Best Andrew F Peirce Podcasts (2025)

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Nadine Whitney Reviews Jane Austen Wrecked My Life & The Materialists 29:43

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3d ago29:43

29:43

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this inter…

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Harley Hefford and Luke Thomas on embedding creativity into Collingwood with Trainscendence 19:19

3d ago19:19

19:19

Harley Hefford and Luke Thomas are two thirtysomething Naarm-Melbourne based creatives who have a background in events, festivals, and bars. Their latest endeavour is an art community spread over ten floors in a new creative space in Collingwood located in the iconic Easey's building, best known for the train carriages that sit on its rooftop. In t…

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Sydney Film Festival Interview: Gabrielle Brady on the art of liberating the viewer's gaze in The Wolves Always Come at Night 50:55

11d ago50:55

50:55

As I tell Gabrielle in the following interview, when a new Gabrielle Brady film emerges into the world, it is like the arrival of a gift, one that pulls us into a mindset of considering the lives of others, including those of the crabs of Christmas Island, or maybe the horses of the Gobi Desert. It's one that encourages us to see the world of truth…

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Sydney Film Festival Interview: Zoe Pepper on the dark housing-crisis comedy delight that is Birthright 32:28

12d ago32:28

32:28

Zoe Pepper mines the generational wealth divide for all its worth in the acidic WA-made comedy Birthright. Cory (a perfectly cast deadpan Travis Jeffery) and his very pregnant wife Jasmine (an equally deadpan and delightful Maria Angelico) are getting the shaft from their rental. Stuffed in more ways than one, they load up all they can into the boo…

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Archie Hancock & Jack Zimmerman on giving space to unsaid stories in The Conversation 49:05

16d ago49:05

49:05

Judith Hancock has always felt that was different from her siblings. Having spent her youth in boarding schools, Judith felt disconnected from her family in more ways than just distance. When she returned home from boarding school, she spent most of her time with children from an orphanage where her father worked. Judith felt other aspects of diffe…

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St Kilda Film Festival Interview: Kat Dominis on building the award-winning short film Unspoken 53:32

17d ago53:32

53:32

I remember sitting in the Mercury at the Adelaide Film Festival and watching Unspoken and getting to see a rare talent emerge on screen in the form of Kat Dominis. Her lead performance left me moved, shaken, and stunned by the depth of emotions she presented on screen. As the credits rolled, I saw she was the co-writer of this award-winning short f…

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Sydney Film Festival: Amalie Atkins on the warm hug of a film that is Agatha's Almanac 43:41

18d ago43:41

43:41

Amalie Atkins loving documentary Agatha's Almanac follows Agatha Bock, Amalie's aunt, as she lives her life on a farm in southern Manitoba, tending to the vegetables, beans, and the soil. She preserves the heirloom seeds she has nurtured and maintained for decades, connecting her to her families past, and tenderly supporting herself using tradition…

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Sydney Film Festival Interview: Sean Byrne, Jai Courtney, and Hassie Harrison on the bloody brutality of Dangerous Animals 19:35

19d ago19:35

19:35

Queensland: Beautiful one day, deadly the next! For American drifter Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) the gorgeous Gold Coast supplies her with great surfing and anonymity where she can leave her dark past behind. For psychopathic fisherman Tucker (Jai Courtney) the ocean provides him with a living, but his real interest lie in dying: the death of those he…

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Sydney Film Festival Interview: Ellis Park director Justin Kurzel on being in the orbit of Warren Ellis 33:08

20d ago33:08

33:08

Director Justin Kurzel has crafted a filmography built on exploring the impact of trauma and violence on a nation. Whether it be his excoriating debut film Snowtown or the acts of cautionary storytelling with Nitram and The Order, Kurzel’s work questions how violence and trauma lingers in our bodies, our minds, and in our lands. That’s a notion tha…

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Sydney Film Festival Interview: Tony Gardiner and Lachlan Marks on the bloody and bonkers short DIY 49:46

24d ago49:46

49:46

There's a delirious level of dark comedy that thrives in the new short film DIY from director Tony Gardiner and writer Lachlan Marks. A woman, played with a disarming ease by Claire Lovering, is mourning the passing of her dog. As she drills into the wall to hang up a picture of her pup, she is surprised to find blood coming out of the hole. Headin…

