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INTO
THE SHADOWS
OCTOBER 2010
SYNOPSIS:
The burgeoning multiplexes have contributed to the closure of
many independent cinemas. In Sydney alone, 20 screens have closed
in the past decade. Tracing the history of Australian cinema
from 1910 through the decline and renaissance of the industry
at various times, the film explores the challenges and hurdles
facing Australian filmmakers. As well as touching on the poor
content choices of some Australian movies, several industry practitioners
comment on the important role art house cinemas have played,
contributing to the rebirth of Australian filmmaking - and how
their absence is helping to strangle the public's access to local
films.
Review by Andrew L. Urban:
Protecting their turf or organised crime? John L. Simpson articulates
the stumbling blocks within the terms of trade that rule much
of cinema distribution and exhibition in this most graphic examination
of getting Australian films into cinemas. Anthony Buckley calls
it the distributor/exhibitor cartel, which excludes producers.
Robert Connolly calls the construct of film distribution a sausage
factory ....and US indie champion Peter Broderick wonders why
there is such a woeful lack of imagination in cinema exhibition
and distribution that it's stuck in an out of date rut, instead
of the industry creating commercially smart customised strategies.
Simpson, who took on the distribution of The
Jammed (2007) at
his own financial risk when no-one else wanted it, goes on to
condemn the corporate gatekeepers of the business, citing how
they failed to recognise a film that went on to universal critical
acclaim, a warm public box office embrace and the accolade of
Best Film at the publicly voted IF Awards (as well as 7 nominations
in the AFI Awards including Best Film). While Shane Abbess, maker
of Gabriel, was told he was too commercial for Australia.
And it is not just Ken G. Hall in 1966, but contemporary film
executives such as veteran filmmaker and now distribution boss
(at Walt Disney Australia) Alan Finney and Melbourne's Natalie
Miller, and cinema operators like Paul Dravet of Sydney's Orpheum,
who advocate showmanship as a key element of film exhibition.
Andrew Scarano's hard hitting and eloquent documentary not only
refocuses the discussion about Australian cinema in its broadest
sense onto the key weaknesses - both historically and currently
- but picks out the crucial threads of the debate about the absence
of suitable mechanisms for the films - after a challenging process
of getting financed and made - to be shown to audiences. Never
mind the tough job of making a film, filmmakers have invented
ways around much of that, although traditional funding mechanisms
are not as encouraging of edgy, innovative work. It's the stagnant
pond of distribution that comes under sharpest attack.
It may not be comfortable viewing for many in the film industry,
but it's a well structured work - adroitly edited - that deserves
to be taken seriously. And guess what? It is being distributed
by Ronin Films, whose Andrew Pike has always been the exception
to the rule, offering Australian films a showcase when others
wouldn't. Needless to say, he's one of the many interview subjects
worth listening to in this film.
Review by Louise Keller:
It might have been 43 years since producer, director Ken G. Hall
said "No industry can be founded on masterpieces that
don't get people to go and see them," but the rule of
thumb still applies. This riveting documentary that traces
the Australian film industry in an ever-changing world, takes
a close look at how the industry clock ticks and why it's so
tough. It’s tough to make films, tough to get them into cinemas
and tough to entice audiences to see them. How important is
it to have our own cultural identity? What is the value of
a cinematic experience? What is the relevance of showmanship
in film production? Director Andrew Scarano not only documents
historic facts about the origins of how our local industry
began, but looks at the direction it has taken and where we
are today.
I hope I haven't made it sound dry and boring, because this
film certainly isn't. It makes for lively and fascinating viewing,
tracing the initial production boom in the early 1900s through
the resurgence after the dead patch post-war, when filmmakers
were instrumental in kick-starting the industry in the 60s and
70s. In the words of former exhibitor, highly respected historian
and filmmaker Andrew Pike, 'there are young people growing up
today who have no idea that the cinema experience is something
other than the multiplex experience, or the DVD experience, or
the internet experience, or heaven forbid, the mobile phone experience.'
Before Pike's independent Canberra cinema Electric Shadows closed
in 2006, it, like other similar independent cinemas such as Melbourne's
Longford, the Lumiere and Sydney's Valhalla was the heart-beat
of those cities in film-terms. Their closure is the result of
the advent of the multiplex, which champions mostly the Hollywood
film product.
The inscription on the simple black torch that Pike symbolically
hands to Dendy Cinema chain when the cinema closes ('Out of the
shadows and into the future') is more optimistic than the message
Scarano's film delivers; although, it is exciting to hear about
the new directions in which the industry is heading. Filmmaker
Andrew Denton reminds us that as the industry navigates into
new digital territory, 'Like all change; change is painful.'
We are reminded of the importance of government funding, the
incomprehensible 'gatekeeper' system when it comes to distribution
and exhibition, the struggle to keep our identity and find the
right direction as we reach that fork in the road for our industry,
as filmmaker Robert Connolly points out. Many intelligent and
knowledgeable people including producer Philip Adams, director
Bruce Beresford, producer and distributor Alan Finney, director
Clayton Jacobson and producer Anthony Buckley contribute by raising
valid and potent truths. If you enjoy watching movies and are
at all curious about this unique art form that so powerfully
defines who we are, this is a film to seek out.
Source: www.urbancinefile.com
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