Widescreen March 2008
We have a special interview with Peter Carstairs, Director of September, in this edition, as well as some great giveaways and lots more news… read on!
MIFF Travelling Film Festival Update
Warrnambool
14 – 16 MarchWarrnambool Capitol Cinema – 56 Kepler Street
Program and further information.
Shepparton
28 – 30 MarchVillage Cinemas Shepparton – 9 – 13 Stewart Street
Program and further information
Wangaratta
4 – 6 AprilWangaratta Cinema Centre – Cnr Ovens and Reids Streets
Program and further information
Feature Deadline Reminder
The deadline for Feature Film and Feature Documentary entries is Friday 4 April.Entry Form and Further Information
MIFF Footy Shorts
Combine your love of film and footy and enter the MIFF Footy Shorts competition. Create a five minute (maximum) short film with the theme “What Australian Football means to me, or my Community”. Entry deadline 1st May. $5,000 first prize, $3,000 second prize and $2,000 third prize.Entry form and further information.
MIFF Membership Now Online
Join or renew your membership online NOW!Interview with Peter Carstairs
Hi Peter, thanks for talking to MIFF about your first feature film September, which is due for release onto DVD on 20th March.
MIFF: September is set before you were born - what inspired you to tell this story and why did you feel it was important to tell this story now?
Peter: I was very interested in two different ideas that came together at the same time. Firstly, I was interested in writing a film about friendship and, secondly, I was interested in exploring race relations in a pivotal but little known chapter in Australia's racial history – the late 1960s.
Prior to 1968, Aboriginal people in the country weren't paid wages in the same way as white people were. They lived on pastoral properties and, in exchange for being allowed to stay there, they worked for the white farmers for little or, in some cases, no money at all (they'd work for food and clothes and tobacco etc). This all changed in 1968 with the introduction of the Federal Pastoral Industry Award which brought wages for Aboriginal and white workers into line. But unfortunately, rather than pay Aboriginal workers like white workers, many of the farmers decided to just get rid of the Aboriginal families altogether. So there was a huge shift of Aboriginal people off the land into towns where they arrived with no jobs, no money, no skills and nowhere to live. They basically had to set up camps on the fringes of towns. The more I researched the period the more astounded I was at the destructive impact it had on Aboriginal people in terms of unemployment and the displacement of a people. It was devastating. And the impact is still being felt by Aboriginal people in 2008.
But one of the things that really amazed me was that I'd never heard about it – and that very few other people I talked to knew about it. If I had not done my own research, I might never have known about it. This was a major reason why I thought it important to try and tell this story now.
MIFF: The cinematography is beautiful - I understand you are from Western Australia did you grow up in similar surrounds?
Peter: Yeah I grew up in the wheatbelt in WA. I can't say its exactly like how we have depicted the world of the film – but in my childhood memory, it is similar; huge rolling wheatfields that sometimes go on for as far as the eye can see without a tree. The world of film is obviously fictional. But I made a creative decision that sprang from the character Rick (the white farmer) that he would have wheat growing right up to the front door of his house – using every available inch of land. And of course it makes it clear visually that the boys are constantly faced with a horizon that they have to one day travel beyond.
Read the full interview HERE.
Widescreen Giveaways
September – 4 DVDs Up for Grabs
Set in the sweeping Western Australian wheat belt in 1968, September tells the story of two 16 year old boys, one black and one white, whose pure and unaffected friendship begins to fall apart under the pressures of a changing social and political climate.Running time: Distributor: Hopscotch Rating: MA
Release Date: 20 March, 2008 RRP: $39.95
For your chance to win one of 4 DVDs, courtesy of Hopscotch, email your name and mailing address to griffen@melbournefilmfestival.com.au by 5pm Friday 14 March. Please include "September" in the subject line. Only winners will be notified by return email.
MIFF Members Giveaways
Click through the links for further information on the great giveaways we have for MIFF Members this month for the following films:Hey Hey Its Esther Blueburger – 15 double passes up for grabs
Preview Screening Monday 17th March @ 7 pm
Courtesy of Classic Cinema
Brick Lane – 10 double passes up for grabs
Courtesy of Madman Cinema
The Secret of the Grain – 20 In season double passes up for grabs
Courtesy of Palace Films
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