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The Cinema Within director Chad Freidrichs on Walter Murch and the power of editing 57:12

1M ago57:12

57:12

Chad Freidrichs is a documentarian who has crafted a filmography built with a series of fringe stories that unveil fascinating narratives that exist just outside the periphery of normalcy. His first feature doc, Jandek on Corwood, sees a reclusive folk and blues musician gain a following, all the while he never truly engages with his followers fasc…

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Andy Johnston on the tenderness of male affection in Coming & Going 1:12:33

1M ago1:12:33

1:12:33

Part of why Coming & Going feels like a quiet revolution of a film is the manner that Andy presents vulnerability, loneliness, and tenderness on screen. 'Baby, you are gonna miss that plane' is what Julie Delpy said to Ethan Hawke as she danced in the climax of Before Sunset, creating one of cinemas finest romantic moments. Andy pulls from the echo…

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Director Matthew Rankin on the kindness that sits at the core of Universal Language 29:27

1M ago29:27

29:27

Matthew Rankin is a Canadian filmmaker who hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His work, which includes the acclaimed award-winning 2019 feature The Twentieth Century, has often been called 'experimental' or a slice of 'absurdist comedy'. That's partially true, but I'd go a step further and say that there's a touch of humanist storytelling to his work, …

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Conservationist Isabella Tree on the power of inviting nature back into your world as shown in the documentary Wilding 26:21

1M ago26:21

26:21

Isabella Tree is a noted conservationist and the author of the acclaimed book Wilding, which tells the story of Isabella and her husband as they undertook the immense and impressive journey to rewild their failing four-hundred-year-old estate in England, bringing beavers and cranes back to the country for the first time in years. Wilding, alongside…

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Archie Lush, Alex Power & Mark Zanosov on building the simmering heat of their Freo-shot short Blunt 34:02

1M ago34:02

34:02

Co-writer and actor Archie Lush, director Alex Power, and producer Mark Zanosov take us to the streets of Fremantle, Western Australia, where their short film Blunt pushes us into the simmering heat of the kitchen. Under the spatter of duck fat and the glint of sharp knives is the mounting pressure of being a top tier chef, a notion that's amplifie…

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Karan Kandhari and Radhika Apte on the hilariously aggressive punk film Sister Midnight 15:35

1M ago15:35

15:35

Nadine Whitney had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Karan Kandhari and Radhika Apte about Sister Midnight and how as original and ‘weird’ as it is, it’s also representative of people who are rarely seen as (essential) inhabitants of Mumbai. Both Karan and Radhika are an absolute joy to listen to. Kandhari’s film is a marvel of inventiveness.…

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Genevieve Bailey on the importance of Always Listening to stories of struggles with mental health 50:49

1M ago50:49

50:49

Genevieve Bailey is a documentarian who has drawn attention to the impact of societal struggles with mental illness through her empathetic and nurturing body of work. With feature films like I Am Eleven and Happy Sad Man, Gen embraces a supportive mindset, using the power of cinema to bring real stories to audiences. It's that sense of support that…

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Robert Connolly talks about bringing Nicolas Cage to the salty sea of The Surfer 25:27

1M ago25:27

25:27

Lorcan Finnegan's wild and weird trip-fest flick The Surfer is one that's had local audiences salivating at the prospect of its arrival. That anticipation went into hyperdrive when Oscar winning actor and walking cult-factory Nicolas Cage was announced as the leading man, a bloke returning home to the South West to buy his family home, reconnect wi…

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Jacob Richardson on heading to Greece for his feature film debut The Aegean 47:57

1M ago47:57

47:57

Jacob Richardson's feature film debut The Aegean sees the Queensland based writer-director embrace the Grecian story of a widower, Hector (Costas Mandylor), who finds himself in the orbit of Khristos (Light), a refugee who finds himself in the waters of the Aegean Sea. As Khristos finds himself becoming embedded in Hector's life, he discovers an un…

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Allison Tyra talks about the over 600 stories that make up her essential book Uncredited: Women's Overlooked, Misattributed & Stolen Work 51:19

1M ago51:19

51:19

With her essential website Infinite-Women.com, Allison Tyra has built a deep database that contains more than 6000 biographies from around the world and throughout history, documenting the biographies of women who have made a mark in history. Her debut book, Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work, expands on the database wit…

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Kelly Schilling on working with Marta Dusseldorp and building the emotional truth of With or Without You 31:40

2M ago31:40

31:40

Kelly Schilling's feature debut film With or Without You is the powerful and impactful story of a mother, Sharon (Marta Dusseldorp) and a daughter, Chloe (Melina Vidler), who are forced to navigate the complicated reality of alcohol addiction, an affliction that Sharon uses to manage her anxiety alongside Valium and men. For Chloe, the man in her l…

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Cian Mungatj McCue and Sarah Price on their new First Nations screen industry initiative Damulgurra Stories 21:31

2M ago21:31

21:31

One of the more exciting news points in recent weeks has been the announcement of the new First Nations initiative Damulgurra Stories. Founded by Larrakia man Cian Mungatj McCue, of Moogie Down Productions, and award-winning casting director and producer Sarah Price of Castaway NT, Damulgurra Stories aims to transform the way productions work with …

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Lars and the Real Girl Umbrella Entertainment Blu-Ray Collectors Edition Review 19:11

2M ago19:11

19:11

Lars and the Real Girl is Craig Gillespie's 2007 indie comedy-drama about a man who has an unconventional relationship with a sex doll. That man is a young Ryan Gosling, who is supported by Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Patricia Clarkson, and Bianca the Doll. Umbrella Entertainment have released an impressive collectors edition of the film which …

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Gold Coast Film Festival: Jane Larkin on the lived-in perspective of her elite sports drama The Edge 40:13

2M ago40:13

40:13

Before commencing her career as a filmmaker, Jane Larkin was an Australian representative sprinter, pushing her body to the limits on the track. In the moments of preparation, cooldowns, and every minute in between, Jane was building friendships, learning from fellow athletes, and seeing a world of sports that we rarely get to see in cinema. After …

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German Film Festival: Andres Veiel on the urgency of his new documentary Riefenstahl 14:44

2M ago14:44

14:44

Andres Veiel's latest documentary, Riefenstahl, delves into the dark and deep archive of the private estate of Leni Riefenstahl, exposing the deep ties the filmmaker had with the Nazi regime. Andres uses footage and correspondence from Riefenstahl's own personal records, including hidden interviews and documents that present a different side of a d…

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Saskia Archer on building a foundation of empathy in her acting 40:50

2M ago40:50

40:50

Saskia Archer is an actor on the rise. From the streets of Sydney, to the turf of Tasmania where she embarked on a path to become a paramedic, to a shift to WA where she built her acting skills at the WA Academy of Performing Arts, and now, to the bustling city of New York, Saskia is seeing the world and forging a path in acting doing so. Genre-fan…

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Eli Craig has a message to horror audiences: go see Clown in the Cornfield in cinemas if you want sequels 16:28

2M ago16:28

16:28

Eli Craig smashed onto the slasher scene with his genre-defying comedy event Tucker & Dale VS Evil, and he's back with another slasher that upends expectations: Clown in a Cornfield. Clown in a Cornfield is based on the first entry in Adam Cesare's Frendo series which chucks a group of teens into the mayhem of a Midwestern American town where they …

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Mother of Chooks co-director Jesse Leaman on the joy of making a film with his mum 36:09

2M ago36:09

36:09

Every so often, you sit down to watch a film, and find that it unexpectedly fills a hole you didn't know you had in your life. You might not know you needed a charming, dose of positivity in that moment, but as the seconds tick over, you find yourself being swept along in a wave of joy that your day shifts and things that would usually bother you s…

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How Umbrella Entertainment physical media essays are written 1:00:32

2M ago1:00:32

1:00:32

And we're back with another review discussion with myself, Andrew, and my colleague Nadine Whitney. In this episode, we discuss the work that we both did on the Umbrella releases of Eyes Without a Face and Hounds of Love, while also discussing the importance of the supplementary materials that come with physical media releases, alongside the work t…

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Fantastic Film Festival: Bluebird director Darwin Schulze talks about his creative vision to bring adventure back to Australian screens 35:26

2M ago35:26

35:26

ion to our humanity. At twelve years of age, Darwin won the award for Best Film by a Child Producer, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing at the KidzFlicks awards for his short film Red Panda Man. He had previously made a claymation short film called My Eco Friendly House. Darwin then also was a Tropfest Jr finalist for his short Milk. Again, he w…

