U.K. sales and distribution outfit Blue Finch Films has boarded worldwide rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand, to thriller “Birdeater.”
The debut feature from filmmaking duo Jack Clark and Jim Weir follows a bride-to-be who is invited to join her own fiancé’s bachelor party on a remote property in the Australian outback. But as the festivities spiral into beer-soaked chaos, uncomfortable details about their relationship are exposed, and the celebration soon becomes a feral nightmare.
Blue Finch describes the film as “an unapologetic look at how Australia’s iconic masculine identity has become incompatible with contemporary gender politics.” The film stars Shabana Azeez (“Run Rabbit Run”) and Mackenzie Fearnley (“Operation Buffalo”) as the soon-to-be-wedded couple. Written by Clark, the film is produced by Stephanie Troost and Ulysses Oliver of Breathless Films. The Australian and New Zealand rights are with Umbrella Entertainment.
The film screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival, where it won the audience award for Australian narrative feature. It will have its international premiere at SXSW in the Visions strand.
The directors met while studying at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and founded independent production company Fax Machine after graduating. Clark and Weir are previous nominees of BBFF’s Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Award for their shorts “Threshold” and “Julia” respectively.
Clark and Weir said: “We’re still pinching ourselves. South By has been our holy grail festival for so many years and to actually have a film screening there is surreal. ‘Birdeater’ was designed to be experienced in a packed cinema and we can’t wait to see how SXSW audiences react to it.”
Mike Chapman of Blue Finch Films added: “’Birdeater’ is one of the most visually arresting and daring debut features we have seen in recent years. Blue Finch focuses on championing talent and we can’t be more excited to be bringing this gem to a wider audience.”
Ari Harrison of Umbrella Entertainment said: “‘Birdeater’ is an impressive feature debut that matches the capabilities, tension and energy of its Australian New Wave predecessors such as ‘Wake In Fright’ and ‘Walkabout.’ After a very successful festival release Down Under we are thrilled for its international premiere to be showcased at SXSW Austin in superb company.”
Jack Clark and Jim Weir’s Birdeater and Matthew Bate’s The Defenders have proven popular at this year’s Sydney Film Festival (SFF), taking out the audience awards for Best Australian Narrative Feature and Best Australian Documentary, respectively.
Of the overseas titles, Anatomy of a Fall by French director Justine Triet was named Best International Feature, while Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia won Best International Documentary.
Tallied from more than 18,000 votes, this year’s event marked the first time both local and international winners were announced.
Indie drama Birdeater follows a soon-to-be-married couple that invites their closest friends to an isolated country property for a night of pre-wedding shenanigans, only for the evening to take a dark turn when alarming details of their relationship are exposed. Produced by Ulysses Oliver and Stephanie Troost, it was one of three titles from Breathless Films in the festival line-up alongside Amin Palangi’s Tennessine and Oliver’s Love Road.
Breathless co-founder and executive producer Ben Ferris told IF it was thrilling to have the “truly independent” film regarded so highly.
“This is a win not only for us at Breathless and the Birdeater team but for the whole independent sector and what we might be able to achieve in the absence of more traditional funding models,” he said.
“We are so very grateful to Nashen, Jenny, and the SFF team for believing in the film.”
In The Defenders, Bate tells the story of how former Australian football captain Craig Foster and a ragtag team of social media warriors challenged two monarchies, a military junta and the sporting body FIFA, to free footballer Hakeem al-Araibi from prison. The documentary will be released on Prime Video this Friday.
There was a similar tone in the corresponding international winners, with Sandra Hüller starring as an author accused of her husband’s murder in tense drama Anatomy of a Fall, while Beyond Utopia tracks a family’s dramatic journey from North Korea to freedom.
SFF Director Nashen Moodley paid tribute to the festival’s audience for their choices.
“Birdeater was a fantastic indie production by the team at Breathless Films who had three films premiere at the festival,” he said.
“A homegrown psychological thriller that painted a darkly comic portrait of young Aussie men, Birdeater was a real hit with audiences.
“The Defenders is a headline-grabbing story of former Socceroos Captain Craig Foster as he fights to rescue the life of fellow player Hakeem al-Araibi. This documentary took us behind the media headlines, diving deep into the fight to bring Hakeem home to Australia.
“Anatomy of a Fall is a searingly intelligent film that lingers on the mind long after the closing credits roll so it’s no surprise festival audiences awarded it Best International Narrative Feature. And director Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia is a gripping documentary that follows North Korean defectors as they make a hazardous journey into China; a totally unforgettable film worthy of the prize.”
