Flickerfest
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Flickerfest

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This year’s Flickerfest attracted a huge number of entries, nearly 2,500 of them. Of these, 120 films have been handpicked by the festival for competition. 23 years on, the documentary maker turned festival director is thrilled with the enormous growth of Flickerfest’s profile since its inception. “It’s wonderful that Flickerfest has attracted so many entries,” Kidd says. “I ended up creating Flickerfest because as a film maker myself I’m incredibly passionate about independent cinema.”

 

The touring programme of Flickerfest, described as ‘Spectacular Short Films With Soul’ opens with a special Made in Melbourne programme. This programme, Kidd says, is a showcase of exactly the sort of thing she means by the advice she offers to would-be film makers. Made in Melbourne is as fine a set of films you’ll see anywhere. “These are great stories over a range of subjects,” Kidd enthuses. “There’s a lot of very individual styles and unique storytelling, of mature stories.”

 

Along with the local films, a US effort also features in the Melbourne screening list, an award-winning documentary called Slomo, where a neurologist throws in his career and moves to the beach, exchanging stethoscope for rollerblades.  Slomo is included as an extra treat as it’s been named the Festival’s Best Short documentary, an award newly qualified for Academy award nomination. Kidd is proud of Flickerfest’s three other Academy qualifying live action and animation awards across the festival’s competition component; Flickerfest is the only short film festival in Australia to enjoy this status.

 

One highlight of Made in Melbourne this year is a debut short film about a suburban cult, Kingdom of Doug, by actor turned director Victoria Thaine. Kingdom of Doug won the Best Australian Short Film award in Sydney. “Victoria Thaine’s moving from being in front of the camera to behind it,” notes Kidd. “It’s an interestingly, darkly humorous film.” Other local films include The Hunter directed by Margaret Harvey, the story of an indigenous youth in love and at odds with country. Does Kidd have a liking herself for any particular style or approach to cinema? “I like films that make you think about things, films that go a bit deep, that really engage with the viewer. I love stories that surprise me, different takes on stories. Confident creativity.”

 

What does Kidd make of comparisons between Flickerfest and Tropfest? “They are very different festivals,” she answers. “Ours is a different level of competition. We are Australia’s only Academy and BAFTA accredited short film festival, which means our films are eligible to be considered for an Academy award. Flickerfest doesn’t have a theme involved. We’re exploring longer pieces, finding new voices, seeing films that are made out of love, where a film maker has a burning desire to tell that story.”

 

One thing Kidd loves about her work is picking the strong voices of independent cinema and seeing film makers who have had early films screened in her festival go on to forge strong national and international careers. “You are there discovering the next generation. So many film makers in Flickerfest have gone on to have feature film success,” she says. Notably, David Michột of Animal Kingdom fame had three short films screened at Flickerfest. Early work by Joel and Nathan Edgerton has also appeared in the festival. “You can see the impact of Flickerfest on film makers’ careers,” Kidd adds. “We see great collaborations. People are still all working together years later.”

 

An aspect of the Made in Melbourne presentation that Kidd especially enjoys is the engagement between film makers and audiences. “Being able to bring these films to audiences, to show them such great talent and to have the film makers present at the event and engaging with the audiences about the films, telling audiences about the films – it’s great.” Kidd talks about the Flickerfest festival as being a ‘pure place’. “People aren’t bothered about money,” she says, meaning that films entered into Flickerfest aren’t initially motivated by potential commercial success. “It’s a platform for developing talent. These are short films purely about storytelling, they’re remaining true to the passion of cinema, pure cinema. It’s great to have the opportunity to engage with film makers, for people to come along and create; film makers making the stories they love.” One thing Kidd has noticed is a steady increase in the number of female directors and film makers. “Ours is a supportive festival,” she adds. “We’re discovering and supporting talent, fresh new voices in independent cinema.”

 

Has Kidd identified any trends in Melbourne short film making, either in theme or style or similarities in subject matter? Not a whit, it seems. “That’s just it,” says Kidd, clearly truly excited by the originality of the films. “It’s such an eclectic programme, a collection of unique voices, quite an exceptional range of short films that are really independent and unique.” Bet she says that to all the cities. We’ll have to see these films for ourselves.

 

BY LIZA DEZFOULI