This year's Brisbane International Film Festival was kinda dull. Many of the films shown were already scheduled for a domestic release, and apart from the Asian Pacific focus the rest of the programme was largely devoted to recent New Zealand film and to Indigenous filmmaking, with retrospectives of Paul Cox's work and Shakespeare on film, which didn't leave much room for a survey of films local audiences won't otherwise see. And there was nothing of the sweeping greatness of last year's work by Jost or Suzuki: future fes tivals will profit from a more rigorous and eclectic curatorship. Festival Chief Executive Officer, Mark Thomas spoke about problems with the programming committee, and my informed guess i.s that too many cooks had their fingers in the pie. Where were these meddling career-builders when the Ruiz programme needed a sponsor? Presumably this is one of the reasons for Mr Thomas's recent resignation; inadequate support from Film Queensland (which he also cited) might be another.
Fortunately, it wasn't all bad, and Tony Rayns performed remarkably as the Festival's Asian cinema consultant. Japanese Director Shinuchi Nagasaki was in town as the guest of the Festival, accompanying five of his films. Nagasaki's work explores his interest in criminal psychopathology, and the unlikely deviant qualities of his female characters are a welcome relief in the Asian cinema. Fellow Japanese Directors Sono Sion and Tatsuya Ota, like Nagasaki, made their initial works in the SuperS arena; they were both represented by their feature debuts, The Room and T.V.O. respectively. Queensland College of Art graduate Tracey Moffatt had her first feature, Bedevil, screening too, and look for local performance artist Luke Roberts giving his Frida Kahlo impersonation... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline