Festival Dogs:
Debates, Manifestos and the need for Dialogue.
This year at MUFF our theme was/is “The Australian Film Industry in Crisis” and we have written a manifesto, The 1st MUFF Manifesto, which you can read in full online at: http://www.muff.com.au/.
We have declared a State of Emergency in reaction to the Australian film industry crisis and while being a little histrionic occasionally (as manifestos should be) it does include our most constructive and insightful editorial contribution to the film industry to date. It has been praised, examined and lauded by MUFF filmmakers, Film Threat, street and mainstream press, pod casters like “In the Q’s” Michael Smith and Barry Mandingo, online film bloggers like Mathew Clayfield and even John Michael Howson on 3AW!
But as is to be expected some cultural gatekeepers in the film industry are mighty pissed. Adrian Martin so far has been silent so we make no comment here (which we admit has been a blessing, helping us achieve our biggest MUFF audience yet in 2005!). James Hewison MIFF festival director (and before this year generally a good guy) has taken umbrage with MUFF and its manifesto in a strange retrograde and conservative move... that I would consider to be uncharacteristic of him. He won’t discuss the industry crisis with us publicly and goes on the offensive in the “In the Q” podcast (see: http://www.podcast.net/show/52105) accusing MUFF of kicking people when they are down and pointing fingers like schoolboys and circling the industry like a pack of dogs. The last point he has right we are circling the industry hunting the weak deer of the contemporary Australian Film Industry. Dogs? Wolves in dogs clothing is a better description perhaps. Otherwise he is way off. He accuses MUFF of kicking filmmakers when they are down (i.e. recent poor box office figures and poor critical reception of Oz mainstream films, which have been Legion). Well if we want to talk about kicking filmmakers when they are down (or underground for that matter) how about the frequent kicks Hewison (and before him Sandra Sdraulig) at MIFF gives to Australian Indy filmmakers whose work they reject.
Most Australian features we have played like Stygian, Razoreaters, Pearls Before Swine, Narcosys, Lovesick, Four Jacks, Defenceless, Bullet in the Arse, The Money Shot, The Garth Method, Spring Rhapsody and even The Magician (!!) and great flicks like Dreams for Life to name but a few have been rejected and kicked by MIFF.
Could MIFF be more inclusive? You bet your sweet ass it could be! There is the room, James. A little less Zero to Hero, a little less obsession with Middle Eastern and Chinese cinema. I believe more attention should be paid to films back home, especially considering the recent state of afairs in the local film industry. You say we kick filmmakers, but at MIFF Mr. Hewison you are a cultural gatekeeper, whether you like it or not, wake up to it! You hold the keys brother, open the gates and let the talent in! MIFF has collectively kicked the pants of every filmmaker who made these films listed above. Do you know what that ‘boot’ and insult truly feels like? The films listed above, they all deserved to get into MIFF, but no, kicked like dogs they and we have been. ‘Til we become wolves of course. And Hewsion has the audacity to call us knockers and defend struggling filmmakers?! What?! We had a wee go at Kate Shortland’s over hyped Somersualt and a couple of renowned big budget flops recently. Boo hoo While Hewison takes all expense paid ‘essential’ trips to Vladivostok and Iran, Australian filmmakers either have to be recognised by the AFC, Film Vic (or other state bodies) or the FFC to get into MIFF, otherwise they have to take their chances at MUFF... that unfortunately has not always the budget to promote them as well as we would like (thanks AFC and FilmVic) and said screening does not always guarantee a flick a big distribution future post MUFF if it goes under the radar... (see Bill Mousoulis’s astute article “Dreams for Australian Cinema” for another perspective online at: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/)
Don’t be fooled. A generation of filmmakers is being betrayed as we asserted in 2004 and fought back through fighting words and action in our Manifesto and program in 2005.
James Hewison, says we must ask tough questions but he won’t even answer our challenge for an industry crisis debate!! Have you read his directors statement in ‘05? I quote, “I believe these filmmakers (MIFF’s Australian Showcase which is admittedly better this year) prove Australian cinema is far from moribund, as some would have us believe. This is an argument I’m prepared to have with anyone” . Well anyone but MUFF Festival Director Richard Wolstencroft, that is.
Well, we may resemble cultural terrorists to some film industry mainstream but we think debate and constructive discussion is needed in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, at MIFF, at SPAA, at SIFF, in IF magazine and at many other industry events. Raw, uncut, to the point, aggressive discussions and arguments are needed now. So since James it appears won’t debate MUFF, who will?
We make here, in this very document, an open challenge to anyone from the film industry establishment ( ...well not those who clandestinely helped us write the Manifesto or who have supported it since its publication, we want the adversarial or those with a different perspective debaters i.e. those who think we suck or have a different view) to debate us?! Festival Director Richard Wolstencroft is as you may have gathered rearing and ready to go. Stop this conspiracy of silence in some circles to deny the industry crisis and take a lesson from what they need to do in the Middle East from all those flicks MIFF loves to show us. Lets get together and talk. Mr. Wolstencroft may not be the big bad Wolf at all but just a kicked dog like many in the industry who won’t take the status quo anymore.
We await your calls, your voices and after all the rhetoric and culture wars eventually your friendship. Our words may seem harsh at times, but to quote James Hewison, “Tough questions need to be asked” and we are here to ask them. We are no one’s enemy in this industry, and if you read a little more incisively between the growls and moans of a kicked dog you will find a cinematic soul not unlike your own.
So onwards. Is there anyone out there in the film industry prepared to challenge the 1st MUFF manifesto on radio, in print or in a forum? Hewison you could show some of the balls you show in your programming of, for example, extreme Asian Cinema and step up my brother? How about it?
We will keep you all posted with news of our struggle to get the Manifesto heard and debated online at: http://www.muff.com.au/
Best Regards to all filmmakers who have been kicked once too often! To the rest in the film industry I offer the words, ”Smell yourselves”.
Richard Wolstencroft
MUFF Festival Director