Melbourne Jewish Book Week 2022
13 May 2022
After being held online the last of couple of years on account of the pandemic, Melbourne Jewish Book Week returns as in person event from Saturday 28 May until Tuesday 31 May 2022.
RELATED CONTENT
Australian literature, festivals
Charli XCX: Alone Together, by Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler
13 May 2022
Charli XCX: Alone Together, trailer, a documentary by Los Angeles based director duo Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler, follows British singer and songwriter Charli XCX, as she goes about recording her fourth studio album How I’m Feeling Now, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s early 2020 and the world is thrust into lockdown, grinding everything to a halt – including pop superstar Charli XCX’s North American stadium tour. Stuck at home in LA and not working for the first time in her adult life, instead of bingeing both Netflix and junk food, Charli decides to push herself to her creative and physical limits by recording and releasing an entirely new record in just 40 days.
Armed with a producer sending her beats remotely, speedy Amazon deliveries of recording and filming equipment, a reluctant and utterly charming boyfriend and her legions of fans offering suggestions, video clips and adoration, Charli XCX embarks on both an introspective and deeply collaborative journey into the creation her widely celebrated album How I’m Feeling Now.
Charli XCX: Alone Together will screen in selected Australian cinemas, for a few days only, over the first weekend of June 2022.
RELATED CONTENT
Bradley Bell, Charli XCX, film, music, Pablo Jones-Soler, trailer
Asghar Farhadi wins Cannes Grand Prix award for A Hero
11 May 2022
Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival for his latest feature A Hero. Farhadi is the master of suspenseful drama, and A Hero — which opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 9 June 2022 — is said to be his best work since A Separation in 2011. Check out the trailer.
RELATED CONTENT
Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan return for Neighbours finale
11 May 2022
Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan will reprise their roles of Charlene and Scott in the final episodes of long running Australian soap opera Neighbours, which are expected to air sometime in September.
You have no excuse not to tune in now…
RELATED CONTENT
Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue, television
Evelyn Araluen in conversation with Jeanine Leane
10 May 2022
Some late news to hand… Australian poet Evelyn Araluen, winner of the 2022 Stella Prize, will speak with Wiradjuri writer Jeanine Leane, at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne, this Thursday evening, 12 May 2022.
RELATED CONTENT
Australian literature, Evelyn Araluen, Stella Prize
The Hill Where Lionesses Roar, a film by Luàna Bajrami
10 May 2022
Luàna Bajrami first came to my attention in her role as Sophie, in Céline Sciamma’s stellar 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but the French-Kosovar actor is also a writer and director, and La Colline Où Rugissent Les Lionnes (The Hill Where Lionesses Roar), trailer, is her debut feature:
Best friends Jeta, Li and Qe live in a remote Kosovan village from which they see no way out. Bored and restless, the young women spend their days dreaming big but not living large – until, in a moment of aimless distraction, they rebrand themselves as a gang and fall into a life of crime. Exhilarated by the newfound sense of independence offered by their illegal pursuits, the trio soon discover that their ill-gotten gains come with some dangerous caveats.
The parallels between Bajrami’s film and Portrait of a Lady on Fire are intriguing, with — to be succinct — both stories featuring three women contravening social norms.
While The Hill Where Lionesses Roar screened at last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, it didn’t appear to have a wider Australian theatrical release, so it looks like streaming may be the only option for seeing the film in this part of the world.
RELATED CONTENT
Kevin Rudd discusses The Avoidable War with Ben Doherty
9 May 2022
Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd will be discussing his book The Avoidable War (published by Hachette Australia, March 2022) with Ben Doherty, the Sydney based international affairs reporter for The Guardian, at Gleebooks, on the evening of Thursday 12 May.
The relationship between the US and China, the world’s two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. It rests on a seismic fault of cultural misunderstanding, historical grievance, and ideological incompatibility. No other nations are so quick to offend and be offended. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily.
The 2022 Australian federal election campaign in full swing, and China’s rise, and the potential for conflict with the United States, are matters that have been in the spotlight. And while Australians may not be Rudd’s target readership, Daniel Flitton, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, suggests The Avoidable War is essential reading for us nonetheless:
Rudd hasn’t written this book for Australians and that is exactly why Australians should read it. This is not a political screed or point-scoring exercise in domestic battles. Sure, there are familiar Ruddisms expressed. The word “core” gets a particular workout to explain interests or principles. But the book amounts to a thoughtful and well-structured examination of the dynamics between the world’s greatest power and its greatest challenger, the consequences of which Australians cannot escape, but can seek to shape.
RELATED CONTENT
Australian literature, Kevin Rudd
Paul Kelly’s song How to Make Gravy to become a movie
9 May 2022
I don’t know how many songs end up being adapted to film, but Australian musician Paul Kelly’s 1996 composition How to Make Gravy, looks like it’ll join their ranks, after Australian film production company Speech & Drama Pictures acquired the song’s film rights.
Written from the perspective of a prisoner named Joe writing home to his brother Dan at Christmas time, the song has gathered momentum year on year as more people discover the plainspoken but emotionally profound work.
But will it be a case of the song is better than the movie? Let’s hope not…
RELATED CONTENT
disassociated rides again
8 May 2022
Wowser, you guys are good. How ever did you figure out I was bringing dis back?
As a reward, go listen to Alive by Sydney based electronica act RÜFÜS DU SOL. They won a grammy with it this year, and it’s been the soundtrack of disassociated’s re-boot. I posted thousands of links here between 2007 and 2017, a great quantity of which were dead, so instead of trying to edit all those posts, I decided to start over.
I’ve been trying to read more books these last few years — contemporary Australian fiction where possible — so there’s a definite bookish bent here at the moment. Anyway there’s a few kinks to iron out here, and what not, so I’ll be back later.
RELATED CONTENT
Australian music, electronica, music
Claus Stangl wins 2022 Archibald Packing Room Prize
5 May 2022
Sydney based New Zealand artist Claus Stangl has been named winner of the 2022 Archibald Packing Room Prize, with Taika Waititi, an acrylic on canvas painting. The winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture will be announced on Friday 13 May 2022.
RELATED CONTENT