Nothing short of magical. It was transformative for me.
Past Events
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Dark Whispers - Vol. 1 (Sydney) @Sydney
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Dark Place (Tasmanian premiere) @Hobart
Village Cinemas
The new Indigenous anthology feature film, Dark Place, which debuted to acclaim at Sydney Film Festival earlier this year, will have one theatrical screening in Hobart, presented by Stranger With My Face International Film Festival.
DARK PLACE
75 minutes plus Q&AUnclassified, not recommended for under 15s.
Directed by Björn Stewart, Perun Bonser, Kodie Bedford, Liam Phillips, Rob Braslin
Starring Clarence Ryan, Charlie Garber, Leonie Whyman, Tasia Zalar, Lily Sullivan, Luka May Glynn-Cole, Katherine Beckett
Production company Noble Savage Pictures
This exciting new anthology feature film includes four tales that approach post-colonial Indigenous history through the lenses of horror and fantasy. Bjorn Stewart brings outback zombies into the frame in the rollicking splatter comedy Killer Native. An insomniac questions her sanity in Liam Phillip’s suspenseful Foe. Supernatural forces visit a housing commission estate in Hobart in the gritty Vale Light by Rob Braslin. Gothic horror shrouds the woods in Perun Bonser’s atmospheric The Shore, and female oppression and revenge take centre stage in Kodie Bedford’s punchy Scout.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Rob Braslin.
Date: Friday 18 October 2024
Time: 8.00 pm arrival, screening starts at 8.30 pm
Cost: $19 / $22 book online (preferred) at or purchase at the door.
Venue: Village Cinemas, Hobart
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Dark Whispers at Monster Fest (Melbourne) @Melbourne
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THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS & Q+A @Hobart, Tasmania
Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS | USA | 1991 | 102 minutes | Dir: Wes Craven | M
When Poindexter - known around the ‘hood as “Fool” - (Brandon Adams) breaks into a house, he finds himself trapped by its murderous owners (Everett McGill and Wendy Robie from Twin Peaks). Quickly learning the true nature of the home’s homicidal inhabitants, the boy battles against sadistic security devices, befriends an elusive and abused girl, and finally learns the secret of the creatures hidden deep within the house.
“Mr. Craven’s screenplay manages to evoke both Treasure Island and The Night of the Living Dead, and plays like a stroll through an amusement park’s haunted house. It is full of peculiar noises, floors and walls that suddenly give way, things that jump out of the dark and objects of unmentionable disgustingness that sneak up from behind.”—The New York Times
The cinematographer of the film, Sandi Sissel, will be present for a post-screening discussion.
SANDI SISSEL - BIO Among Sandi’s numerous Academy Award and Emmy winning documentary credits are Mother Teresa, Jane Goodall: Chimps So Like Us, Blood In The Face, Chicken Ranch (she also co-directed). In addition she has been director of photography on network television, including Young Americans, Night Stalker and The Wonder Years and has many, many cable and TV move credits as director of photography. Sandi served as director of photography on the Academy Award nominated motion picture Salaam Bombay received the Camera D’or at Cannes. She has been 2nd Unit DOP on major films including Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Daredevil, Stealing Harvard, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the Academy Award For Cinematography winning Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World. She was inducted into the American Society Of Cinematographers in 1994 and the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2004.7 pm, 7 May 2024 | Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
TICKETSFull • $18 | Concession • $16 | or via 2017 SWMF FESTIVAL PASS
BUY TICKETS | BUY FESTIVAL PASS
Please note, concession pricing is applicable to: ADG/MEAA/AWG/TaFA members, Healthcare Card, Seniors Card, under 16s
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VHS SWAP MEET @Hobart, Tasmania
The Founders Room, Salamanca Arts Centre
VHS SWAP MEETJoin us in the SWMF Festival Club to swap, sell or show off about stuff you actually want to keep forever. Enjoy a drink and a chat with your fellow VHS tragics.Featuring Emesha Rudolf, comedian and star of the webseries pilot General Exhibition.3pm – 6pm, Sunday 7 May |
Founders Room, Salamanca Arts Centre
FREE EVENT -
Dearest Sister @Hobart, Tasmania
Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
DEAREST SISTER | Laos/France/Estonia | 2016 | 102 minutes | Dir: Mattie Doe | Unclassified (no one under 16 admitted unless accompanied an adult) | Tasmanian premiereA young village woman (Amphaiphun Phommapunya) moves to the city to be a companion for her wealthy cousin, whose blindness has unexpected consequences. Also stars Totlina Vilouna and Tambet Tuisk.
SWMF audiences will recall Mattie Do’s debut feature, Chanthaly, which screened at the festival in 2014. Like Chanthaly before it, Dearest Sister uses the framework of a supernatural tale to reflect on issues of class and gender. Simple on the surface, its moral complexities that are impossible to ignore.Mattie Do will be available for a Skype Q&A following the screening.
