Tag: politics
Tree of Life
Tuesday, May 11th, 2021 Sydney Morning Herald Column,One could hardly imagine a more universal subject than the tree. It’s one of the first things children draw, as a familiar lollipop shape. It lies at the centre of almost every major cosmology, from Adam and Eve’s misadventures in the Garden of Eden to Yggdrasil, the tree at the centre of the old Norse […]
De Gaulle
Friday, May 7th, 2021 Film Reviews,Charles De Gaulle was an imposing figure, both physically and morally. Standing at 196 cms, he was a man almost everyone looked up to. As leader-in-exile of the French Resistance, the head of the provisional post-war government, and the nation’s dominant political figure of the 20th century, De Gaulle enjoyed an unshakable power and prestige. […]
Academy Awards 2021
Friday, April 30th, 2021 Film Reviews,It’s a sign of how radically the world is changing that China has remained silent about Chloé Zhao winning Oscars for Best Film and Best Director for Nomadland. One might expect that a movie about a class of poor Americans living in mobile homes would be highly congenial to a regime that wants to portray […]
Cultural death by a 1,000 cuts
Saturday, April 17th, 2021 Blog,Should we be surprised the Berejiklian government is contemplating a sneaky cut to the operating budgets of major cultural institutions? By now we’re accustomed to those familiar patterns of secrecy, lack of transparency, and the reckless disregard for both public and expert opinion. The rule is: “We know best, so suck it up.” For a […]
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Friday, April 9th, 2021 Film Reviews,This year’s Academy Awards is shaping up as an unusually open event. From the eight nominees for Best Picture there are three by female directors, three more made for streaming platforms, with only a limited theatrical release. The directors are French, English, African-American, Korean-American and Chinese-American, with only three fitting the standard white male template. […]
Judas and the Black Messiah
Saturday, March 20th, 2021 Film Reviews,“Fred Hampton” may not be a name that rings any bells, but after watching Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah you wont be forgetting it quickly. This historical drama of the 60s is driven by a memorable performance by Daniel Kaluuya in the role of the youthful Black Panther supremo. King’s theme, needless to […]
Nomadland
Friday, March 5th, 2021 Film Reviews,Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland has been racking up awards and rave reviews since it first appeared in the United States late last year. This week it took out Best Film and Best Director at the Golden Globes. It’s a movie in which almost nothing happens but the images and scenarios remain lodged in one’s mind for […]
Five Artists, Seven days
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021 Sydney Morning Herald Column,It seems like an age ago but in September 2019 I travelled with five artists and a film crew to Mount Zero Taravale in far north Queensland, a property owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). We spent a week in the bush preparing for an exhibition that has just opened at Defiance Gallery, Mary […]
Jewish International Film Festival 2021
Friday, February 26th, 2021 Film Reviews,No-one could ever accuse the Jewish International Film Festival of taking soft options. Most festivals choose to screen something suitably light-hearted on opening night but the 2021 JIFF was launched with Yaron Silberman’s Incitement, a film about the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. Incitement was crammed with political dialogue and small, significant […]
Just Not Australian
Tuesday, December 8th, 2020 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Just Not Australian made its debut at Artspace early last year but will be touring ten regional galleries in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia until October, 2022. I caught the show at the Wollongong Art Gallery where it may be seen over the holiday period. The longevity of the tour suggests this is […]