SFF has added additional screenings of Anatomy of a Fall and Beyond Utopia as a part of its Back by Popular Demand.
The GIO Audience Award winners are as follows:
Australian Feature: • Winner: Birdeater • Runner Up: The Big Dog Australian Documentary: • Winner: The Defenders • Runner Up: The Last Daughter International Feature: • Winner: Anatomy of a Fall • Runner Up: Perfect Days International Documentary: • Winner: Beyond Utopia • Runner Up: Little Richard: I Am Everything
Love Road is Ulysses Oliver’s directorial debut. It’s also one of five films that have screened at the Sydney Film Festival in 2022 and 2023 that hail from production company Breathless Films. In 2022, Breathless Films screened Lonesome and The Longest Weekend at the festival, with Tennessine, Biredeater, and Love Road screening at the 2023 run.
Love Road is a non-linear relationship drama that follows Jaz (Shalane Connors) as her relationship with Daniel (Ishak Issa) splits. As that fracture takes place, so does our engagement with their story, with the narrative jumping between timelines to give viewers the sense of how the past informs the present. While Jaz evades Daniel’s presence, she also deals with a more heartbreaking issue: the loss of her mother (Aileen Beale).
In the below interview, recorded ahead of the opening of the festival, Ulysses talks about the inspiration behind Love Road before going in depth into the vision and community focus that comes from Breathless Films.
Love Roadscreens at the Sydney Film Festival on June 8 and 9; Birdeaterscreens on June 11, 14, and 18; and Tennessinescreens on June 13 and 16.
Where did the concept for Love Road come from?
Ulysses Oliver: I’m a producer, as well as a director and a writer, and I came at it from the angle of, “Okay, I happened to have a window of opportunity in my life, what is achievable [in that time] and maybe I can dedicate a small amount of funds to what’s achievable within that kind of scope.”
Married with that was that I was going through similar issues to Jaz in terms of [losing] a parent. My father had passed away and then my mother was sick as well, so it was pretty rough stuff to process. Then I had these little segments or bits of relationships that were going around in my head, some of which I’ve written down. I ended up [with] a series of twelve essays on different themes of a cycle of love that I’ve been working with over a number of years.
I’m a big fan of Wim Wenders, King of the Road, that kind of approach to filmmaking where you take a location and kind of transpose your idea and your story on top of it. It was motivated from doing the road trip that these two characters go on and finding locations along the way, and then retrofitting these ideas about love and loss and the cycle of a relationship on top of that. The nonlinear structured relationship felt like a good marriage for something a bit like Guy Pearce’s character in Memento, where you go backwards in [the] edit to get into the mindset of a character. In this case, we’re nonlinear jumping between the three different time periods to capture that space of how we process memories. Particularly when we’re trying to figure stuff in our scattered mindset. Some of the beginnings of writing the story was in that mindset as well and processing some things that, for better or for worse, have happened in relationships.
As you’re talking about that scattered mindset, I’m reminded of the feeling when you’re in a place, and something contextual sparks a memory of something that feels similar to that location. There’s a cut where Jaz is in her car, we see her sitting there, and then we cut and see in the passenger seat her mother’s urn. You can be walking and experiencing your day, and then suddenly, a memory of something hits you in a very unexpected way. I felt that that was the case for these characters where this relationship is echoed through time, and that echo hits them in unexpected ways. That’s the way we experience day to day life where the relationships that we may have had with people, whether it be fleeting or long and powerful, they carry through our lives in fascinating ways. That’s what I felt from the characters, and that’s where we experience via the road trip.
UO: Ithink you’re right. By leaving out all the bits in the relationship that happened between these three timelines on this road trip, I [was] trying to capture the idea that sometimes it’s only when you revisit these places, or when you’re stuck in a car together, and you’re forced to have these moments of reflection or moments of togetherness, [they] always tend to [become] a cathartic, make or break relationship moment. It’s fun to also play with the audience a little bit [about whether you] can fill in the gaps and use your imagination in terms of piecing it together. What’s happened between those moments is interesting as well in your imagination.
There’s a few spots like that [throughout the film]; her with the urn, her driving and then she looks at a cafe and then we go back in time, and when she gets to the house, we cut back and look at that. It was very much written as I was going down the road trip, “Okay, what’s happening? What can be motivated at each of these places? What happens at the same place, but at different times?
With that in mind, how did you shoot it? A linear perspective would kind of make sense but in the same hand, you’re on that location, so you’ve got to monopolise your time there.
