Following the success of the inaugural CAFS Survival International Film Festival in 2014, the showcase event will return again this November to share the stories of inspiration and endurance.
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Held at the Regent Cinemas between November 10-13, this year’s festival will be extra special with CAFS commemorating its 150th anniversary.
CAFS community engagement co-ordinator and director of SIFF, Neil Boyack said the festival is about celebrating the human spirit and survival.
“My idea was to create a film festival that not only brought social services sector professionals together to celebrate, discuss and engage, but to fill a gap in the cinema market in central Victoria and create Ballarat’s only international film festival,” he said.
“Through the CAFS SIFF I want to highlight issues – family relationships, violence against women, feminism, human endurance and inspiration – through films that have strong narratives, films that can be beautiful, or challenging.”
The 2015 CAFS SIFF boasts three Australian premieres and can hold its own alongside any festival in the country, as well as being a major fundraiser for CAFS.
Mr Boyack said there are many highlights of this year’s festival.
“There’s too many to talk about really but if I had to choose, Wild Life – the story of a father living rough and with his two sons on the run. It’s a great example of contemporary film making, with a twist of fable,” he said.
“I can’t really understand why no Australian distributor has picked this up. It is challenging, yet uplifting.
“The Nice House is a sombre, yet critical film that captures in a succinct form, the events leading up to Luke Batty’s murder.
“The Lobster offers relief in some ways to all the heavy subject matter, but reminds up of how humans act when the end is near.
“I could go on."
In the wake of the successful Archibald Prize exhibition, CAFS SIFF could be the next tourism-culture driver.
“It gives metro folks a good reason to travel up-country, but by bringing such a world class array of cinema to Ballarat, it also delivers the film loving community in central Victoria a platform to enjoy cinema they wouldn’t usually see here,” Mr Boyack said.
