Sunday Arts Magazine

22 Nov 2015

Films,Theatre, Gus Berger, NICA, NGV, Steve Pereira, Chris Pender

Arts, Music, Performing Arts, TV & Film, Visual Arts

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It’s our trio of David, Brendan and Daniel today. Brendan talks about his experience with Underground cinema—a whole event around a film screening, including actors re-creating parts of the film and the audience doing role plays. The film shown was Children of Men (2006) a thriller set in a dystopian world. Daniel reviews Secret In Their Eyes with Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman which he considers compelling viewing– 4 stars. Brendan reviews The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2. It looks good and Jennifer Lawrence carries the film well, but Brendan was expecting more action. Our trio are generally tired of all the Hollywood franchises–3 stars.

David’s been busy this week. Firstly he talks about NGV’s spectacular launching this week of their Winter Masterpieces for 2016 which is work from French artist Degas called ‘A New Vision’. David also saw Jerry’s Girls last night (21 November) which has Jerry Herman’s music and stars Rhonda Burchmore and Nancy Hayes. It’s on from 21November to 6 December and is another show from Jeanie Pratt’s baby, The Production Company which has been going for 20 years now and always pushes the boundaries. Lastly, David went to the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) in Windsor to see a production from 3rd year students called Born in Sawdust which is on until 28th November. It looked vaudevillian, had great music and told the story of a clown. The students used wires for high acrobatics as they are not yet fully professional.

Special guests today are:

13:41 to 31:22 mins–Film-maker and film programmer Gus Berger has a strong background in programming and distributing documentaries and has also made some of his own including Duke Vin and the Birth of Ska about a man credited with bringing Jamaican music to the UK which has been widely seen through festivals in the UK and Europe. He programs docos at ACME and was also responsible for reviving The George Cinema for a while, after it closed. Gus is here with a new initiative for the city i.e. an outdoor cinema in the grassy area in QV during the summer months. QV Cinema will be on from 3 December 2015 to 28 February 2016 Thursday to Sunday evenings in QV Square. Films will be ‘festive’ and there’ll be additional events around the film screening to make it a great experience. Patrons will sit on deckchairs and will wear headphones.

53.50 to 1:14:59 mins–Producer and director Steve Pereira does many things including producing and presenting a show called Quedia on Bent TV. A trained theatre director, his heart is in Community-based Theatre. He started up a community organisation which gave community a voice and also politicised theatre. The bulk of his work is in the West. The Big West Festival is on at present and Steve’s entry is a play he produced and directed called The Graceful Giraffe Cannot Become a Monkey on from 25 to 28 November. It stars African actors and takes its material from a book written in 1966 by an important Ugandan poet—about the post-colonial experience The play deals with the idea of a split personality due to the tension between a western and an African culture and uses the metaphor of a marriage break-up where a well-educated, westernised man rejects his wife due to her being so traditionally African.

1:15:24 to 1:30:54 mins–Co-producer and actor Chris Pender talks about his film The Dream Children. It started its life as a play. In 2008 Chris and his housemates, a director and a playwright decided to put on the playwright’s 1995 play called Internet Baby about 2 gay guys wanting to adopt a child. It was very controversial and way ahead of its time, particularly so because the playwright was 85 years old. They then thought about making it into a film. Chris has a part role as an actor in the film, and did some background work, but he came to the fore as a co-producer when the film ran out of money. It took 5 years to make the film and it has already been shown at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and other gay festivals and will next be showing in the Made In Melbourne (MIM) film festival at the Backlot Studios in Southbank at 8.00pm on 28th November. Chris and our hosts discuss the value and importance of MIM for film-makers and also how mainstream audiences accept gay-themed films.

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