Drive-In to the #Melbourne International Film Festival #MIFF #geekgirl #zombies

Friday July 30 & Saturday July 31
Shed 4, North Wharf Road
Victoria Harbour, Docklands, Melbourne

Open Channel have joined forces with MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival) to present two nights of Drive-In Cinema at Shed 4. Rev up your engines, lay down the front seat and head for the Docklands end of Bourke Street.

Friday July 30, 9.15pm
Machete Maidens Unleashed! + For Yr Height Only
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Machete Maidens Unleashed!
(Mark Hartley, Australia, 2009, 85 mins)
Admission 18+

Busty babes, mutated monsters and midget secret agents, the Filipino genre films of the 70s and 80s had it all. Saturating drive-ins around the world, the Philippines became a dreamland for exploitation filmmakers with cheap labour, exotic scenery and non-existent health and safety regulations!

The all-too often overlooked world of Filipino exploitation flicks gets the Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood) treatment in Machete Maidens Unleashed! Featuring interviews with Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Eddie Romero and a host of filmmakers, actors and critics, each with a story about a genre with no scruples, no scripts, no boundaries and – more often than not – no clothes.

Screens with For Y’r Height Only (Eddie Nickart, Philippines, 1981, 93 mins)

This Filipino heightsploitation classic starring 2″9′ action hero Weng Weng is a satire of the James Bond series that – while featuring a hero short in stature – doesn’t fail to measure up in the cheesy action department.

Saturday July 31, 9.15pm
Survival of the Dead + Down Terrace
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Survival of the Dead
(George A Romero, USA, 2009, 90 mins)
Admission 18+

The sixth film in the Dead series from zombie king George A. Romero.

Offering up the flesh-chomping effects enthusiasts have come to know and love, Romero’s franchise continues with a pulpy Western-influenced tale that follows Sarge (a minor character from Diary of the Dead) and his deserter band of soldiers.

After stumbling across an exiled Irishman called O’Flynn, Sarge and his militia head to the remote outpost of Plum Island. What they encounter is a stand-off between O’Flynn and a rival clan over whether the zombies should be annihilated or confined until a cure is found. As the conflict escalates, Sarge’s band find themselves fighting to survive.

screens with: Down Terrace (Ben Wheatley, UK, 2009, 89 mins). Admission 18+

This black suburban comedy slickly marries family drama to crime-flick to produce a cross-genre gem.

Father-and-son gangster duo Bill and Karl, released from a four-month stint in a Brighton prison, settle back into a routine of drinking, pot-smoking and crime. But there’s a snitch in their midst, and the dysfunctional family of thugs are set to explode with violence.

Brimming with menace, Down Terrace stars co-writer Robin Hill alongside his real-life wife and father, and features a chilling crime clan matriarch that puts Jacki Weaver’s performance in Animal Kingdom to shame.

10 Conditions of Love at Open Channel

FRAMED 07: 10 Conditions of Love or ‘How a small film became a VERY BIG deal
Friday October 30, 12.30 – 2.00pm
Open Channel Theatrette – Shed 4
North Wharf Road, Victoria Harbour – Docklands, Melbourne

Melbourne documentary filmmaker Jeff Daniels’ independent film The 10 Conditions of Love is the most controversial film of 2009. It tells the story of Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of the predominatly muslim Uyghur people in the far western deserts of China and her struggle for autonomous rule. Labelled a terrorist by the Chinese government, she has been twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Its selection at festivals in Melbourne, New Zealand and Taiwan this year sparked an international news feeding frenzy following Chinese government demands for the film to be pulled from the festivals and subsequent internet hacking attempts traced to mainland China. At MIFF, the film played to an audience of more than 1,000 at a special Q&A screening with Daniels and Kadeer which was was the lead news item that night, before it embarked on a recently concluded season at Cinema Nova. Not bad for a 53-minute doco made on a shoestring budget.

However, the film is also a labour of love for Daniels, who first heard about the Uyghur and Kadeer over a beer with a friend in Beijing seven years ago and set about researching and then shooting the film which has created such a stir around the world.

Join Jeff Daniels and Open Channel’s Marc Gracie as they discuss the origins of the film and the many steps it has travelled to this day. This session is invaluable for documentary filmmakers and those looking to get into the craft.

Bookings essential – framed@openchannel.org.au

Framed #1 – How do I get my own TV Show?

Kicking off OPEN CHANNEL’s first FRAMED event for 2009 is an entertaining discussion with Wayne Hope (The Castle, Very Small   Business, Stupid, Stupid Man) and Robyn Butler, creators and stars  of  the hit ABC TV comedy series The Librarians, currently shooting its second season. Wayne and Robyn discuss their creative partnership and the process behind taking an idea for a TV series from concept to the small screen.

When: Friday 6 March, 12.30 – 2pm
Where: Digital Harbour Theatrette, 1010 Latrobe St, Docklands, Melbourne
RSVP: framed@openchannel.org.au
FREE
As usual, light refreshments will be provided and there’ll be DVDs courtesy of Madman Entertainment to be won!

http://www.openchannel.org.au

THE 2009 FRAMED SEMINAR SERIES IS PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY FILM VICTORIA