The 2018 Queensland Film Festival is pleased to note that more than 80 per cent of the films involved in the festival were either by or co-directed by women as a result of theme and deliberate choice.
Held annually in Brisbane, the festival is designed to open a portal into the world of art, film and culture exploring what is possible. Festival Director John Edmond says this high female representation is a result of retrospectives and themed programming. The theme for this year’s festival was Aesthetic of Care. To complement this, QFF published a special collection on its themed program around the relationship between film, caring and domestic labour.
Female directing team Soda_Jerk, sisters Dom and Dan Angeloro opened the festival with their film Terra Nullius. Formed in 2002, the duo moved from Sydney and are now based in New York where they exhibit in museums, galleries, cinemas and even some alternative locations, such as displaying on torrent sites. Their style is focused on the intersection of documentary and speculative fiction. It is an exploration of the politics of images, the power of photos, how they circulate, who they benefit and how they can be undone. The use of films, video installations, cut up texts and lecture performances are all tools that Soda_Jerk use to convey what is on their minds.
Strange Colours is another film to look out for that is the artistic vision of a woman. Russian born, Melbourne based Alena Lodkina co-directed the film that focuses on Lightning Ridge, a small mining town in New South Wales. She initially went to Lightning Ridge to film a documentary and while she was there discovered inspiration for a fictional film. Since that first spark of an idea, the final film has toured the country being featured in Sydney and Melbourne before making its way to Brisbane. The film focuses on a young psychology student from Melbourne who visits the town to visit her ailing father and falls into a world of toxic masculinity.
The female directors of The 2018 Queensland Film Festival are still honing their craft and are hard at work for next years festival, ready to take the world by storm yet again.
Banner Image: Dom and Dan Angeloro.
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