Across six weeks in summer, 13 hand-picked international films are set to show at The Mercury Cinema as part of the mini film festival: Summer Scoops, 11 of which are SA premieres.
Kicking off Wednesday 14 January is The Way He Looks, the Oscar-nominated and Berlinale Teddy-winning Brazilian boy-meets-boy love story that explores ditching those first-love training wheels. Week one also sees Virunga, a poignant and heart-breaking documentary deal with the last home to the critically endangered mountain gorillas; and the first feature from Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, a poignant coming-of-age story turned indie-pop musical, God Help the Girl.
Topping off the first week of Summer Scoops is a Sunday (January 18, 3pm) BBQ to accompany a jam-packed afternoon of screenings.
Direct from New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) New Directors New Films Festival, four films have been selected including: The first Iranian vampire western A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the atmospheric feature debut from Ana Lily Amirpour; Stop The Pounding Heart, the third in director Roberto Minervini’s Texas Trilogy; two intrepid and nomadic talents of experimental film and art, Ben Rivers and Ben Russell, have created one of the most bewitching cinematic experiences to come along in a great while with A Spell to Ward off the Darkness; and Of Horses and Men, a strange and alluring fable in which beast meets man on a rural Icelandic landscape.
Show Me Love director Lukas Moodysson sends his new film We Are the Best! out to anyone who ever wanted to change the world with a one-minute punk song; the winner of the Orizzonti Award for Best Film, Venice Film Festival Eastern Boys intimately explores the plight of young European hustlers making a living by any means necessary; and Finding Fela from the Oscar winning director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, The Armstrong Lie) shows us an absorbing account of Africa’s most important musical figure, Fela Kuti.
Rounding out the Summer Scoops Program, Now: In the Wings on a World Stage sees Kevin Spacey, Sam Mendes and the Bridge Project on the road revealing some of the most intimate moments behind the scenes of their staging of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Richard III; female ambition clashes with Iranian tradition in Sepideh: Reaching for the Stars; and mixing animation and live action, the surreal Israeli-German sci-fi featuring Robin Wright (playing herself) Harvey Keitel and John Hamm – The Congress – was hailed by IndieWire: “One of the most startling uses of the medium to come along in years.”
What better way to while away hot, languid summer afternoons than to catch a film and enjoy a choc top and bevvy in air-conditioned comfort while watching these award winning films?
Find out more about the films on offer at the Summer Scoops Festival: mercurycinema.org.au/products/summer-scoops
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