Simon Sellars: Sleepy Brain Archives

Wednesday, Jun 13th, 2007 at 1:27 am

Brit Blog: On the Way

‘Hey now, baby, I’m beginning to see the light…’ The author, waiting to go through customs, ponders the notion of ‘flightless travel’ (photo: Simon Sellars 2007).
At one stage I used to listen to people whingeing about long plane flights and think they were dullards with no imagination, that I was above them (literally) because I […]

Sunday, Apr 1st, 2007 at 2:06 pm

Tropfest: The Future of Australian Filmmaking is…Shit?

Best Film Award, Tropfest 07: ‘An Imaginary Life’ (Steve Baker).
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 ‘Australia’s emerging filmmakers’ and there’s a big focus on […]

Monday, Feb 19th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

Philip Brophy’s Northern Void

Flyer for Northern Void.
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 Melbourne suburb of Preston — specifically a […]

Wednesday, Oct 20th, 2004 at 12:03 am

Retrospecto: La Jetée

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Nothing sorts memories from ordinary moments.
They claim remembrance when they show their scars.
CHRIS MARKER. ‘LA JETÉE.’
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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 which memory and desire flash from cell to cell […]

Monday, Mar 1st, 2004 at 4:46 pm

Melanie Coombs: Pathological Optimism

Over the past year, a sweet little film about a strange little man has been getting a lot of attention. Harvie Krumpet, director Adam Elliot’s 23-minute claymation, is up for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. And right beside Elliot on Oscar night will be his producer Melanie Coombs. Elliot speaks highly of Coombs, […]

Monday, Feb 2nd, 2004 at 3:23 pm

Bill Gates: Nothing So Strange

by Rebecca Cannon

all images © 2003, Unsharp Mask LLC
Nothing So Strange is a new mockumentary about the assassination of Bill Gates. It’s also the first feature film to have its worldwide commercial debut on the internet. Footage from Nothing So Strange has been released as open source, and the film follows the efforts of the […]

Sunday, Nov 30th, 2003 at 7:16 pm

Trevor Blainey: Retroactively Speaking

Trevor Blainey is enjoying himself. In 2003, the former accountant’s first film as producer, Matthew Saville’s Roy Hollsdotter Live, won everything in sight, with awards for best screenplay, best short film and best cinematography. But filmmaking in Australia is notoriously tough, and while awards give off a fuzzy glow, they don’t automatically confer the green […]

Tuesday, Nov 25th, 2003 at 8:58 pm

What If? An Interview with Mark Atkin

still from The What If? Man, dir. Mark Atkin
Mark Atkin is a Melbourne editor working in film and television. His first feature as director, The What If? Man: The Science Fictional Life of Peter Nicholls, looks at the life and career of Peter Nicholls, science fiction critic, anthologist, reviewer, author, filmmaker, collector and public speaker. […]

Wednesday, Nov 5th, 2003 at 3:47 pm

Matthew Saville: Bleak Is A Really Nice Place

Matthew Saville is the writer/director of Roy Hollsdotter Live, one of the more successful of the recent batch of 50-minute short features funded by the Australian Film Commission, SBS Independent and Film Victoria. Starring standup comic Darren Casey and comedy titan John Clarke, it’s shot around Fitzroy and North Melbourne. It’s a darkly humorous tale […]

Wednesday, Aug 20th, 2003 at 4:17 pm

They Live

by Andrés Vaccari

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Retrospecto is an irregular series raking over the coals of the past… (originally published in Abaddon magazine)
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John Carpenter makes two kinds of film: brilliant ones and absolutely awful ones. They Live, fortunately, is one of the former. In this criminally underrated sci-fi classic, the evil aliens have surreptitiously invaded earth and camouflaged themselves […]