‘Feeling Frenzy’ is not a typo. The #s I’m likely to use a lot during the SFF 2019 are #primal #astounding and #OMGoddess.
The trailers for some of the evocative films screening generated a swirl of feelings: surprise – willing discomfort – shock – and I’m not easily shocked.
It’s wonderful to see an Agnes Varda tribute celebrating her life’s work. She was not content to show people things to look at on screen – she wanted them to see. Deeply.
Her sentiment unified this year’s selection for me.
Art can have a hard time reaching an audience coated with the pulpy veneer of unreality TV and low expectations of what actual engagement, connection and entertainment can be. Poor quality content is like finding a lolly on the floor and eating it. High quality content is finding a seat at the banquet table. It is the modern human condition to be both desensitized and over-stimulated at the same time by screen content. Then there are the superb films at the #SFF igniting a feeling frenzy – primal feelings that delve deep and reveal a little bit more of who we are, to ourselves. Here’s some what I’m going to see:
What Will Become of Us – documentary about Frank Lowy and dementia
Palm Beach – delicious drama
The Final Quarter – Adam Goodes as the mirror reflecting the Australian soul
Life After Oasis – Sascha Ettinger Epstein’s follow-up to her confronting doco about kids in a Sydney shelter
Monos – the surreality (sic) of war
Martha: A Picture Story – the art and adventure photography can be
Amazing Grace – the ethereal Aretha Franklin – even the trailer moved me to tears – see others melt too
The Dead Don’t Die– Jarmusch and some A List buddies make a zomcom