The eighth annual Possible Worlds Film Festival opens this week showcasing the best new cinema from Canada and the United States, focusing exclusively on independent films.
In Sydney, the Festival will open with Sarah Polley’s acclaimed documentary Stories We Tell and close ten days later with Sydney premiere of Joe Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies, starring Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Jake Johnson and Ron Livingston.
A strong thematic strand within the program this year is the female point of view, with ten titles featuring a woman in the lead and charting female perspectives on identity, desire, sexuality, success and family, such as black and white gems Frances Ha by Noah Baumbach and You Make Me Feel So Young (Australian premiere) by Zach Weintraub.
Four of these films, Molly Maxwell (Australian premiere), Stories We Tell, A Teacher (International premiere) and It Felt Like Love (Sydney premiere) are directed by women.
Special guest Steve Ostrow will present the Sydney premiere of Continental, a new documentary by Malcolm Ingram. Ostrow was the founder of the Continental, a controversial gay bathhouse that transcended sexual identity and acted as a beacon to the hip, beautiful and infamous in 1960s and 70s New York City.
Other documentaries screening at the Festival include The End Of Time by master documentarian Peter Mettler; the Australian premieres of Northern Light, which charts the daily lives of families in recession-ravaged Michigan.
Lunarcy! a portrait of eccentrics and visionaries obsessed with the Moon; The Fruit Hunters, which follows foodies in search of rare fruit around the globe; and Rewind This! a love letter to the VHS tape which will be paired in a double feature with a 40th anniversary screening of sci-fi western Westworld.
From Quebec, audiences will enjoy the French-language dramas Diego Star and All That You Possess, both screening for the first time in Australia.
The Wait starring Chloe Sevigny and Jena Malone, will have its international premiere. The Festival will be a chance for audiences to discover new independent films such as Sean Garrity’s hilarious My Awkward Sexual Adventure, Zach Clark’s raunchy Christmas movie White Reindeer, Jason Buxton’s coming-of-age drama Blackbird and Adam Leon’s NYC caper Gimme The Loot.
Possible Worlds Film Festival
Sydney – Dendy Circular Quay and Dendy Newtown: 8 – 18 August 2013
Canberra – Arc Cinema: 21 – 23 August 2013
Bookings: www.possibleworlds.net.au
For more information and full programme, visit: www.possibleworlds.net.au for details.
Image: Stories We Tell
