicked things off with a 2.15pm screening of Pursuit of Equality , a deeply moving film about the city of San Francisco's brief legalisation of same-sex marriage before the state cracked down on the situation. I'm not into the idea of gay marriage at all, as I don't see the need to ape heterosexual traditions, but this film certainly succeeded in demonstrating to me why other queers want the right to marry. There are some truly inspiring and agonising moments in this film, which moved me to tears on numerous occasions. The fly-on-the-wall scenes inside city hall as the mayor and his staff battle legal opposition to gay marriage is fascinating, while the many individuals whose lives are irrevocably changed add a human dimension to the political and religious battle that was sparked by the first same-sex wedding, between elderly...

Saturday 11th March Today got off to a great start with a 12pm screening of the US doco Gay Republicans , a fascinating and illuminating exploration of the world of gay and lesbian conservatives. You can watch the trailer here and learn more about the film here - plus watch a couple of key scenes. The film focuses on the gay Republican group Log Cabin , during the lead-up to the 2004 US Presidential Election, when they were forced to chose whether or not to endorse George W Bush as candidate due to his divisive comments over gay marriage. As one particularly reactionary subject of the film says, "Are we Republicans who happen to be gay, or gays who happen to be Republican?" It documents a time when this question became the central issue for Log Cabin members, with dramatic - often hillarious - results. It's so nice to laugh at, rather than with people, sometimes... Instead of overtly manipulating the footage that he took, director Wash Westmoreland allows the subjects t...

Friday 10th March Wednesday was my day off from the festival, with nothing showing that I wanted to see, and Thursday I missed the only film I'd planned to catch (US indie drama Hard Pill ) as I overslept after taking a late afternoon nap...an impotant part of my Thursday routine these days, seeing as I'm usually up at 6.30am to put my radio show together, while DJ'ing each Thursday night means that its usually at least 4am Friday before I get to bed... So anyway, that brings us to Friday, and the eighth day of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. At 2pm I turned up to see Hilde's Reise ( Hilde's Journey ), a Swiss film by director Christof Vorster, who actually e-mailed me earlier in the week, having stumbled across my blog while looking for any press about his film that might have been generated locally. In his e-mail he said he hoped I would like his film. I'm sorry to say I did not. I was tired and hungover after DJ'ing the night before; consequently th...

Tues March 7 Tonight was headfuck night at the film festival. I was a bit tired after a day spent at RRR working on grant applications and ideas for new applications, so I chilled at home for a bit before heading in to catch the 8pm screening of the Spanish film Inconscientes (' Unconcious '), directed by Joaquín Oristrell. I'm so glad I did! Although not a gay film, it's very, very queer - it has a deliciously deranged sensibility, and a plot that runs cheerfully amok through the early years of the modernism and the 20th Century. Set in Barcelona in 1913, it concerns the efforts of the headstrong and pregnant Alma Pardo to discover the whereabouts of her missing husband Dr Leon Pardo, a student of Freud. She is aided in her quest by her brother-in law, the stolid and unadventurous Salvador (the most exciting thing about him are his muttonchop whiskers, or so it seems at first), who is married to her neurotic sister. As the story unfolds, we encounter whore-loving king...

"Achieving success is far easier than most humans believe. For example, why did we, the priests of the Elder Gods of this galaxy, succeed where the avatars of the Ancient Old Ones from beyond the stars failed? The answer is absurdly simple: Vast armies of horrifying monsters. " - An extract from Great Cthulhu's self-help grimoire, Seven Easy Steps To a Better Eternity of Inconceivable Pain and Torment

Jake G shares my pain. It's been a rather crappy day. For starters, I opened The Age this morning to discover a feature article about the film Transamerica . My own piece on the film has been filed with the paper's arts editor for three weeks now, so today's article by Steve Dow dashes any chances my article might finally see print. *sigh* And it's not just cos I need the money from freelancing at the moment - I also have a terse publicist breathing down my neck... Then this afternoon I realised that I have to write up two articles for MCV tonight, which means I have to cancel the role-playing session I'd hoped to have; our first for the year. Figuring that I could at least squeeze in a 6pm session at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival before I started work I went to see Third Man Out , an alleged gay thriller/detective story which was far from thrilling. In fact it was the crappiest picture I've seen at the festival so far. Then I go to buy dinner and realise...