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The Correspondent director Kriv Stenders on the need to support a free press in 2025 29:03

2M ago29:03

29:03

In December 2013, Australian journalist Peter Greste, alongside fellow Al Jazeera colleagues Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were arrested in Cairo, Egypt under charges of holding illegal meetings with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation declared as a terrorist group by the Egyptian Interior Ministry. Kriv Stenders is a prolific Australi…

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Darcy Newton and Luca Catalano Get Raucous and Loud with their Kingswood Doc CLAPTRAP 27:04

3M ago27:04

27:04

Aussie band Kingswood are rock royalty, having played shows with AC/DC and The Hives, tearing down the rooves of Aussie venues in equal measure with their unique brand of raucous rock. In 2024, the band undertook a record-setting road trip across Australia with the Hometowns Tour, the longest ever music tour, encompassing 112 shows over six months,…

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Lou Sanz on engaging with empathy with the pitch black comedy Audrey 1:07:43

3M ago1:07:43

1:07:43

In 2024, director Natalie Bailey and writer Lou Sanz unleashed Audrey onto audiences in Australia and America. Here's a film that I called a caustic comedy that rains like refreshing acid rain. Here's the story of a mum, Ronnie (played by Jackie van Beek), who opts to literally take over the life of her daughter Audrey (Josephine Blazier) when she …

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Alice Maio Mackay on the new wave of transgender cinema 51:12

3M ago51:12

51:12

At just twenty years old, transgender wunderkind Alice Maio Mackay has crafted a filmography that would make most seasoned professionals envious. Alice's filmography is built within a defiantly independent space that centres queer stories on screen. From 2021's short film The Serpent's Nest, to the run of genre defying horror and sci-fi feature fil…

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Zachary Ruane and Alexei Toliopoulos on becoming David Stratton & Margaret Pomeranz for their comedy show Refused Classification 37:44

3M ago37:44

37:44

For decades, David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz were Australian film reviewing royalty, having built up a loyal following with their weekly show on SBS, The Movie Show. The 90s and early 00s was the peak of David & Margaret’s influence over Australian audiences. What they recommended, people would head out and go and see. Both David and Margaret …

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Alliance Française French Film Festival Reviews: Bolero & Miss Violet 16:25

3M ago16:25

16:25

This podcast is also recorded in Naarm, Victoria, with fellow critic Nadine Whitney reviewing two of the films screening at the 2025 Alliance Française French Film Festival. In the following reviews, Nadine discusses Anne Fontaine's Bolero and Éric Besnard's Miss Violet. For all the festival details and to purchase tickets, visit AFFrenchFilmFestiv…

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Carmen & Bolude stars Michela Carattini and Bolude Watson on the joy of dance on film 38:53

3M ago38:53

38:53

Carmen & Bolude marks something of a first for Australian films. Here is a comedy about two close friends, Carmen (Michela Carattini) and Bolude (Bolude Watson), who both call Australia home. Carmen proudly embraces her Latin heritage, while Bolude navigates the line between Western values and her Nigerian roots. Together, they take on the world an…

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My Melbourne Producer Mitu Bhowmick Lange on bringing the diversity of Naarm to life on screen 33:24

4M ago33:24

33:24

My Melbourne is a powerful and uplifting new collaborative feature made with an array of established Indian directors and emerging Australian filmmakers, alongside a diverse group of writers behind the scenes, who each bring one of four stories of Naarm-Melbourne to life on screen. My Melbourne opens with the narrative called Nadini, it's directed …

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Residence director Matt Mirams gets bloody honest about indie filmmaking 44:29

4M ago44:29

44:29

Matt Mirams is a indie creative who has over two decades of experience as a musician, actor, director, theatresports enthusiast, and independent filmmaker. His latest film, Residence, is a bloody zombie comedy that sees Australia inflicted by a brain eating parasite that turns its hosts into mindless zombies that wander the countryside looking for …

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AIDC Interview: Queens of Concrete director Eliza Cox on putting Aussie sports on screen 53:11

4M ago53:11

53:11

With her debut feature documentary film Queens of Concrete, Eliza Cox takes audiences on a seven year journey with three skateboarders: Ava Godfrey, Charlotte Heath, and Hayley Wilson. They each embrace a different style of skateboarding, with street and park being the two styles that are featured at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics. It's that 2020 Oly…

