13th CANBERRA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

MARTIN SCORSESE AND THE FILM ARCHIVE CONNECTION
CIFF 2009 at the National Film and Sound Archive features important contemporary Australian documentary as well as The Archive Connection: a showcase of recent international and Australian film restorations. The film archive connection is also the Martin Scorsese Connection. Scorsese has become cinema heritage’s leading spokesperson, a public love affair with classic Hollywood channelled into signature support for the private The Film Foundation and is now extended globally with The World Cinema Foundation, and his personal support for the restoration of classics such as The Red Shoes. We celebrate Scorsese’s highly visible support for traditional film archiving – but also his challenge to traditional approaches to 'selling' the cause of cinema heritage. As well there will be the Cinémathèque Française’s stunning new restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou, marking 50 years since Godard’s own Breathless marked the birth of French New Wave. Plus the newest title from the Deluxe-Kodak Project Fran: Glenda Hambly’s remarkable 1985 showcase for actress Noni Hazlehurst.

FILMS FROM THE WORLD CINEMA FOUNDATION
Founded in 2007 by Martin Scorsese, The World Cinema Foundation’s mission is to preserve and restore neglected films from around the world– especially those countries lacking the financial and technical ability to do so. Advised by a board that includes such masters of contemporary cinema as Guillermo Del Toro, Stephen Frears, Walter Salles and 2008 NFSA Longford Lyell lecturer Bertrand Tavernier, Scorsese writes that the WCF '… wants to help strengthen and support the work of international archives, and provide a resource for those countries lacking… facilities to do the work themselves.' The NFSA and CIFF are proud to present Australia premieres of three of The World Cinema Foundation’s most recent restoration projects. Each is a classic of its national cinema, yet all three have long been inaccessible in quality 35mm prints.

The World Cinema Foundation is sponsored by Giorgio Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways and the Qatar Museums Authority. All films restored at the Cineteca di Bologna’s L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory. Special thanks to Gian Luca Farinelli and Cecilia Cenchiarelli of the Cinetech di Bologna. The Canberra International Film Festival is proudly presented by TransACT, with the support of Screen Australia and the ACT Government.

Special Ticket prices:
Adult $15
Concession $12.50
Children $11
For more details, visit:
www.canberrafilmfestival.com.au

FRAN

Dir: Glenda Hambly, Aust. 1985, 94 mins, 35mm (M)

Perth single-mother Fran does it tough and unwisely, unable to associate the welfare of her three children with her emotional illusions. Fran is a key film from the important cycle of 1980s Australian cinema exploring the lives of ordinary women in the wake of 'new wave' Feminism. It lacks the renown of 1982's Monkey Grip; but this (her other AFI Award-winning lead role of the decade) is actress Noni Hazlehurst's harder-won portrayal. Begun as a WA government-sponsored documentary, director Glenda Hambly was able to use the feature form to dig deep into the real tragedy of Fran’s character. Hambly's outsiders (including Alan Fletcher as Fran's boyfriend) aren't marginal by choice; lacking economic control over their destiny, they are simply using their few emotional options. Presented with the support of Deluxe Australia and Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd. Noni Hazelhurst will introduce the screening.

THE RED SHOES

Dirs: Michael Powell, Emeric Presburger, UK, 1948, 135 mins, 35mm (G)

The Red Shoes is the most dazzling of a string of 1940s Technicolor filmmaking experiments by the English director/producer/writer duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The conflicts between art and love embodied in brooding impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) and his artistic discoveries (Moira Shearer and Marius Goring), inspired Vincente Minnelli and Gene Kelly, A Chorus Line and Fame – as well as director Martin Scorsese, who has personally funded this new restoration. Restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive, in association with the BFI, The Film Foundation, ITV and Janus Films. Courtesy of Chapel Films. Michael Powell's son Kevin Powell will introduce the screening.

LOVING FRIEND

Dir: Kerry Negara, Aust., 2009, 54 mins, Digibeta (unclassified 18+)

Filmmaker Kerry Negara’s very different view of esteemed Australian artist Donald Friend has already caused controversy. Re-reading Friend’s posthumously published diaries, she exposes an open secret amongst Australian art historians: the artist’s sexual relationships with under-aged boys in the Asian island ‘paradise’ in which he lived from the 1950s onwards. Negara challenges Friend’s acceptance as a “…nice, culturally acceptable paedophile”, and the tendency to forgive all because of his status as “artist”. Kerry Negara will join Virginia Haussenger and a discussion panel after the screening.