UO: It was written in a nonlinear fashion. As much as it jumps around in timelines, there’s a three-act structure and a trajectory along the road. We did retrofit the schedule. We did the middle timeline first, because we needed Ishak to grow a beard. Then we did the young love second, and the final timeline third just so there was a bit of an emotional arc for the actors. It was all done over two weeks with four-day chunks, we did four [days], then four and then four. We weren’t driving in a linear direction the whole time. We looped back and forth, over multiple takes and multiple days. It was kind of doing that road trip four times. And then we got into the edit room and jumbled it all up again in a different order than what we had originally envisaged.
Did that surprise you in the edit?
UO: Oh definitely. I think that’s always the case. In a nonlinear film, you do have an infinite number of possibilities in terms of how to piece it together, for better or for worse. This film was shot three years ago, so that’s how long it took me to work out the puzzle pieces to put it back together. When we did an initial rough-cut, editing to the script, it came in as a two-and-a-half-hour film. Cutting it down to [the] 86-minute runtime was a challenge. Being out on the road, everything was done in two takes. Some were better than others, so there were all those challenges in the edit that you have to work around. At some point you have to go ‘it is what it is,’ and put it out into the world.
I know as a writer that there are things that I write that other people won’t see. And as a filmmaker, there are things that you will film that audiences won’t see at all. But it’s that understanding of knowing when it’s time to relinquish control and letting it out into the wild. Having a film festival like Sydney Film Festival is a great deadline creator, a push to say, “I have to have it complete by this stage.”
With that in mind, we’ll shift to talking about the Sydney Film Festival and your relationship with the festival. Last year you screen Lonesome and The Longest Weekend, and this year you have Tennessine, Love Road, and Birdeater. Filmmakers would be excited to get one film into Sydney Film Festival, but in your capacity as a producer and as a director, you’ve had five films in two years. How do you feel about that?
UO: We’re very proud. We submit the films like anybody else. Obviously, it says a bit about what we’ve managed to achieve. It’s not just Breathless, ever film has its own village of people that have come together to make it work. The director of each film brings their own posse to work with us, and none of the films would have made if that wasn’t the case. We’re partnering up, if you like, with these different vehicles. I think maybe that’s a strength of ours in that we don’t claim full control over any of these films, we’re more here to facilitate getting those films made.
The flip side though, is that it’s very hard to get a feature film made. You don’t make that many. There’s obviously a place for the Screen Australia way of making films, but we’ve kind of been programmed in Australia to think that that’s the only way to make a film. And I suspect, more and more people are going to catch up to our way of thinking. We’ve seen that we you can make it in other ways. Maybe we’re a little bit of a forerunner of hopefully creating more of a truly independent, ‘French New Wave-style’ of how to make films.
On the Breathless Films website, it says, “We believe the best art comes from limitation and necessity.” Those are strong words that say a lot about the kinds of films that you’re creating. Films like Lonesome and The Longest Weekend, these aren’t traditional films that the funding agencies would usually support. These are queer stories, and for want of a better term, they’re still considered fringe cinema. Yet, there is an appetite for these stories. Can you talk about presenting these stories to audiences and how that feeds into that limitation and necessity mindset that is behind breathless films?
UO: I think you said yourself, they are the type of films that a funding body would not necessarily take a risk on. They’re not the kind of films that have a guaranteed return at the box office. We end up leaning on stories that are going to work. You’re not competing against those bigger vehicles; you need to make stories where it doesn’t matter that you don’t have [an A-list name]. We’ve got certain [actors] that show up in some of our films that have a bit of kudos to them, and that certainly helps, but it’s not necessarily reliant on that. We are going through more stories that wouldn’t otherwise be told, but also stories that it doesn’t matter that you don’t have a $5, $10, $20 million budget [for]. It’s about the internal characterisation, maybe in a subtle way, looking at a political view, or it’s LGBT stories with Lonesome, or gritty realism and telling authentic stories or characters that don’t fit into the kind of stereotypical form that we like to put things in in Australia.
I think the great struggle is that we do need to financially justify [when] we’re making these films. It’s less of a hole to dig, but we’re digging it. We are the ones that are burning a hole in the back pocket. We need to believe that there is a market out there. Internationally, as much as there is probably less money going around [for] theatrical [releases] for independent cinema, there is a huge market now with streamers for indie films. It’s not huge financially, but there’s a lot of sales agents and distributors out there that that will give you a small amount of money that is enough to hopefully keep the cycle of films going. [We’re] working on what we put in, rather than what we can get out and rather than thinking of it as, “How do we justify this to Screen Australia to give us a million dollars?”
