Metro

When Judy & Punch premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, its creator – Sydney-based actor-turned-director Mirrah Foulkes – was nervous about how it would be received. She was a first-time filmmaker, few American audiences are familiar with the

The latest feature by Sydney-based filmmaker Partho Sen-Gupta, Slam (2018), is haunted by a terrifying moment from his past. As a child growing up in Mumbai, he paid scant attention to dire warnings from his parents about the threat of kidnappings un

We sweat and cry salt water, so we know that the ocean is really in our blood. —Teresia Teaiwa1 A spiritual sequel to the anthology film Waru (2017), Vai (2019) – the second feature-length release from Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions – enlists e

The first three shots of Palm Beach (2019), the second feature film by actor-turned-director Rachel Ward, are almost the whole work in microcosm. We begin with a close-up on a sulphur-crested cockatoo. Then there’s a wide shot on a beach where a numb

A Queensland production over a decade in the making, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (Kriv Stenders, 2019) is a bold yet intimate Anzac war drama that sidesteps politics in favour of saluting Aussie brotherhood and bravery in times of conflict.

‘They forgot the spring rolls!’ Lots of kids’ shows are set around a fantastical premise: there are fruit in human clothing, princess knights, and mutant reptiles who are also teenage ninjas. Kids have short attention spans, so TV programming for the

Australia has consistently produced high-quality screen content for children, with some of the country’s best television series – from Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, which aired from 1968 to 1970, to today’s Bluey1 – having been broadcast, and now streame

SOME OF WORLD CINEMA’S MOST CELEBRATED FILMMAKERS HAVE TUMULTUOUS TIES WITH THEIR HOMELANDS, AND ISRAEL’S NADAV LAPID – WHO HAS MADE THREE FEATURES TO DATE, INCLUDING 2019 GOLDEN BEAR WINNER SYNONYMS – IS NO DIFFERENT. IN CONVERSATION WITH THE WRITER

It is, perhaps, atypical of a Palme d’Or–winning film that among its most resonant images is one of a young woman sitting despondently on a toilet, staring at her phone, as sewage spews out of it like a cursed Willy Wonka contraption. Such is the ear

THIS HYPNOTIC, ENIGMATIC FILM BY PHUTTIPHONG AROONPHENG CONTAINS NOT JUST HINTS OF FAMED CINEASTE APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL’S WORK, BUT ALSO SUBTLE COMMENTARY ON THE PLIGHT OF THE STATELESS ROHINGYA PEOPLE SEEKING REFUGE IN THE DIRECTOR’S THAI HOMELA

I’m overcome with tears almost from the start. The subject of She Who Must Be Obeyed Loved (Erica Glynn, 2018) is Alfreda ‘Freda’ Glynn, a powerful then-78-year-old Kaytetye matriarch whose expressions and movements – the way she sings out ‘True?’ wi

Em Baker is no romantic, and far from the kind of woman who spent her youth waiting for Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet. Marriage, to her, is ‘a stodgy, patriarchal, antiquated institution’, and not one that she, as a queer woman, ever felt

‘The boats have not stopped,’ wrote The Guardian journalist Ben Doherty of Australia’s controversial asylum-seeker policies back in 2014. As the world urges closer cooperation on the issue of mass and irregular migrations, Australia grows ever more i

In So Long, My Son (2019), Wang Xiaoshuai weaves a beautiful tapestry of life in modern China. Spanning four decades – from the 1980s to today – the film eschews epic traditions for an intimate examination of domesticity, hope and guilt against the b

Sanctuary (2019) was the result of an accidental meeting. ‘While I was making another documentary […] an asylum-seeker advocate told me the story of Khaled,’ says writer/director Kaye Harrison. At the time, he was living in immigration detention on

As icons of Australian music go, Jimmy Barnes, Peter Garrett and Michael Hutchence – along with the respective bands they fronted, Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and INXS – are about as iconic as you can get. They are among the most recognisable and renow

A teenage punk rocker dangles from a tightrope between two Sydney skyscrapers, journalists and bystanders ogling nervously from the ground below. She’s wearing a rainbow cape, a yellow leather harness and two humungous, scene-stealing prop breasts. T

Something quite extraordinary happened in the early 1970s when Tony Barber was recording the last episode of the day for his daytime quiz program Temptation for the Seven Network. As a contestant pressed the buzzer and correctly answered the question

As ‘traffic cops at the intersection of Art and Commerce’, producers play a crucial role ‘in shaping the creative and commercial dimensions’ of Australia’s screen industries; so say media scholars Allan Cameron, Deb Verhoeven and David Court.1 Tradit

Throughout Western history there has been much debate over the relationship between gender and humour.1 Even with the presence of funny female actors, writers and comedians, the label of ‘unfunny’ has lingered over the heads of women, especially with

WHEN RELIGION AND THE SCREEN MEET (AND CLASH) Liz Giuffre In May 2019, Amazon Prime released Good Omens, a six-part series based on the 1990 book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The show follows the adventures of an angel, Aziraphale (Michael She