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Documentarian Yaaa Bou Melhem expands her approach to collaborative documentary storytelling with her latest feature Yurlu | Country . This essential film follows the final year of the life of Aboriginal elder Maitland Parker as he continues his decades long fight to heal his homeland after the scarification from the caustic asbestos mines in Wittenoom which left the area as the largest contaminat...

Sophie Somerville is an Australian emerging filmmaker whose short films Linda 4 Eva and Peeps made waves at film festivals around the world. Now with her feature film debut Fwends , winner of the Berlinale Forum's Caligari Film Prize for Innovation, Sophie firmly makes her mark on Australian cinema as a talent to watch out for. As Cody Allen wrote in their review , Fwends is 'a tender portrait of...

In this podcast, Nadine Whitney speaks with documentarians Maggie Miles & Trisha Morton-Thomas about the extraordinary documentary Journey Home, David Gulpilil . Journey Home, David Gulpilil is a sacred film which brings us into the funerary customs and that informed David's life. Maggie and Trisha follow David's remains from South Australia all the way to east Arnhem Land and along the way we...

Writer-Director Adrian Ortega's Westgate follows Netta (Sarah Nicolazzo) and her son Julian (Max Nappo) as she embarks on a torturous day of navigating hospitals, family, cultural prejudices, and more, all as she faces the threat of eviction and the ever rising debts that keep her and her son trapped in a class struggle. This is a film written from a lived-in perspective, with Adrian pulling from...

Aussie genre filmmaking legend Kiah Roache-Turner is back with his latest flick, Beast of War , a WW2 story of soldiers fighting for their lives on a different kind of battlefield: the shark infested waters of the open ocean. In the above interview, Kiah talks about the journey to getting Beast of War on screen, how the impact of Spielberg meant that he had to shoot the film in Australia, and what...

Bina Bhattacharya is a creative storyteller whose work I've been following for a while now. Her 2017 short film Wild Dances embraced music and cultural identity against the backdrop of Eurovision, while her section in the exemplary anthology film Here Out West, titled The Eternal Dance, is the story from that film that has left the deepest mark on me.  Music plays a major role in Bina's filmm...

the Curb Interview Podcast Sign up for the latest interviews, reviews, and more via https://www.thecurb.com.au/subscribe/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julie Pacino’s dark fairytale I Live Here Now is a powerful and complex debut feature that places the audience in the space between dream and nightmare as Rose (Lucy Fry) finds herself in an impossible but familiar hotel where she confronts the shadows and scars of her psyche. Featuring unforgettable supporting cast including Madeleine Brewer, Matt Rife, and the iconic Sheryl Lee: I Live Here Now...

With two feature films under his belt, Samuel Van Grinsven has quickly become a vital voice in Australian cinema. His feature debut, the lurid and sumptuous 2019 queer drama Sequin in a Blue Room , utilised neon lights and lingering shots of yearning to amplify the sense of lead actor Conor Leach's youthful Sequin finding his place in a new, inviting world. With his follow up feature, Went Up the...

The Sydney Underground Film Festival is back once more for another stellar year of underground, fringe cinema, short films and more. This years line-up includes an array of gloriously wild films including Fucktoys by Annapurna Sriram, Queens of the Dead by Tina Romero, Stelarc - Suspending Disbelief, The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man, Take48 shorts, and more.  In the following chat with festival direct...

Writer, director, and actor Jessica Husband teams up with co-director Ethan Finch to craft the powerful short film Zombie. Jessica Husband plays Claire, a woman who sits on a picnic blanket on a cliffside, waiting for someone to arrive. She turns to her phone, listening to a voicemail from her partner Ted, the words he says provides Zombie with a weight that opens up the films themes of loss and g...

Whether it be loneliness, solitude, finding sanctuary in a stifled relationship or waiting for a takeaway meal, or maybe one of the most precious things of all, the comfort in creating for ones self, Kaite Fitz is shifting how we see ourselves on screen. Her short film Smoke, which premiered at the St Kilda Film Festival, presents Lianne Mackessy's main character, a woman who moves through her day...

