To summarise a festival is not an easy task. There were films at the Brisbane International Film Festival that could be described as unique, interesting, surprising, entertaining, daring or moving. However, there’s no one word that can capture a film, there are many. In the blink of an eye, every second, we witness twenty-five frames of film. Over the course of two hours, we have absorbed a massive amount of visual input that however we decide to process or interpret it is entirely up to us.
Films such as Jirga, High Fantasy, Undermined: Tales from the Kimberley, BackTrack Boys and In the Aisles all have a powerful impact, albeit in different ways. Jirga is a powerful Australian feature film that touches on the theme of war in a poignant way. It features Sam Smith, a soldier in Afghanistan, and is a powerful film that brings up honest questions surrounding war and the casualties involved.
As part of the African Cinema category in the festival was a film named High Fantasy. A group of friends have a body-swapping experience whilst on a road trip, all the while being shot with a handheld camera, creating for an interesting perspective. It goes to show that whilst movies often display gender body-swaps, High Fantasy goes one step further to include the element of race. There were plenty of exciting short-form films from the Short Cuts category including Second Best, Cloudy With a Chance of Rain and Wibble Wobble to name a few.
Documentaries were aplenty, and many happened to be Australian, which featured strong themes, and moving glimpses into the world of others. Backtrack Boys, set in rural NSW, focuses on a youth program that helps turn the lives of troubled young men around and provide them with a future.
Undermined: Tales from the Kimberley focuses on Indigenous communities and their perspectives on the land they stand on and the current state of it. There were many more Australian documentaries in particular that I didn’t get the chance to see but also seemed equally as powerful which included Wik vs Queensland, Ghosthunter and Dying to Live.
There were many films that I will be keeping an eye on after seeing them at the Brisbane International Film Festival. Some I have been lucky enough to catch, others I have yet to discover. There were a myriad of special events, panels and Q&A’s after screenings, that made the festival fun and engaging for a range of audiences.
When it comes to the point where you can’t stop talking about the film you saw from BiFF or an engaging panel talk on audiences and distribution, you know that this very film festival has captured your mind and most importantly, your heart. Here’s to BiFF 2018, what a year it has been, and we look into the future with anticipation for 2019.
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
11 - 21 October, 2018
Joanna Letic