Still from The Boy Who Loved Rain.
by Simon Sellars
Originally published in RealTime issue #81 Oct-Nov 2007.
RECENTLY IN REALTIME AND ELSEWHERE I’VE BEEN CRITICAL OF AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILM AND ANIMATION, SO MUCH SO I’M BEGINNING TO BORE MYSELF (AND DOUBTLESS OTHERS) WITH THE OLD REFRAIN. STILL, I VOICE THESE CRITICISMS FROM A POSITION OF RESPECT FOR […]
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Still from Carnivore Reflux.
by Simon Sellars
Published in RealTime issue #80 Aug-Sept 2007.
AT THE MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL’S CAREERS IN ANIMATION FORUM, AN AUDIENCE MEMBER WANTED TO KNOW WHAT INSTITUTIONS LOOK FOR IN THEIR ENTRANCE INTERVIEWS. ROBERT STEPHENSON (VCA) SAID THAT AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE BODY’S MOVEMENT AND MECHANICS IS USEFUL. HE SUGGESTED WOULD-BE ANIMATORS ENROL […]
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Best Film Award, Tropfest 07: ‘An Imaginary Life’ (Steve Baker).
by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 1 April 2007.
On April 7 Channel Nine, accompanied by the still-infuriating-after-all-these-years Richard Wilkins, screened the films from the finals of the Sony Tropfest 2007 short-film festival, which was held on February 18. Tropfest purports to showcase the work of […]
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Flyer for Northern Void.
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 19 February 2007.
Last night I attended the second (and last, for now) screening of Philip Brophy’s 50-minute film Northern Void, billed as a “live cinema performance” accompanied by the real-time sonics of Ph2 (Brophy and Philip Samartzis). Northern Void is set along Plenty Rd, in the northern […]
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Still from Sniffer.
by Simon Sellars
Originally published in RealTime issue #75 Oct-Nov 2006.
Although MIFF’s short film agenda was certainly exhaustive, my ‘best on ground’ was the Focus on Nordic Shorts selection, uniformly excellent and sharing the blackest humour, absolute self-deprecation and a savage willingness to torch convention. Sniffer (director Bobbie Peers, Norway, 2005, 12 mins) imagined […]
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Alice et Moi, dir. Micha Wold
‘Power without Punchlines’ by Simon Sellars. Originally published in RealTime magazine, #68 Aug-Sep 2005.
The St Kilda Film Festival did not get off to an auspicious start. Opening night was supposed to showcase the cream of Australia’s top 100 shorts but the session was characterised by tired scenarios and an almost […]
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by Simon Sellars
‘Melbourne Small Press: Maybe Next Year’. Originally published in overland magazine, Summer 2004.
At this year’s Melbourne Writers’ Festival, John Murray appreciated the fact that short stories are a perfect barometer for measuring fresh literary talent, Eva Sallis likened short stories to “tantric sex in five minutes” and Frank Moorhouse bemoaned the scarcity of […]
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Melatonin, photo: Kirsten Bradley
by Simon Sellars
Originally published in RealTime Magazine, #62, August/September 2004.
I’m told “sleep music” is a new genre: music to listen to while dozing off. Emboldened by this, I visited Bus Gallery with palpable excitement. I’ve often yearned for a club that, instead of inducing forward motion through hyper-accelerated beats, piped in music […]
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L’Oeil ecoute (The Eye Hears) 1970; dir. Bernard Parmegiani
by Simon Sellars
‘Liquid Architecture: the Parmegiani Experience’. Originally published in RealTime no.56, Aug-Sep 2003.
Liquid Architecture 4 featured the work of 30 Australian and international artists, including French musique concrete/acousmatic pioneer, Bernard Parmegiani, and San Francisco noise merchants, Scott Arford and Randy HY Yau. Another highlight was the […]
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Originally published in Jargon, summer 2001, under the pseudonym ‘Ziggy Omar’.
The best bars in Melbourne combine kooky architecture with snappy ambience, ‘sound-of-now’ musical policies and the entertainment value of bored waiting staff. But be ever-vigilant: you and your slick posse may discover a great new place, only to return a short time later to find […]
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Originally published in Jargon, summer 2001.
Project Dumpling
by Simon Sellars & Anna Hyde
The discovery of gold in 1851 attracted Chinese immigration to Victoria, Australia on a large scale. The small Chinese community first occupied Celestial Ave in the heart of Melbourne, providing for the needs of the diggers – lodgings en route, food, equipment and medicine […]
Originally published in Abaddon #3, Autumn 2000.
review by Simon Sellars
Nothing sorts memories from ordinary moments. They claim remembrance when they show their scars (Chris Marker).
The films of Chris Marker are often termed ‘essayist’, participating in a phenomenological play with deep roots in French intellectualism. Working within documentary and pseudo-documentary modes, they mimic the manner in […]
Originally published in Abaddon # 2, Autumn 1999.
THE FOOTBALL FACTORY
Jonathan Cape
ISBN 0-224-04302-1
reviewed by Simon Sellars
The Football Factory, John King’s début novel, charts the lives of a group of football hooligans in present-day London, England. It has been re-issued to coincide with the release of England Away, King’s most recent book and the third part of […]
reviews by Simon Sellars
Originally published in Orb Speculative Fiction #0, Spring-Summer 1999.
Robotomy by Andrés Vaccari. Saturn Press, $12.95. ISBN 0 646 32003 3
Abaddon #2 edited by Andrés Vaccari. Saturn Press, $6.95. ISSN 1441-046X.
Robotomy
In the 1960s, Michael Moorcock’s New Worlds magazine ushered in the “New Wave” of science fiction. The stories Moorcock published – including JG […]