MEANJIN , one of Australia's premier literary journals, is running a novella competition; ­ its first since it started publication in 1940, providing a rare opportunity for a neglected form. Entries to the inaugural Meanjin & Readings Novella Competition are open until June 30 . All writers in Australia and overseas, new and established, are invited to submit. Manuscripts are to be between 12,000 and 20,000 words on any aspect of the theme 'love and desire', and must be a work of unpublished fiction. The names of the authors will not be disclosed to the judges. The winner, to be advised by mail during December 2006, will receive a prize of $1500. The prize will be announced in January 2007 at a celebratory event at Readings, Carlton. The winning novella will be considered for publication in Meanjin. Editor of Meanjin Ian Britain , one of the three judges for the competition (with novelist and Meanjin Fiction Editor Carmel Bird and Readings bookstore dir...

Sunday 6th March My first session for the day was Queeries Two , a wide-ranging selection of youth shorts, including a couple by local film-makers. Highlights included: Boy's Grammar , one of the latest films by ex-Melbournian Dean Francis (whose work has evolved magnificently over the last few years, especially compared to some of his earlier projects, which I actually helped reject from the festival - it's great to see how far his skills have evolved) a harrowing and powerful film staring Matt Levet (above) as Gareth, about an episode of bullying at a private school that turns into rape. Brian and Lazzio , a simple but touching short doco about two young men who tells us how they met on a bus and fell in love. It was also fun to see Tristan Hamilton's Daddy's Boy , which starred a cast of Q + A regulars - it was odd but enjoyable seeing people I usually DJ for entertaining me in a film instead! After an abortive trip to RRR to catch up on some work that was rendered...

Saturday 4th March Starting a little later than planned, my first film of the day was Iki Genc Kiz ( Two Girls ) directed by Kutlug Ataman (responsible for 1998's resonant Lola + Bilidikid ) . This Turkish production focused on the intense relationship between two teenage girls in contemporary Istanbul. Gritty cinematography (all close ups and hand held scenes) highly-strung characters and a clash between traditional and contemporary mores added up to a strong package that deserved a larger audience. Next was the US drama Hate Crime , about the senseless murder of a gay man by a religious bigot. It started out well, with strong performances and a steady directorial hand that successfuly evoked the appropriate emotional responses for its various scenes, but about halfway through, the film took a sudden turn towards melodrama and by its conclusion, had thrown any sense of realism out the window in favour of an over-the-top revenge story that didn't so much strain credibility a...

My first film of the festival proper was the Spanish comedy Reinas ('Queens') , a film about five gay couples (one of whom is played by latin hunk Daniel Hendler, seen left at a press conference in Berlin) who are about to be married as part of the country's first legal gay en-masse wedding ceremony. While their pre-nuptial dramas are part of the story, the film's real focus is on their mothers. Four of Spain's favourite actresses, the fabulous Carmen Maura, Marisa Paredes, Mercedes Sampietro and Verónica Forqué, together with Argentinian Betiana Blum play their mums, an almost Almodovarian collection of actresses, judges, nymphomanics and hoteliers. It is they who are the 'queens' of the title. The film's bright, colourful opening credits quickly establish the tone of the movie to come. Strong performances, a quick-witted script and attractive cinematography ensure that it entertains despite trying to tie up all its threads too quickly. My next session...

Fucking Different (Thurs 9th March) To help various on-line friends coordinate, and in case any of my anonymous stalkers want to know where to find me at a given time, here's a rough guide to what I'll be seeing at the 16th Melbourne Queer Film Festival over the coming 10 days. It's an ambitious list, and certainly I won't end up seeing all of these films, but I'm gonna give it my best shot. And if you don't know what you want to see yet, in a fit of rampant generosity I've posted links to homepages, critical reviews (as opposed to the uniformly glowing festival program notes) etc for all of the films where possible, to help you make up your own mind about whether you would be interested in watching them or not. If you've never been to the festival before, all sessions are held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square. You can buy your tickets at the box office or at www.melbournequeerfilm.com.au - note that sessions will sel...

Roy (Jay Collins) and Billy (Andrew Patterson) in 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous Some observations about last's night's opening of the 16th annual Melbourne Queer Film Festival - driven by Volkswagen: The Astor is the perfect place for a glamorous party with slightly fewer people than were present last night; it was a bit too crowded to be comfortable. The head of publicity for new naming rights sponsor Volkswagen was a lousy public speaker. Until the current festival board and administration change, the festival is not going to change their model for their opening nights. As it is the emphasis is on the party, not the film, so consequently second-rate films continue to be screened on opening night because they suit the ambience the festival are aiming for. When I was a member of the MQFF programming committee I argued that this was a mistake, and I still believe it to be the case. People who attend the opening night and little else (and many of the media/sponsors/schmoozers do jus...