That’s the thing, isn’t it? Each time, you go to ask for funding, you have to justify your existence. We exist. We tell great stories. Therefore, surely, it’s self-evident. But that is the difficulty of funding models and having to write proposals. As much as you are creative people, you’ve also got to have that business mindset, which can be so difficult. I take my hat off to filmmakers like yourself who have to balance so many different things just to get films made.
Within Breathless Films, there is an emerging community of creatives. You use the same talent across films. With Love Road, you’ve got Shalane Connors, who is also in Tennessine. You’re using directors, writers, producers, like yourself, across different projects. What does it mean to be able to build up that kind of community within Breathless Films?
UO: Aileen Beale, who is in Love Road, played the voice of the mother in Lonesome. At one point, we were toying with the idea of having these little subtle links between all the films, in a Sliding Doors kind of a way. Certainly, across the crew, there’s a real community building on that side of things. You do you keep going back to the same crew in a lot of cases. I’m fortunate enough that my son, Julian Oliver, who’s in his mid-20s now, he did a music engineering degree, so he’s worked across all five films, doing both sound recording and sound design, and some music as well on Love Road and Birdeater.
The camera crews, production design, the art department and makeup are all shared across [most] films. I guess we consider these first five films to be our first slate, we’re now we’re now working on a second slate of films where we’re looking at working with a bunch of the same creative writers and directors. So look out for that.
Alongside building that community, there is also a real strong sense of coming out of the gates with a creative confidence. “These are the stories that we want to tell. We’re not afraid to tell them in our way that. We’re going to push how we want our narratives to go forward and how we want to see those kinds of stories being told.” I really appreciate it that about Breathless Films in the sense that it doesn’t pander to the expectations of what people might expect. You must be proud.
UO: I am proud, although, that occurs to me that maybe that’s a symptom of a relatively short turnaround of from seeding an idea to final product. The flipside of that is sometimes I wish there was more work done in development, and that we had more time to shoot, and we had more time to work in the post production, or that we had a bit more resources or whatever it might be, but then would the films get made if we were more precious about these things? Probably not.
What’s the expression? Opportunity meeting good luck or limitations breed creativity? I think it has been that, and I think that that’s what comes through as a result. I don’t know about you, but my creative passion only goes so far to where I can really deep dive into something. I feel like [there’s] a two-year window where that’s sustainable, but we’re asking filmmakers to have that over five to ten years with more conventional pathways. You then spend five years going through revision after the revision and trying to pain yourself to make everybody happy. I think you end up with a different type of film.
You can spend so long polishing a rock before it becomes just a grain of sand. It becomes so different from what it was to begin with. Sometimes that’s really good, and then other times, that really impacts the creative drive. As you’re saying, you have a certain period of time where that creative spark is sitting there, and you’ve got to really monopolise on it otherwise you could become bored.
UO: And in this short timespan, disposable modern world we live in, I think that’s more and more the case.
I’m curious if, after our global COVID experience, that reminder of the fragility of life and how fleeting life can be if that has played into how you create things?
UO: I think it definitely did. Now with the second slate it’s easier because we’ve got all these runs on the board, so people believe when we say we’re going to do something that we can do it. All four of those other films were shot in that gap between the different lockdowns. People [were] itching to get out there and create something. They were willing to take risks. That was quite fortuitous. Hopefully that then shows now off the back end of COVID, [we can] still we continue to have that bit of energy.
I can see workplaces and offices are now starting to force people to go back into the office full time, so we are going a bit more back to the old way of doing things. Although hopefully that will change in terms of thinking more outside of the box. At the same time, at Breathless, we don’t want to lose that very pragmatic, independent ‘limitation breeds creativity’ side of things, but we also want to find ways to evolve and be bigger.
At the moment, we’re actually trying to find the right balance of not wanting to lose that while also upscaling to a degree. Lonesome did okay, and had a theatrical release, but it’s not a Blair Witch Project [level of success.] We’re not putting in X and getting that times 100. That’d be amazing to actually make this whole thing truly work. Right now, it’s still a lot of doing a lot for very little but, we’re still up for the challenge.
With that in mind, how do you decide on what kind of projects that will get off the ground? Do you do market research? Do you say, “Thrillers are really popular right now, will they still be popular in two years’ time when we get it off the ground?”
UO: I think the first slate was more our taste and what was pragmatically feasible. While the second slate has been a lot more research [based]. We brought in Paul Struthers as part of our team who has a background in marketing and the film festival circuit and so we’ve learned a lot from him leading that charge. We’re spending a lot more time trying to go to markets, either by proxy or directly. We had the producer of Birdeater, Stephanie Troost, at Cannes recently making lots of meetings.
