The Melbourne International Film Festival or MIFF comes around every year for 2 and a half weeks at the end of July. Lining up in the queues while waiting to get into the cinema has become a bit of a ritual. Most people attending were black, black & MORE black. I deliberately wear colourful clothes to try and stir the other attendees up and out of their winter blues!
I have always enjoyed “arthouse” films. As a child, I used to attend children’s film festivals at the Rivoli Cinema in Camberwell in the May and September school holidays. I also went to a children’s program once a month at Storey Hall, RMIT. These were international children’s feature films and shorts, often with sub-titles. My brother and I loved them, they were far away from the slick Hollywood style, more about children like us.
As a teenager, in high school, my best friend introduced me to the NFTA – National Film & Television Association. They also had screenings once a month at the Dental Hospital Theatrette in Grattan Street. The first film I saw there was the classic Orson Welles film – “Citizen Kane”. Cinema was one of the things my first serious boyfriend and I had in common. We both loved the work of Felleni and Ingmar Bergman.
My first outing at MIFF would have been in 1970. A friend of my mother’s had a Gold Pass and although the tickets were not transferrable, everyone did swap them about. The screenings were down at the Palais in St Kilda. I have no recollection about the films i saw but I remember feeling terribly grown up. I was 14 at the tie and you needed to be 18 to get in. I looked older than I was even without make up and had not trouble passing the ticket checker.
A child befriends a gigantic wolf. Then one day his father goes a-hunting. Australian premiere at MIFF Monday 28 July 2008
These days I but a Mini Pass. You can choose any 10 screenings and take a bonus 3 sessions if the start before 6pm on a weekday. I focus on programs of short films, animated films and documentaries, genres that I cannot usually see at the regular cinema. My favourite films so far was a beautiful French animated film called “White Wolf”
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/films?film_id=11195
