With the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in limbo, and the Brisbane International Film Festival anchored to the identity of its previous two directors, festival tragics must turn to the Gold Coast to get their genre fix.
It is pretty fair to say that genre, especially low budget genre, is a very useful provocation for Australian filmmakers.
Over the last few years, the respectable end of Queensland festivals have been a rich hunting ground for creators looking for useful influences. Anne Demy-Geroe pushed some provocative cultures and spotted the emerging Iranian cinema early. Richard Moore, who followed her as director, brought a passion for junk cinema, particularly from Japan via certain American mavericks. Meanwhile, bathed in respectability, APSA was promoting work which ranged from the truly art-driven, to highly commercial films normally judged only for its box office success.
