Sunday Arts Magazine

7 May 2017

US indie Film Fest, Bowery Theatre, Awakening, Van Gogh, ABBA-Fab

Art Collection, Arts, Comedy, Gay, Higher Education, Music, News & Politics, Performing Arts, Sexuality, Theatre, TV & Film, Visual Arts

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US indie Film Fest, Bowery Theatre, Awakening, Van Gogh, ABBA-Fab

Brendan is back!! He joins David and Neil today and jumps straight into film reviews as he’s got a backlog. He starts with the horror movie Get Out which was a bit under expectations–3.5stars. Brendan follows with a French-Belgian horror film called Raw–Brendan absolutely loved it 4.5stars. Next is another French film-The Innocents– but it is set in Poland during WW2, and is a drama about nuns. Lastly there is French-German drama Things to Come starring Isabelle Huppert–a tour de force for both actress and director–5stars!

There are 5 interviews this week and our guests talk about their own journey to where they are now as well as a current event, show or exhibition. Along with inside stories, interesting anecdotes and descriptions.

Special guests this week include:

11:20 to 27:29 mins–Festival Director Richard Sowada is a friend of Sunday Arts and is here again to tell us all about the American Essentials Film Festival 2017 on at Palace Cinemas in Melbourne from 11 to 24 May (and different May dates in other capital cities). In its second year it showcases independent American cinema, both new and retrospective. Richard outlines all the different steps he took as a ‘one-man-band’ which gave him a wide range of experience in film programming. Then he got a job as Head of Programs at ACMI for 9 years! In this festival, Richard tries to highlight the remarkable contemporary movements and voices but also tries to tie them in with a sense of continuity with the past. He also feels that tailor-making the programs to individuals is very important. He likes films to shift people’s perspective and teach them new things. A thread through this year’s festival is film-maker David Lynch who is hot property at present due to a new TV series of Twin Peaks. This includes a doco about Lynch, mainly about re his visual art, which gives valuable insight into his films. Other bio-docos are on Armistead Maupin and Charles Bukowski; and films include Postcards From The Edge and American Pastoral–both based on books. There is also a theme of ‘Magic Realism’ with films like Sylvio and Wiener-Dog.

27:33 to 29:12 mins–David has a quick chat to Bec from the popular show- Chicks Talking Footy– at JOY 94.9. She’s at the Pride Cup at Yarra Glen which celebrates diversity and inclusion in sport.

29:12 to 38:08 mins–Dean Michael is Arts & Culture Co-ordinator at Brimbank City Council and is here to talk about the newly named Bowery Theatre at St Albans Community Centre (STACC)–in Princess Street, St Albans. Dean has been a teacher, a performance artist and a Vic AIDS Council worker. In the last 15 years he’s worked in local government with the Bowery Theatre being his main project in the last 2 years. Dean talks about the influential and avante-garde performing artist, Leigh Bowery, after which the theatre is named. Originally a Sunshine boy, he is little known in Australia but very well-known overseas. They wanted a bold artist’s name to be associated with the newly-built Theatre to flag that this is the direction the theatre is going. There is an exhibition on Leigh Bowery (on for another month) with many personal items of his donated by his family. The theatre is the first publicly accessible theatre in the municipality of Brimbank. They just started ‘developing’ an audience so they’re trying out risky stuff, such as Yana Alana–which went very well. They want to program for the very diverse community there, including kids, and see how it pans out over 12 months. The theatre is also connecting with and supporting local artists. Dean talks more about the growing & vibrant West and its increasing attractions.

38:26 to 50:08 mins–Writer and Director Daniel Lammin is here to talk about his play Awakening on at fortyfivedownstairs from 10 to 21 May. Daniel did Arts at Monash Uni intending to be an actor but found directing and playwriting more appealing. This was encouraged by Monash Uni’s Student Theatre. He generally writes dark, challenging material. Awakening is an adaptation of the classic German play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind. Daniel has always wanted to do something with the play and decided to collaborate with the Monash uni drama students getting their thoughts, feeling & opinions and adding his own–thus, together, making a new piece which speaks to us now, even more than it already does, about the teenage experience. The play had a short season in 2016 right at the time of the Safe Schools debate was at its height–also informing them that needs of young people are being swept aside in a dramatic & ignorant fashion. Someone from fortyfivedownstairs saw the play and was most impressed and invited them to do a longer season there. The original play deals with high school kids and issues such as masturbation, sexuality, homosexuality, sexual assault, and the full gamut of experiences and questions teenagers have. The uni students wanted to stick close to those. There are 6 talented actors in the play aged between 19 to 24.

50:41 to 1:15:41 mins–Ted Gott is the Senior Curator of International Painting and Sculpture–1300 to 1980 from the NGV and is here to talk about Van Gogh and the Seasons: Melbourne Winter Masterpieces 2017 on from 28 April to 9 July. Ted’s department has worked on many of the blockbuster exhibitions at NGV but he didn’t curate this one. Sjraar van Heugten is the curator. He’s an independent art historian and former Head of Collections at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Ted describes himself as the ‘sorcerer’s apprentice’. Ted and our hosts discuss Vincent Van Gogh himself including his– endless attraction & mystique, being one of the greatest artists in history and the intangible emotional/spiritual qualities that make him an ‘It’ person. Van Gogh only had a 10 year career from 27 to 37yo, starting with Rembrandt-like Autumnal colours in the first 5 years, then discovering colour and French Impressionism AND in the 2.5 years before he dies he moves to the south of France where he experiences, for the first time, ‘heat and searing sunlight’–unlike anything he experienced in the Netherlands, the UK or Paris. It is there that ‘his visual language explodes and out comes this extraordinary volcano of colour’, obvious brushmarks and liberal amounts of paint and this ‘freeform maelstrom of energy that creates absolute masterpieces’. After this amazing description of Van Gogh’s artistry, Ted then goes into a biographical account of Van Gogh’s life to get an idea of how it affected his work–including the very important role of Vincent’s younger brother, Theo, in his life.

1:16:25 to 1:38:07 mins–Award winning musical theatre performer and Entertainer Rhonda Burchmore is here to talk about her career and her new show with Lara Mulcahy called ABBA-solutely Fabulous on at the Palms at Crown on 20 May as well as other dates in Geelong and regional areas in Victoria. They’ve already performed at Rooty Hill RSL! and in Sydney which went very well. Rhonda was in the original production of Mamma Mia in 2000 which even preceded the Broadway production! She describes meeting Benny and Bjorn in 2000 and then Meryl Streep at the time of the Mamma Mia movie. She also got to have dinner with Colin Firth (aka Mr Darcy)! She met Lara there and they became friends and then besties. They recently decided to write a story for themselves and base it on ABBA as it’s been 40 years since they came down to do concerts in Australia. It’s not just a tribute to ABBA it’s their story of obsessed ABBA fans never getting to a concert. Rhonda talks about the difficulties having just 2 people for some songs and about the physical comedy with– contrasting body shapes, lycra and platform boots! There is also a lot of ‘eye-candy’ within the accompanying band. Rhonda is also performing at the Robarta Bar in St Kilda for JOY’s Radiothon launch on 11 May.

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