We probably will look at doing a horror film and leaning in a little bit more on genre or leaning in a little bit more on films that have a topical flavour that would make it more sellable in the market. If you compare Lonesome to Love Road, I’m very proud of it, but is there a really big marketplace for a nonlinear heterosexual relationship drama? We’ll see.
We’re looking at working with some bigger name directors and cast. Those kinds of things do help. It’s almost a shame but we probably won’t be making five films in two years [again.] It’s tough. I think maybe a film every six months is still pretty good going.
A discomforting film that feels like a lump in your throat, Birdeater is relentless in its ability to disarm and disturb.
Written and directed by Jack Clark and Jim Weir, it is a well-crafted thriller that ups the pressure in what should be a relaxing and celebratory weekend, turning it on its head.
To put the plot simply: a soon-to-be bride joins her husband on his bachelor party retreat in the Australian outback. However, Birdeater is anything but simple. While there, Irene (Shabana Azeez) lets some truths about her relationship with Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley) out. It speaks to some dark and toxic issues that spark a conversation throughout the group that culminates with devastating results. While Louie is never shown as violent there’s a sinister sense to him, and the palpable tension within the group is captured with sharp intent that’ll make you squirm. He’s the embodiment of toxic masculinity and there’s a terrifying unveiling of their unhealthy relationship that plays out in the most awkward of social settings.
source: SXSW Film Festival
The film is most definitely a horror, but it’s the internal kind that simmers rather than burns. The ease in which coercion and abuse exist within the relationship (which seems sweet at the onset) is chilling. Its style and techniques are confident and it raises thought-provoking questions. As the weekend unfolds into measurable chaos, some effectiveness loses steam. This is undoubtedly a slow burn, but the degree of its unraveling will test some audience’s attention. The isolation further adds to the inability to escape, a perceptible sort of anxiety.
It’s a bold idea for a movie and it mostly works, creating tension and unease with easy strokes. It examines some challenging topics while still being able to subvert audience expectations. A skill that speaks to a seasoned directing team, but as a debut feature Birdeater tests and tortures, and doesn’t waver. There’s admiration for its intent and the performances, especially that of Shabana Azeez, that show significant skill. It winds you around its nimble finger, ensuring you see it through to its shocking end.
Birdeater utilizes the veneer of a gentle evil, its strength balanced by a compelling narrative and a keen sense of how to deliver spine-tingling trepidation.
Although set in the wilderness of rural Australia, Jack Clark and Jim Weir’s Birdeaterhas nothing to do with the deadly species of arachnid. It does however, feature a Buck’s party gone wrong, when the bride-to-be tags along.
Birdeater opens with a man, Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley), staring intensely down the camera lens. His unflinching gaze is immediately uncomfortable for the viewer. The camera then pulls back to reveal the actual target of Louie’s intense gaze – Irene (Shabana Azeez). Although she is seen smiling back, and the following section of the Birdeater is a montage of their relationship, it’s an early red flag as to where the story will venture.
By the end of the opening montage, Irene and Louie are engaged. Their connection is frighteningly close, to the point that Irene is medicated for the separation anxiety she feels when apart from Louie. It is her condition that prompts Louie to invite Irene along for his Buck’s do, which is the beginning of the downfall of their romance. Despite being engaged, Irene knows little about Louie’s friends, and there is an immediate friction when they all arrive at the accommodation. The addition of one of Irene’s male friends, invited to help her feel more at home, only increases ill-feelings further.
Even Louie himself seems at odds with his friends. Several of them are rowdy and outspoken, which is in stark contrast to Louie’s quieter, more serious demeanour. As the weekend begins to play out, everyone politely tiptoes around each other, that is until an explosive revelation and unexpected plan are revealed over dinner. These two events break the levee and suddenly everyone is overflowing with thoughts and emotions, leading to a wild and reckless third act.
Birdeater is an exceptional pot boiler of a film. It starts quietly, slowly simmering away, until boom, everything bubbles over. Clark and Weir demonstrate great skill at creating tension out of nothing. That even in the most innocent of exchanges, dread permeates the air, is testament to Clark and Weir’s talents. Their slow and steady work building up subtle tension is complimented perfectly by the group’s later descent into Hell. What was formerly a calm framework, distorts into a cacophony of noise and frantic edits and further ill-ease.