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Celebrating imaginative logic with absurdist storyteller Jesse Vogelaar 44:29

4M ago44:29

44:29

Jesse Vogelaar is a writer and director whose works spans across Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, flitting between the stage where he masters the art of improvisation, to advertisements, where he transforms the products of Samsung or Specsavers into savvy slices of commercial entertainment, to his growing body of short films, which includes You …

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Queer Screen Interview: Director Ruth Caudeli on recognising the global impact of abuse in their film Same, Again 19:35

4M ago19:35

19:35

Listeners should note that the following interview contains discussions about trauma as it relates to #MeToo. The work of director Ruth Caudeli regularly appears at the Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival, with her previous films Eva and Candela and Leading Ladies both screening at the festival. Her latest film, Same, Again, makes its world premi…

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Leela Varghese, Emma Hough Hobbs, and Shabana Azeez on the best film of 2025: Lesbian Space Princess 36:25

4M ago36:25

36:25

I'm calling it right now. Lesbian Space Princess is the film of the year. I saw it in a sold out auditorium at the beautiful art deco Piccadilly cinema in Adelaide with an Adelaide Film Festival audience that lapped up every laugh, every tear, and every splash of neon bright queer celebration on screen. Lesbian Space Princess is the animated featur…

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WA Made Film Festival Interview: James Hoare on the art of cinematography on a budget 45:19

4M ago45:19

45:19

Cinematographer James Hoare is a recent graduate from Curtin University, where he worked alongside director Christopher Paik-Swan and writer Max Joyce to bring to life their final year short film Don't Talk About the Monster on the Roof, a micro-budget horror short flick inspired by the look of Ozploitation films. It's an impressively taut thriller…

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Queer Screen Interview: Sally! Co-Directors Ondine Rarey and Jörg Fockele on bringing the story of Sally Gearhart to life on screen 39:20

4M ago39:20

39:20

The joyous and jubilant documentary Sally! - the exclamation mark is deliberate - is a delightful and educational journey through the life and history of Sally Miller Gearhart: a professor of Speech, Theatre, and Women Studies; a fantasy writer; and most known as a lesbian feminist activist who helped transform the world for women and queer people …

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Queer Screen Interview: Karen Knox and Lane Webber on their raucous indie rock film We Forgot to Break Up 47:44

4M ago47:44

47:44

We Forgot to Break Up tells the story of fictional Canadian band The New Normals; an indie rock group that transcends labels and definition, and changes the scene of indie rock music. The New Normals is led by Evan (excellently portrayed by Lane Webber), a trans man singer-songwriter who has the big stage in mind all the while trying to navigate hi…

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Sundance Film Festival: "This is my advocacy" - Gen_ Director Gianluca Matarrese on Documenting Body Autonomy on Film 27:34

5M ago27:34

27:34

Gianluca Matarrese's gentle documentary Gen_ opens with overwhelming images of planets and stars. Or are they cells and aspects of human biology? As we lean in to the screen, curious about what we're seeing, the title, Gen, that's gen with an underscore, flits on screen, with a rotation appendage of possible word creations: genesis, genitals, genet…

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Sundance Film Festival: View from the Floor Directors Mindie Lind & Megan Griffiths on Bringing Their Animated Short to Life 27:02

5M ago27:02

27:02

If there's a minor blessing that has emerged from the pandemic, it's in the way that film festivals have shifted and persisted with online options. As one of the leading film festivals in the world, the Sundance Film Festival continues to bring selections of their festival to global audiences via their online and in person screening events. The 202…

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Voices in Deep: Jason Raftopoulos on the Purpose of Personal Filmmaking 1:42:00

5M ago1:42:00

1:42:00

Jason Raftopoulous is a filmmaker who I owe my continued writing career to. In 2018, Jason released West of Sunshine, a drama about an average bloke, Jim, played by the excellent Damian Hill, scrounging through the back streets of Melbourne for money to pay back a loan shark. With a synopsis like that, West of Sunshine suggests that it'll another o…

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Albert Mwangi on Making it Look Real in Australian Cinema 58:32

5M ago58:32

58:32

Let's take a moment to look ahead in 2025 to a few of the Australian films that will get people talking. Two particular films had their world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2024, where their lead actor and performer, Albert Mwangi, was in attendance. Kate Blackmore's Make it Look Real is a hybrid-documentary experience that explores the …