THE NIGHT OF COUNTING YEARS

(Al-momia) Dir: Shadi Abdel Salam, Egypt, 1969, 103 mins, 35mm (unclassified 18+)

The haunting Egyptian cinema classic, a tale of grave-robbery and disappearing cultural heritage amongst the tombs of the Pharaohs, restored to its original ethereal colours and textures by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation. '…Acknowledged as one of the greatest Egyptian films ever made… (The Night of Counting the Years…) is based on a true story: in 1881… was discovered that the Horabat tribe had been secretly raiding the tombs of the Pharaohs in Thebes… The almost ceremonial movement of the camera, the desolate settings, the classical Arabic spoken on the soundtrack, the unsettling score by the great Italian composer Mario Nascimbene… contribute to the feeling of fateful inevitability.' - Martin Scorsese. Restored in 2009 at Cineteca di bologna’s L’Immagine ritrovata Laboratory, from original negatives preserved at the Egyptian Film Center in Giza. Restored with the support of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. Courtesy of The World Cinema Foundation.

THE RED SHOES

Dirs: Michael Powell, Emeric Presburger, UK, 1948, 135 mins, 35mm (G)

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburgers’ dazzling Technicolor ballet drama classic, with Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer, Marius Goring. New print restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive, in association with the BFI, The Film Foundation, ITV and Janus Films. Courtesy of Chapel Films.

TRANSES

(Al hal) Dir: Ahmed El Maanouni, Morocco, 1981, 87 mins, 35mm (unclassified 18+)

In early 1970s Morocco's Nass El Ghiwane - a band of five street musicians - brought about a musical and social rebellion. In Transes, Ahmed El Maanouni pioneered the modern World Music documentary by retracing the band's success, and its revival of traditional Moroccan 'Trance' music. Originally a ritual and sacred form, the group made the sound into a modern frenzy and a cultural and political statement. ''Trances' are our equivalent of 'soul music', our irrationality…'' - Ahmed El Maanouni. Courtesy of The World Cinema Foundation.

INTO THE SHADOWS

Dirs: Andrew Scarano, Phil Hignett, Aust., 2009, 90 mins, Digibeta (unclassified 18+)

The end of an era for Canberra screen culture – the closure of the Electric Shadows cinema in 2006 – is a discussion starter on the wider problem of making and get Australian independent cinema to audiences. Seen in the context of cinemas closures and Australian cinema’s underwhelming national box office share, directors, producers, exhibitors and critics (including George Miller, Nash Edgerton Robert Connelly, Rolf de Heer and Andrew Pike) offering their views about our cinema’s crisis of relevance. The Canberra Times' Cris Kennedy chairs an after-screening panel that includes Andrew Pike, Geoff Burton and director Andrew Scarano.

PIERROT LE FOU

Dir: Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1965, 35mm, 110 mins (M)

Jean-Paul Belmondo is a jaded Parisian TV executive. Anna Karina his old lame Marianne, who re-appears one night to reveal herself as… what? An urban terrorist? Spy? Pure femme fatale? Within a night and a day, he’s got the girl, she brings the guns (and an inexhaustible supply of quotations from French poetry, Hollywood movies and comic books) and they head south in search of utopia. Officially from American hardboiled writer Lionel White's novel Obsession, it’s more than anything else an ode to lost love, made by the then-newly divorced Godard and Karina, who reportedly barely spoke during production. Cinematographer Raoul Coutard shot the film in the colours of Yves Klein and Renoir, but only with this digital restoration can we grasp the beauty of the Technoscope colour process with which it was originally made. Restored by Cinémathèque Française, Studio Canal, and the Fond Culturel Americain. Made possible by the Embassy of France and the French Ministry of Culture.

TOUKI BOUKI

Dir: Djibril Diop Mambéty, Senegal, 1973, 35mm, 88 mins. (unclassified 18+)

Herdsman Mory comes to Dakar for a better life. But riding around on his bull-skull-adorned motorcycle he realises even the capital isn't big enough. He seduces a young university student and together they hustle and rob a wealthy gay man, then drive his stolen American car to the boat that will take them to Europe. Yet even then something holds them back. In his neo-colonial spin on the films of Nicholas Ray or Jean-Luc Godard, Djibril Diop Mambéty made a classic of Senegalese cinema whose themes are still undiminished in their global meaning. ''Touki Bouki’s… portrayal of 1973 Senegalese society is not too different from today’s reality. Hundreds of young Africans die every day at the Strait of Gibraltar… all their hardships (still) find their voice in Djibril’s film:'' – Souleymane Cissé.Restored in 2008 at Cineteca di Bologna’s L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, using original negatives provided by the director’s son, Teemour Diop Mambéty, and preserved at GTC, Paris. Courtesy of The World Cinema Foundation.