Perth Voice Interactive

FOLLOWING the dearth of Australian feature entries in last year’s Revelations film festival, a small group of Perth movie fans has set out to ensure the local industry gets a showing.

Australian Revelations curators Rebecca Anderson and Suzanne Worner have started a one-a-month showing of local movies as a sideline to the Revelations festival.

They’re going for a mix of old and new: the first couple show Romper Stomper and Mad Max and mix in a bit of retrospective by bringing in Steve Bisley for a Q&A about playing Goose. When the Heath Ledger flick Candy shows later this month, it’ll be presented by Heath’s dad, Kim, who’ll offer some insights into his time filming the movie.

Ms Anderson says they’ve gone for movies you won’t generally see on TV (so while The Castle is indisputably the best film of all time, it’s ineligible because it plays on Channel 9 three times a week).

She prefers films that “embraced their Australianness, that were unashamedly Australian”.

“I want us to remember those and look at the new ones and say we should be supporting Australian films,” she says.

For the new movies the pair has gone for flicks that didn’t get much of an audience in their first release: horror The Babadook scared the pants of international critics but dropped like a stone locally when released late last year. And before every movie Australian Revelations will screen short films which will finally get a an audience other than the the filmmakers’ mums.

The screenings are on every month down at Backlot cinema tucked away in the backstreets of West Perth. The private cinema was started by former Paramount big wig Ian Hale who, after 21 years in the corporate world, traded in the boardroom for working an espresso machine and running projectors.

The next movie is Candy on Feb 23, check http://www.revelationfilmfest.org for info on the time.

by DAVID BELL