1 pm, 7 May 2024 | Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
TICKETSFull • $18 | Concession • $16 | or via 2017 SWMF FESTIVAL PASS
BUY SINGLE TICKET(S) | BUY FESTIVAL PASS (regular or VIP option available)
Please note, concession pricing is applicable to: ADG/MEAA/AWG/TaFA members, Healthcare Card, Seniors Card, under 16s
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Why do we fund Australian films but not the cinemas to screen them in? @Hobart, Tasmania
Founders Room, Salamanca Arts Centre
Mary Shelley Symposium 2017
Why do we fund Australian films but not the cinemas to screen them in?To support contemporary art we fund art galleries; in theatre we build new stages. Why isn’t the same approach taken with Australian cinema? This talk will look at how other countries’ film agencies support alternative local film cultures, by funding regional film clubs, a wide array of festivals, online cinematheques and alternative arthouse theatres, to provide an inspiring vision of what could film culture in Australia could look like with the right support.
Lauren Carroll Harris is a writer, researcher and artist completing a PhD on Australian cinema and digital distribution at UNSW. She is the acting assistant editor of RealTime, the author of Not at a Cinema Near You: Australia’s Film Distribution Problem (Platform Papers, 2013) and she writes film and television columns at The Guardian Australia and Kill Your Darlings magazine.12 noon Sunday 7 May, Founders Room, Salamanca Arts Centre
TICKETS
$5 | or via 2017 SWMF FESTIVAL PASS
BUY SINGLE TICKET(S) | BUY FESTIVAL PASS
Please note, concession pricing is applicable to: ADG/MEAA/AWG/TaFA members, Healthcare Card, Seniors Card, under 16s
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The Wolf in the Dress @Hobart, Tasmania
Founders Room, Salamanca Arts Centre
Mary Shelley Symposium 2017:THE WOLF IN THE DRESS
An exploration of transgender and transphobic representation in modern horror
American horror films have consistently been preoccupied with ‘the enemy within’. From the Cold War to the War on Terror to modern medicine, American horror is all about ‘trust no one’. So how does this factor into trans issues? From Silence of the Lambs to Psycho and Dressed To Kill Chloe Black explores trans representation in horror…. and from the outside it’s not a good look.
Chloe Black is a Hobart-based genre film aficionado and broadcaster.
TICKETS
$5 | or via 2017 SWMF FESTIVAL PASS
BUY SINGLE TICKET(S) | BUY FESTIVAL PASS
Please note, concession pricing is applicable to: ADG/MEAA/AWG/TaFA members, Healthcare Card, Seniors Card, under 16s
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PERFECT STRANGERS + Q&A @Hobart, Tasmania
Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
Rachael Blake, ‘Perfect Strangers’, 2003.
PERFECT STRANGERS | New Zealand | 2003 | 96 minutes | Dir: Gaylene Preston | M
One night at the pub Melanie (Rachel Blake) meets a handsome stranger (Sam Neill) and accepts his invitation to go back to his place. When they board his boat she finds out that this is further than she thought (a shack on a deserted island). From there, things get a little bit complicated. A twisted fairytale, a love story with a difference.
Director Gaylene Preston is SWMF”s featured retrospective filmmaker in 2017 and will be present for a post-screening Q&A.
10 pm, Saturday 6 May 2024 | Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
TICKETSFull • $18 | Concession • $16 | or via 2017 SWMF FESTIVAL PASS
BUY TICKETS | BUY FESTIVAL PASS
Please note, concession pricing is applicable to: ADG/MEAA/AWG/TaFA members, Healthcare Card, Seniors Card, under 16s
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THE BOOK OF BIRDIE + Q&A @Hobart, Tasmania
Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
THE BOOK OF BIRDIE | UK | 2017 | 90 minutes | Dir: Elizabeth E. Schuch | Unclassified (no one under 16 admitted unless accompanied an adult) | Australian premiere
When a fragile, imaginative teenager is placed in a dying convent, will her unusual obsessions and hallucinations become a mark of sainthood or a dark heresy?
The Book of Birdie is the visually stunning and highly original feature debut of a filmmaker to watch. Elizabeth Schuch is a concept and storyboard artist with credits including Pacific Rim: Uprising and Wonder Woman.
Elizabeth Schuch will be present for a post-screening Q&A.
The Book of Birdie will be opened by an encore screening of award-winning meta marvel short film Nuncersion II, directed by Alex Laird and Scott Gerry Edwards, (Timebois). Inspired by ‘nunsploitation’ films, Nuncersion II won both the Jury Award for Best Film and the Audience Choice Award at this year’s 48-Hour Tasploitation Challenge. Both filmmakers will be in attendance at the screening.
7.30 pm, Saturday 6 May 2024 | Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre
TICKETS
Full • $18 | Concession • $16 | or via 2017 SWMF FESTIVAL PASS
BUY SINGLE TICKET(S) | BUY FESTIVAL PASS (regular or VIP option available)
Please note, concession pricing is applicable to: ADG/MEAA/AWG/TaFA members, Healthcare Card, Seniors Card, under 16s
