Crusaders
We at MUFF have chosen the second volume of Gibbon's behemoth work The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire part 2 as our theme. We apply this theme of decay, decline, lack of inspiration, lack of direction and lack of creativity we see all around us as cinephiles, filmmakers and self-styled critics to the mainstream Australian Film Industry. Why would this be? Is it true that the Australian Film Industry is in decline?
I can sit here and list examples of dull film that fit into the categories "Quirky Australian Comedy" or "A personal journey through...(fill in the blank)" or the "difficult but beautifully shot art film" that have been funded, shot, post-produced, distributed and ignored by practically everybody... critic, filmgoer and general punter alike. But let's not get tied up in negative dialectics; though our theme be one of decline, our message is one of hope. Every decrease, every waning and every fading ebb of the Australian Film Industry... is cause for rejoicing, not despair! The fact that the wheels have finally come off the state of affairs begun with the Film Renaissance of the 1970's is to be greeted with joy not disconsolateness. Their end dear friends is our beginning.
Whom am I addressing when I say "our beginning"? We Crusaders of course. Crusaders are guerrilla filmmakers, independent filmmakers, passionate filmmakers, insane filmmakers, perverse filmmakers and iconoclastic filmmakers. Filmmakers who love their art, can't explain why, don't need to. It is a desire, an obsession, a longing, a mission, a cause. Crusaders are also those who watch, write about and appreciate such films. A band of revolutionaries with no fixed ideology or agendas... except film.
So are you a Crusader? If the answer is Yes... have we got a festival for you! If no well there are other events that cater to your tastes...we are only interested in as Brecht would say "Those who say Yes". Here's a taste. We have the MUFF awards "Best Film", "Best Director" et al. judged by our learned jury lauding the best of the New Oz and International goodies. Among the highlights are opening night's Four Jacks, closing night's Down and Out with the Dolls, Das Zimmer from Germany, Rock n Roll Frankenstein & The Curse from the USA and our Dogme Day Afternoon, showing films inspired by prankster Lars Von Trier's manifesto "Dogme 95". Michael Helms heads our "New Zealand Unbound" feature playing for the first time ever a selection Kiwi treats that will leave your eyeballs reeling in august excitement. Look for Chris Howard and Matt Boyle's "Peter Jackson" retro that fits hand in glove with Herr Helms' NZ focus as we see where the director of Lord of the Rings trilogy started it all back with Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Brain Dead! We've got part deux of our "Retrospective of Australian cult cinema" featuring a Rolf de Heer focus plus the likes of Ladykiller and Ghosts of the Civil Dead. Throw in our selection of multiple shorts in the "Klaus Initiative", Super-8 zone plus the "Greenfilm" collective 'meet & greets' holding wild functions and you have a ten day cinematic insurrection ready to start a revolution.
We did want to bring you "Censorship 2001", a selection of films banned in Australia like Salo, Nekromantik, Cannibal Holocaust and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 amongst others. MUFF has approved organisation status to receive exemption from classification for our films (provided everyone who enters is over eighteen). Alas this dream has been shattered dear film goers. Censorship is VERY REAL.
If we show these films we will be fined and possibly jailed, no bullshit. Personally I'd like to see them really jail a person in the year 2001 for playing films readily available worldwide on video/DVD...but wiser souls at MUFF have convinced me that such a course of action is self-destructive and self-defeating (...but you never know what we will do now do you!). Instead we will hold two special Forums on censorship and invite government representatives, industry heads, film critics and intellectuals and nuts like myself to try and raise public awareness to the absolute non existence of the freedom of creative expression in this country.
Crusaders, are you going to allow THEM to dictate what you can say, hear, do and think? If not be at our "Censorship 2001" forums.
How do we fight the decline that I mentioned in the opening of this wee polemic? Australia is a ticklish country for film. On the left you have the safe 'middle of the road' intellectuals who control the funding institutions and on the right you have the fat capitalists who won't go near your film unless there's a big back end plus gravy. In the middle you're fucked. Getting MUFF to run again this year we had to deal with this left/right paradigm. But the truth is you're not fucked. It can be done as this festival and all the films in it testify. Do it... snatch from the right, grab from the left... achieve an alchemical balance and voila! you have a result of Aristotle's doctrine of 'the Golden Mean'. Balance, Harmony, Das Ying and Das Yang. Be different, de daring, be damn beautiful, you glorious film artists you! No is not a word in your vocabulary. Fight...Be Crusaders!
Speaking of Crusaders I'll conclude with a personal story. I attended to a dull middle class private school during my teenage years. It was a marvellous dystopia of repression, conformity and boredom. But there was a Media class, a beacon of relief to all growing filmmakers. It was run by a Mr.Simon Le Plastrier, a rather cool and interesting soul for such a place... you know one who can really teach. He did groovy things like make us listen to Pink Floyd records lying on the floor with our eyes closed and he showed us films by Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and a special film for me by Lindsay Anderson called if... if... was a mirror of the repression and boredom of life in a public school and a group of Crusaders who rebel and fight against it. It ends in marvellous metaphor with the crusaders battling it out with machine guns and explosives, shooting up the school square and the teachers and prefects on Founders day. To show this film to sixteen year old boys at our school was daring and inspiring. To me it was a bright spotlight of hope that films, creativity, expression and life existed outside of society's norms and structures. It was a battle cry to Fight.
It is in this spirit that we bring you MUFF 2. It is our "if..." to you in the Australian Film wasteland. What you make of it is up to you... Crusaders.
Viva la Causa
Richard Wolstencroft
Message from the Festival Director -
Richard Wolstencroft
Festival Director