Past Programs
Film - 2008
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Australia Talks Movies - Caramel
17/09/2008
We're so used to images of war-torn Lebanon that the world of Nadine Labaki's debut feature Caramel, set in a Beirut beauty parlour, is unexpected. As writer, director and star of the film, Labaki weaves together the private lives of Christian women in Beirut as they manage lovers, families and their own aspirations. One terrific and virtually wordless sequence involves Labaki's character preparing the world's grottiest hotel room in preparation for the arrival of her married lover...
The film has been described as an arthouse 'chick flick' -- but is it only women in the audience who will enjoy this gently observed film?
Ozploitation: genre films of the seventies
07/08/2008
Back in the seventies, a lot of young film-makers were having a great time making a swag of low-budget, very fast films. There was lots of naked flesh, sex and over-the-top gore with memorable titles like Night of Fear, Thirst, Snapshot and Turkey Shoot. Collectively, they've come to be known as Ozploitation.
Some in this action and horror genre made it big in the US, particularly in the drive-ins. They've also received the big thumbs-up from the Prince of Pulp, Quentin Tarantino. In fact, Tarantino counts some of them among his all time favourites.
In Australia Talks Movies a panel of film-makers and producers who were part of the genre talk about that moment in our film history, what those films were about and how they've fared against the more traditional art house cinema of the time, like Picnic at Hanging Rock and Breaker Morant.
Join the live audience at GoMA Cinema A this Saturday August 2nd at midday
01/07/2008
If you're going to be in Brisbane on Saturday August 2nd, then you might like to get along to the Gallery of Modern Art.
Australia Talks will be recording a forum that's part of the Brisbane International Film Festival and the topic is the Australian film industry of the seventies and early eighties.
There's the Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Alvin Purple of course but a lot more films that you might not be so familiar with. The films of that period constitute a whole genre in Australian film , some of them endorsed by Quentin Tarantino no less. There's over-the-top violence, out of control car chases and acres of naked flesh.
The forum is called 'Ozploitation' and it starts at 12 noon on Saturday. We'd love Love to see you there for Australia Talks, at the Gallery of Modern Art Cinema A
on Brisbane's Southbank.
Afghanistan: The Future
11/02/2008
Australian Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, is just back from meetings with NATO ministers in Europe. The big topic, the future of Afghanistan. When US led troops invaded after September Eleven, their target was Osama Bin Laden and his supporters. Military efforts to topple the Taliban Regime in Afghanistan were strengthened by further UN and NATO support; put simply, a strong international campaign to liberate and rebuild Afghanistan.
But since the war began, increasing numbers of civilians are being killed, the country is a long way from secure and there's growing resentment about the international campaign. And with the instability in neighbouring Pakistan, the situation has become critical. Minister Joel Fitzgibbon talks about Australia's involvement in Afghanistan and future strategies for international forces there.
Plus a look back to Afghanistan in the 1980s through the film "Charlie Wilson's War". The film deals with the CIA's role in the Soviet war and in particular, the actions of then Texas Congressman, Charlie Wilson, played by Tom Hanks.
