THE GREENHOUSE – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (Nightstream Fest)

Sometimes science fiction runs at you straight out of the gate, grabbing you by the throat with all the bells and whistles of its familiar iconography: spaceships! Nuclear monsters! Ray guns! And sometimes, those elements are so low-key that it is almost easy to miss that a film falls under the science fiction umbrella at all. It is in this second category that we find the melancholy reflection of grief, love, loss and letting go, The Greenhouse. A beautiful meditation on life, love, family and the fear of opening ourselves up to unknown futures, The Greenhouse is a confident, quiet treasure.

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THE NIGHTINGALE – Review by Susan Wloszczyna

In Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, the monsters are white human males of privilege who commit horrifying atrocities in order to maintain their presumed superior status. Set in early 19th-century Tasmania, the gorgeous primordial surroundings are in stark contrast to the constant acts of ugliness and brutality primarily committed by British soldiers against convicts from England and Ireland who are constantly debased and abused. Women and native Aborigines are placed on even lower rungs, meant to serve the needs of the ruling military class.

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THE NIGHTINGALE – Review by Loren King

Writer/director Jennifer Kent knows just what she wants in The Nightingale. There’s no soft-pedaling around the brutality and violence central to her story about the dehumanizing and vicious treatment of women and the indigenous people of Australia by men with power during colonization.

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THE NIGHTINGALE – Review by Sheila Roberts

Jennifer Kent’s masterful writing and direction foster empathy for the plight of all the characters, both good and bad. She avoids the usual cathartic violence and exploitative storytelling tropes of revenge thrillers we’re accustomed to, and elicits strong, compelling performances. She takes an unflinching look at Colonialism — how racism and gender violence affect us, how they have always been used as weapons of war to marginalize and destabilize a vulnerable society, and why compassion is so essential.

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Melbourne FF Premiere’s Kim Farrant’s ANGEL OF MINE – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Reports

The Melbourne International Film Festival has just released first glance highlights from this year’s forthcoming festival that will run from 1 – 18 August. Amongst the many local and international premieres is the announcement that the festival will screen the world premiere of Australian filmmaker Kim Farrant’s sophomore feature Angel of Mine.

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REFLECTIONS IN THE DUST – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

With its world premiere at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Australian filmmaker Luke Sullivan may have found himself a long way from home geographically with his sophomore feature Reflections in the Dust, but the film itself is far more closely aligned to European art cinema traditions than what might be more immediately thought of as ‘typical’ Australian cinema.

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What’s Up Down Under? THE WHEEL Spins New Sci-Fi Terrain – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas reports

In Australia, Dee McLachlan’s The Wheel, filmed primarily at Melbourne’s Dockland Studios, takes the director of 2007’s acclaimed movie about human trafficking The Jammed to new territory, McLachlan turning her attention away from the gritty Melbourne streets to the potential dramatic potential of a films set in a tech-heavy, militarized dystopian future.

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WEEK IN WOMEN: Jennifer Kent’s New Projects

Following The Nightingale‘s success at Venice Fillm Festival, Jennifer Kent is close to completing a new draft of the screenplay for her third feature, “Alice + Freda Forever,” based on the true story of two young women who fall in love in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1890s. The Australian filmmaker is also busy preparing a “Tiptree,” a television series based in the United States. It’s about science-fiction writer Alice Bradley Sheldon.

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In The Muck of It: The Films of Ann Turner — Profile by Alexandra Heller Nicholas

I’m sitting in a small private booth at the Australian Mediatheque at Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image, waiting

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