MIFF general manager Victoria Pope says the Travelling Film Showcase, supported by Film Victoria, enables a film festival experience to be delivered across regional Victoria.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Opening in Ballarat's Regent Cinemas on the weekend of September 6-8, Ms Pope says the program features Premiere Fund films which are new Australian films making their opening.
"The rich and diverse MIFF program is carefully curated every year, and it's wonderful to expand its reach outside Melbourne so regionally-based Victorians are able to participate," Ms Pope says.
"The seven MIFF Premiere Fund films this year are an incredible array of films from the family-friendly H is for Happiness to the modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.
"The filmmakers, along with MIFF staff, attend each destination of the MIFF Travelling Film Showcase to present the films and participate in questions and answers, enabling a unique festival experience for the audience."
One of the films coming to Ballarat is a documentary on the rise and domination of the martial arts genre in mainstream film.
Serge Ou, director of Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks, says his interest in the evolution and reshaping of pop culture led to his examination of the martial arts film and the influence of the Shaw Brothers Studio on modern filmmaking.
Founded by four brothers in the 1920s, by the 1950s and 60s Shaw Brothers Studios was the most prolific producer of films coming out of Hong Kong and maintained the largest privately-owned studio in the world.
It produced the classic films One-Armed Swordsman, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Five Fingers of Death, which popularised the martial art of kung fu for western audiences. The latter especially was a success in the United States among African-American audiences, who embraced the genre's non-white heroes and 'fight the power' themes.
"I'm interested in pop culture movements that permeate the rest of culture," Ou says.
"I grew up in the US in the mid-70s when that martial arts boom was happening, and I had a lot of African-American friends who were interested in these heroes because those films spoke to them; they weren't seeing standard Hollywood white heroes, they were seeing non-white heroes who were fighting injustice and speaking to the disenfranchised.
"That was something that stayed with me."
Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks follows the rise of the martial arts film worldwide domination.
Serge Ou says the Shaw Brothers empire was a mirror-image of the Hollywood system, churning out films in a kind of 'dream factory', with stars under contract and a high output and turnover.
"But within that, young creatives were having influence on the narratives," Ou says.
"They had a lot of leeway and they were subverting the genre, instilling a subversive undercurrent that spoke to the rest of the world."
The films also undercut colonial stereotypes and accepted political positions while focusing on ancient stories relevant to Asian culture. These myths and tales were given life by terms of talented stunt fighters and aerieal artists who understood the background of the narrative they were portraying.
WATCH A TRAILER BELOW
When Hollywood then co-opted those kind of features to its own ends, they lost some of their resonance, Ou says.
"For example, in The Matrix, (martial arts choreographer) Yuen Woo-ping said, "i'm not just going to take these actors, put them on wires and throw them into the film. I need six to 12 months with them training because I want them to be believable."
Among those interviewed are the first woman wuxia film star, Cheng Pei-pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), 80s fu femme Cynthia Rothrock (China O'Brien), contemporary torchbearer Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones; Marvel's Iron Fist) and Australian stuntman Richard Norton (Mad Max: Fury Road).
Director John Sheedy's first feature film, H is for Happiness, starring Richard Roxburgh, Emma Booth, Deborah Mailman and Miriam Margolyes, is also featured in the MIFF Travelling Film Showcase.
"It's incredibly important for me to be part of the showcase," Sheedy says.
The Melbourne director says the impact of regional exposure can't be underestimated.
"You always want a film to reach a broad audience, to reach as many people as possible; so to be able to get my work out into the regions is really important, because often people in those areas don't have the same chance as people in the metropolitan areas," Sheedy says.
"I want the film to speak to as many people as possible."
An adaptation of the award-winning novel My Life as an Alphabet, Sheedy's feature film debut tackles serious family themes while remaining a funny and gentle coming-of-age tale.
Offered the role of director by the producers after seeing his short film Mrs McCutcheon, which screened at MIFF the year previously, Sheedy says getting to work with actors of the calibre of Miriam Margolyes and Richard Roxburgh was a gift, but no more than the joy of seeing his young stars thrive as well.
"I had Wesley, who plays Douglas Benson, in Mrs McCutcheon, so it was great to bring him over for his feature debut; it was like we were partners," Sheedy says.
"If you give young children trust, they bring amazing things to the screen. Daisy Axon (who plays the lead Candice) , she's extraordinary . We saw over 400 girls for that role across Australia and New Zealand, and Daisy walked into the room and knocked out of the ballpark.
"She has a light in her, that girl. She had read the book so many times; before the audition Candice Bree was one of her favourite characters."
Sheedy says he's also longed to work with much-loved English actor Miriam Margolyes, who now lives in Australia.
"I have had a huge crush on her for years and always wanted to work with her," he says.
"When I read the script and the role of Miss Bamford, I said it had to be her. It was a process getting her; there were many love letters I wrote to her to get her to commit, and she put things aside to do this.
"And then Richard Roxburgh: he has a such an incredible range, comical and dramatic, he's just beautiful to watch. Effortless, and yet this emotionally complex character he's playing. The whole film has a very fine balance, there's a humour and pathos, but there's a deep tragedy happening in that family."
Other films in the MIFF showcase program in Ballarat will include: Below - Starring Ryan Corr and Anthony LaPaglia, Below is a pitch-black comedy with a unique, and uniquely provocative, take on Australia's controversial asylum-seeker detention system; and Measure for Measure - Following the critically acclaimed Pawno, director Paul Ireland moves from Footscray to Prahran's commission flats for this contemporary reinterpretation of Shakespeare, with Hugo Weaving leading a powerful, multicultural cast.
Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.