At the heart of the tension and chaos are Louie and Irene. Their story is a fascinating one. Birdeater delves into coercive control at the darkest of levels. It is how innocently the first revelation about their dynamic is revealed that impacts the viewer the hardest. It rings true of those that find themselves in these scenarios and places the audience into the position of friend, leaving them, like those around the couple, to figure out whether and how they should intervene. The reveal is immediately followed up with is the perfect move to ensure an explosive response for everyone demonstrating just how toxic some relationships can be. Through Irene and Louie, and the differing versions of them seen throughout the narrative, Birdeater perfectly exemplifies that you never truly know those around you.
Australian genre cinema has, over the years, developed a reputation for its brutality. Films from the country are often bleakly violent, but Birdeater excels by taking a softer and more disturbing approach. That this is not a wild man hacking his way through tourists, or a teen torturing the object of their affection, is a nice change-up. Birdeater of course isn’t the first Australian film to skirt the gore, but its focus on relationships is different to a mother in crisis or a grieving teenager. The deviation to expectations is appreciated and allows Birdeater to stand proud as a new entry into the country’s cinematic lore.
Further proof Australia may be doing the best genre cinema in the world.
Australia has long been home to great genre movies and in recent years has made a strong claim for having some of the best output in cinema. Birdeater is an anxious and wild Australia import playing at South by Southwest. Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley, The Artful Dodger) invites his fiancé Irene (Shabana Azeez, Run Rabbit Run) to his bachelor party. Over the course of an evening that involves lots of drinking and other activities, dark secrets are revealed.
The cold open hints at what the type of relationship Louie and Irene are in. Built on routine and possibly convenience, there is obviously something off about the whole thing. There are moments of physical affection, but it seems to be lacking in love. Louie is cold, distant, and seems controlling. For her part, Irene is meek and does not seem to mind their odd arrangement.
Once Birdeater crosses over to the isolated house where the group will be holding their party, things become a little clearer. The revelations become increasingly darker and shocking while themes of toxic masculinity, dependence, and trust are all explored. With each passing second things become more uncomfortable.
Directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir (who also wrote the film) keep the audience on the edge of their seats in a number of ways. Even before secrets are shared, the situation is a tense one. Louie has a grand plan for the gathering and there is an air of mystery the entire time. Louie’s plan can be generously described as romantic, though overbearing and aggressive would probably be more accurate. But even taking his scheme out of the equation, there is an overall sinister atmosphere to everything.
Birdeater gets across this feeling by focusing on its characters, primarily the males. Once they are away from civilization, they each take on almost primal characteristics. This is seen most in Dylan (Ben Hunter) who is loud, abrasive, and constantly angry. Though the others try at times to distance themselves from his influence, they always seem to get sucked back in.
There is little development given to the females, but this ends up adding to the story being told. Much like the men, Birdeater is intentionally ignoring Irene and Grace (Clementine Anderson). The difference is the boys in the film are manipulative. The film picks what moments to highlight the women and in doing so makes them stronger. It is a neat bit of storytelling.
Birdeater is visually impressive, with great use of color and framing. Quick cuts and loud music disorients and succeeds in pulling those watching into the movie’s chaotic world. An argument can be made that there is too much chaos going on. That being said, its powerful tale is a disconcerting one that is simultaneously engaging and unattractive.
Jack Clark and Jim Weir’s debut feature took out the Audience Award, following its world premiere at this year’s Sydney Film Festival, and also wowed them at SXSW, and now arrives on the Gold Coast
By: Abhi Parasher
Birdeater follows a bride-to-be, Irene (Shabana Azeez), who is invited to her fiancé, Louis’s (Mackenzie Fearnley) bachelor party, but when uncomfortable details of their relationship are exposed, the night takes a feral turn.
“We met at AFTRS, and we were throwing around ideas to make a feature after we left,” explains Jack. “I brought this idea to Jim one day about a couple with separation anxiety, which was exciting because it felt contained.”
Birdeater deals with differing perspectives on youth culture through the lens of an ensemble of eccentric personalities. With delicate topics such as emotional abuse at the forefront, it was of utmost importance to the filmmakers to approach the film with sensitivity.
“We knew that we needed the audience to enjoy the company of these characters first and then invert that in the second half,” the pair explain. “Ultimately, we had to trust the audience to understand the intent behind what we were doing.”
Despite a unique story and style, like many filmmakers, Jack and Jim still had to face the constraints of a low budget and time restrictions.
“You probably can’t tell when you’re watching the movie, but we made a lot of concessions every day,” says Jim. “The thing that made it though is that we really relied on our strengths. We knew we had a great Director of Photography [Roger Stonehouse], a great location and an extremely talented ensemble of actors.”
With their first feature in the can, the burgeoning filmmakers are looking ahead to their next venture.
