This time each year, the usually quaint city of Adelaide suddenly explodes with creativity as every crowd-drawing festival South Australia has to offer is lumped, rather inexplicably, into a single month. For film lovers, the biennial Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival (BAFF) is easily the most exciting of the bunch, offering moviegoers the perfect excuse to escape the bohemian mayhem of the Fringe Festival and indulge in an incredibly diverse array of local and foreign cinema.
Beginning February 24th and ending March 8th, the 11-day event is quickly becoming one of the world’s premier film festivals despite only being in its fifth year. This owes to the initiative of festival director Katrina Sedgwick and her fellow board members, who not only showcase the works of up-and-coming filmmakers from across the globe, they also assist in the development of numerous Australian-based projects. In 2009, for instance, the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) helped to bring Warwick Thornton’s highly acclaimed indigenous drama Samson and Delilah to the big screen, a film that subsequently went on to win the coveted Palme d’Or at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. By the close of this year’s event, the AFFIF would have assisted in developing 47 Australian films, 14 of which will be celebrating their world premiere at this festival.
The 2011 BAFF officially opened last Thursday night to an enlivening mixture of industry personalities and movie aficionados at the Adelaide Festival Centre, the night’s celebrations commencing with prideful addresses from South Australian Premier Mike Rann and Festival Director Katrina Sedgwick. Australian Actress Judy Davis, star of critically acclaimed films such as My Brilliant Career and Husbands & Wives, was awarded the Don Dunstan Award for her outstanding contribution to the Australian Film Industry. The glass statuette was presented by Australian filmmaker Fred Schepisi, director of such films as The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Roxanne, who is currently working with Davis on the new Australian film The Eye of the Storm.
One of the night’s biggest surprises came from filmmaker Woody Allen, who congratulated Davis via a pre-recorded video message from his home in the US. The seminal American director joked about how he was intimidated by Davis’ talent during the four films they’ve made together, saying he never had the nerve to confront her off-set. An honoured Davis took advantage of her time at the podium to express her concern for the growing education and living costs in Australia, which she believes is limiting the ability for youths to reach their full potential.
Proving to be the perfect companion piece to Davis’ heartfelt concerns was the subsequent screening of Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond’s joyful music documentary Mrs Carey’s Concert (★★★★), the first film to receive its world premiere at the BAFF in 2011. Three years in the making, the film follows the exhaustive preparation undertaken by an all-girls music school in Sydney where every student is expected to perform at a classical music concert held biennially at the iconic Sydney Opera House. Connolly and Raymond barely miss a moment as they shadow the school’s Musical Director Karen Carey, whose great passion for orchestral music is enough to make classical converts out of any metal-heads in the audience. The tireless Carey, who was in attendance as a guest of the festival, makes for a deserving subject in this witty, warming and rousing documentary about a school’s duty to inspire students to achieve greatness, many of whom are held back purely by their own resolve.
Although Carey is the titular character, it’s her students who ultimately occupy the film’s spotlight. With a neutral fly-on-the-wall approach, Connolly and Raymond unearth two engaging personalities in students Emily Sun and Iris Shi, the former an incredibly gifted yet self-doubting violinist, the later a candid troublemaker who is unwilling to contribute in class. It’s left up to Carrey and her devoted teaching staff to motivate these two students among hundreds of others to break a proverbial leg come time for the big performance.
The film is a breezy, unperturbed watch, lacking any real fiery confrontations or breakdowns, which either never happened – obviously, you cannot force melodrama in a documentary – or never made the final cut. Either way, it’s clear Connolly and Raymond were more concerned with entertaining their audience than they were exposing them to something more confronting. They’ve succeeded in doing exactly that if the thunderous applause was anything to go by, the audience’s praise directed at both the filmmakers and lead subject Emily Sun, who performs her career-making violin solo during the film’s intense climax. Edited and sound-mixed to perfection, it’s a tremendously uplifting moment of shared triumph that perfectly encapsulates the theme underpinning this year’s film festival, See Within.
After the conclusion of Mrs Carey’s Concert, the audience migrated to the richly atmospheric Queen’s Theatre on Waymouth St. for the after party, where guests were treated to complimentary refreshments to help facilitate the countless conversations to be had with industry staples and hopefuls alike. As I discovered firsthand, what would usually be an impossibly rare opportunity to meet the cast and crew of the film viewed only moments ago is commonplace during the festival thanks to the intimacy of Adelaide. If you can’t make it to one of the many post-screening Q&A’s with the filmmakers, a quick walk down Rundle St. at this time of year and you’re sure to see a famous face amongst the excitable crowds of artistic appreciators currently inundating the City of Churches. In short, it’s an exciting time to be in Adelaide.
The Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival concludes on March 8th with the Adelaide premiere of Brendan Fletcher’s Mad Bastards, whereupon audiences will have to wait until 2013 to be treated once more to the diverse pleasures of the moving image. Don’t miss out on being a part of this year’s festival and book your tickets online at the official BAFF website here.
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Anders Wotzke was among the media persons invited by the 2011 Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival to attend the Vale Ale Opening Night Gala.
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