Filmmaker David Robinson-Smith is one of the major voices of the new Australian film industry. His films include Mud Crab , We Used to Own Houses , and his latest effort, The Shirt Off Your Back , each an essential entry in an increasingly vital filmography. When we talk about this 'new wave of Australian filmmakers', a term which I'm starting to lean towards calling 'the rising swell of modern Au...

When Nadine Whitney interviewed actor Frank Mosley, she started their chat with a game akin to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Want to know how to get to Meryl Streep from Frank? Easier than even Frank probably thinks. Frank starred in Geoff Marslett’s Quantum Cowboys which also featured Alex Cox. Alex Cox directed Ed Harris in Walker . Ed also features in Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of The Hours . Fr...

In their first conversation Nadine and Virat speak about two films which are pilgrimages of a sort. Kasimir Burgess’ Iron Winter , a documentary that takes the viewer into a land rarely seen — that of the nomadic Mongolian horse herders. An immersive and intimate piece of cinema which invites people to see a dying ancient tradition undertaken on the Mongolian Steppes during a five month journey he...

'Art is labour'. This is a statement from composer Jung Jae-il, the man behind the iconic scores to Bong Joon-ho's Parasite , Okja , and Mickey 17 , the Netflix smash hit Squid Game , and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker , amongst other works. For Jung Jae-il, the art of composing a score is work. For Jung Jae-il, artists like Roxette, Metallica and Björk are notable influences on his work, with Pina Ba...

When documentarian Shalom Almond received access to document a group of women prisoners training retired greyhounds to become house-friendly pets for her 2017 film Prisoners and Pups , she opened up a door to be able to capture the hidden stories of women prisoners in Australian jails. Prisoners and Pups is a gentle film that shows the power of rehabilitation programs in prisons, not just for the...

If we consider who some of the great modern Aussie cinematographers are, we immediately think of names like Michael Latham, Stefan Duscio, Jaclyn Paterson, or the man behind the camera of such films as Of an Age, You Won't Be Alone, Hafekasi, Howl, Blue Bayou, My First Summer , and Sophie Hyde's upcoming film, Jimpa . I'm of course talking about Matthew Chaung. Across his filmography, Matthew has...

Dogmilk Films is a collective based between Naarm-Melbourne, Makassar Indonesia, and Paris, France. Founded in 2017, Dogmilk brings alternative and ambitious films to life on screen with impactful screenings of world cinema. In addition to their screenings, Dogmilk has also expanded into filmmaking, with their searing short film Faceless being a prime example of risk-tasking Australian cinema that...

Suri Chan is a queer artist who pulls from her migrant roots to tell stories about her heritage, her future, and her identity through her poems. In her book But I Don't Feel Empowered, available through all bookstores, Suri uses illustrations and her words to invite readers into her world, often utilising stories of iconic landmarks or food to enrich the senses even more. In the following intervie...

'The front fell off.' The 94 metre 100 metre track. Fred Dagg. 24 years of political satire with Bryan Dawe. These are just a handful of the impactful comedic works from the one and only John Clarke. For over 40 years, John Clarke brought an unparalleled level of wit, politically astute comedic understanding, and pitch perfect timing to Australian and New Zealand audiences. John Clarke's work as a...

After having its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2024, and having screened at SXSW and Sydney Film Festival, Kate Blackmore's essential documentary Make it Look Real is now available to view on Netflix. I've followed the journey of this documentary with keen interest, having discussed the film at length in conversations with Kate , co-star Albert Mwangi , and now, bringing the conv...

Writer-director Domini Marshall is a talent on the rise. With short films like Go with Grace, Slap , and now her finest work yet, Howl , under her belt, Marshall is a force to be reckoned with. Her work is deeply personal, written from a perspective that invites audiences to engage with the internal mindset of her characters, and through that process, we're able to see the world differently. Guidi...

Grant Hardie is the co-founder of Monster Pictures , one of Australia and New Zealand's leading distributors of horror and genre films. In 2011, Monster Pictures birthed the darkly delightful Monster Fest , which has quickly become Australia's flagship horror and genre film festival. Now, in 2025, Monster Pictures , in partnership with Head Gear Films and White Hot Productions, have morphed into...