“We run a production company together, so we’ll be working together for a long time” says Jim. “We might not be co-directing every feature, but we’ll definitely be working together.”
Birdeater is currently on the film festival circuit.
“We’re eager to go around Australia quite a bit and talk to local audiences” says Jack. “I think it will be received differently with international audiences compared to local ones.”
(FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount they believe a ticket to the movie to be worth)
Molly Haddon’s The Longest Weekend can best be described as a Trojan Horse film. The work pulls you in with the promise of one kind of experience but leaves you with something quite different. What it does deliver is an excellent family drama and coming-of-age story for a set of alienated siblings who learn through each other and their pasts when the right time is to just say “enough” to the various factors playing havoc on their lives.
The film opens with Lou Palmer (Mia Artemis – absolutely astonishing in the role) drinking herself into oblivion at a local Sydney club. She’s supported by her best friend and some time hook-up, Sasha (Alex King) who gently suggests that Lou might want to calm down a little. Calming down is not on Lou’s radar. She’s just lost her job as a stylist due to being unreliable and often drunk at work, and she’s been kicked out of her house by someone she was presumably sleeping with.
Her mother, Sadie (Tammy Macintosh) is trying to get hold of Lou and her siblings to invite them to a family dinner after she returns from a long weekend away. Rio (Adam Golledge) doesn’t bother to pick up her call. Avery (Elly Hiraani Clapin) answers but is curt and dismissive. Sadie is at her wit’s end with her adult children who range from uninterested to outright hostile towards her.
As fate would have it, Lou losing her job means that she has to move back into her mother’s house. Rio, who never left and seems to have zero motivation to do anything with his life resents her presence in what he calls “his house.” Soon after, Avery arrives at the door and the siblings are reunited, but not in a happy family way.
What we expect to be a piece about bickering siblings who haven’t got their lives sorted out morphs into a much deeper and more poignant drama. Rio has been secretly in contact with their father, Mark (John Batchelor) and is hoping to meet him that weekend.
Lou is the sibling who is wearing her scars on the outside the most. She rejects a plea of true love from Sasha and is borderline abusive with Avery and Rio. Lou is the obvious “mess” and to a large extent the focal point of Jorrden Daley and Molly Haddon’s screenplay. She’s a gay woman who refuses to settle in one spot and uses sex, drugs, and alcohol to numb her trauma. Avery is having her own issues – her husband Daniel is a serial cheat and she’s come to her mother’s house to try to sort out what she’s going to do.
As the film progresses, Haddon allows us to understand each character. Rio is still quite young and hasn’t settled on anything. Sadie clearly indulges his lack of ambition which rankles both Lou and Avery. Lou, of course, doesn’t have a leg to stand on when judging others.
One long weekend changes the Palmer family dynamic forever, and in the process, it also changes its individual members. The siblings share their secrets and their fears and find that they still need to protect each other.
Haddon has directed a wonderful and meaningful family drama that embraces the nature of truth telling and addresses the long-term effects of violence. One may have expected a story about Lou going further down the spiral, but instead the audience is given a narrative that is filled with awareness and kindness. The Longest Weekend is a heartfelt plea for patience and forgiveness – not for the ones that have hurt someone – but for the child inside that was once hurt.
Breathless Films’ first slate films “Lonesome”, “The Longest Weekend”, “Tennessine”, “Love Road” and “Birdeater”
Bolstered by the early success of its first slate of micro budget films, 2022 AACTA-nominated, grassroots production company Breathless Films (Lonesome, The Longest Weekend) is seeking to build a diverse second slate of films that will appeal to both local and international audiences.
Breathless is therefore today announcing a general call out to writers and directors of all levels of experience who are not afraid of rapid production timeframes or working within very tight budgets.
Breathless is once again looking for distinct, strident and authentic voices, and is open to developing projects with both emerging and established film writers and directors.
Film writers and directors are invited to reach out over the month of January via their website www.breathlessfilms.com.au. Breathless producers Ulysses and Ben are now reading synopses, treatments, one-pagers, screenplays, and whatever else filmmakers can throw their way!
Launching on Thursday 10 November, the 2022 Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF) features a twelve-day jam packed program stronger than ever. Expect a prime selection of local and international drama, comedy, documentary, and everything in between; from boundary-pushing filmmakers across the globe.
“We’re excited to be back in full swing to share an international survey of queer narratives to audiences. This jam-packed program invites the community to come together to laugh, to be moved, to connect, and to celebrate queer lives and stories,” said David Harris, MQFF CEO.
Running 10 – 21 November, the 32nd MQFF features a Spotlight on Brazil, 49 feature films and documentaries, 12 short film packages, 35 Australian premieres and four Melbourne premieres.
This year, MQFF is thrilled to welcome new collaborative partner, the Victorian Pride Centre to host eight open-air rooftop screenings. Some program highlights taking place at the rooftop cinema include:
The Australian premiere of Blitzed! (2021) directed by Bruce Ashley and Michael Donald (UK) – tracing the evolution of the eponymous London nightclub through the eyes of club regulars Boy George, Princess Julia, Spandau Ballet and more.
Cult classic, But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) directed by Jamie Babbit (USA), is back with a director’s cut. This is a seminal 90s satire that cannot be missed.
The rooftop will also host the Closing Night film Uýra: The Rising Forest (2022) directed by Juliana Curi (Brazil), a superbly lush, ephemeral film that utilises rich colour contrasts and deep, evocative shots to evoke Uýra’s style as both artist and activist – a masterwork of documentary that must be seen the world over.
This year’s MQFF will screen 35 Australian premieres, some highlights include: Black As U R (2020), directed by Michael Rice (USA). This highly incendiary documentary points a lens at Black America, asking: ‘Why do we protest racial injustice, but disregard the injustices experienced by black queer people?’
The inaugural recipient of Frameline Festival’s Out in the Silence Award, Black As U R is a must- see film dedicated to LBGTQ+ visibility in spaces so politically charged that queer representation has been disregarded.
Also premiering in Australia is Chrissy Judy (2022), directed by Todd Flaherty (USA). This devilishly dark comedy follows a New York drag queen on a quest to reinvent himself.
My Emptiness and I (2022), directed by Adrián Silvestre (Spain), is also an Australian premiere and follows Raphi’s journey with gender transition and her changing place in the world.
Set in Barcelona and made with sensitivity and compassion, the film is a beautiful narrative selected for the Big Screen Competition 2022 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
A fantastically fun film for all ages, MQFF’s Rainbow Families Screening: Mini-Zlatan and Uncle Darling (2022), directed by Christian Low (Sweden, Norway, Netherlands).
This Australian premiere follows Ella, who is excited about summer with her favourite uncle, Tommy, but things get complicated when Tommy’s new boyfriend Steve enters the picture.
Ella takes matters into her own hands, orchestrating a Parent Trap-style summer of disaster in the hope of to getting rid of Steve. Based on the children’s book by Swedish author Pija Lindenbaum.
MQFF features four Melbourne premieres, starting with the red-carpet Opening Night screening of Private Desert (2021), showing at ACMI and followed by the official MQFF Opening Night Party.
Directed by Aly Muritiba (Brazil, Portugal) – A tale in two parts of lovers who’ve not met, separated by miles of desert, in a journey of transcendence, of knowing one’s true desire.
Private Desert was the winner of the BNL People’s Choice Award 2021 and was the Brazilian Entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
The Festival’s Australian Feature of the Year is also a Melbourne Premiere – The Longest Weekend (2022), directed by Molly Haddon (Australia).
Set in Sydney’s Inner West, this soon-to-be indie classic depicts how the lives of three disconnected siblings are turned upside-down when they find themselves forced to live under the same roof.
The program also features 12 shorts packages, highlights include: Laugh Out Proud! – showcasing the greatest hits of queer comedy, featuring seven side-splitting shorts taking audiences on a riotous and raunchy trip to the funny side of queer life.
Freak Out! is back for its signature weird, queer and out-there showcase of features and shorts expanding and redefying what queer horror and genre cinema is, including the Australian Premiere of feature film Hypochondriac.
“VicScreen is proud to have supported MQFF since its inception, celebrating inclusivity, diversity and the best of queer cinema,” said Caroline Pitcher, VicScreen CEO.
“The festival also plays an integral role in championing new Australian voices, providing meaningful opportunities for our homegrown talent.”
“We can’t wait to see Melbourne come to life this November for twelve jam-packed days of curated excellence,” said Pitcher.
“The City of Melbourne prides itself on being a welcoming, inclusive municipality that celebrates our individuality,” said Lord Mayor Sally Capp.
“The Melbourne Queer Film Festival is a spectacular offering of talent and creativity, and I can’t wait to see some of the exciting and thought-provoking films that come out of this year’s selection.
“This festival is an integral part of Melbourne’s film scene, and we’re overjoyed MQFF to fill capacity in 2022,” said Capp.
The 2022 Melbourne Queer Film Festival runs 10 – 21 November. For more information and full program, visit: www.mqff.com.au for details.
