Adelaide Film Festival review: Made in SA showcase
From sharehouse horror comedy to a crowdpleasing portrait of a disability support worker and their client, Adelaide Film Festival’s Made in SA showcase offers an encouraging sample of local screen talent.
Think globally, watch locally! If you’re going to see one thing at the Adelaide Film Fest, make it Made in SA.
Arguably the most important screening of the Adelaide Film Festival is Made in SA, where local filmmakers showcase their shorts. These are the state’s up-and-comers, and their stories are our stories. Featuring eight films in all, with a total running time of 89 minutes, this year’s selection represented gender balance in directors, one of whom is First Nations, and two films with stars who have intellectual disabilities. The casts were basically under 50, and I’d be remiss to say that not including an older demographic is a missed opportunity.
The night opened with a dynamic body horror film, Lie Down, Breath Out, in which a young, bewildered and frightened woman wakes to a nurse telling her the procedure will take away the pain, but she can’t have any anaesthetic. The extreme close-ups at odd angles are precise and add to the searing tension in Treatment Room 06, while the high saturation of colour lends itself to a surrealism that piggybacks on its own psychological trip. A comment on the medical ill-treatment of women’s bodies, take note of the ‘based on lived experience’ disclaimer in the credits.
Another film, The Secret, deals with women’s bodies and medical procedures as well, though this one is a hands-off scenario, whereas the former is brutally, actively involved. In this, Tatiana Goode (A Sunburnt Christmas) gives a visceral performance as a woman who swallows pills to self-administer an at-home abortion. The plot is simple – she’s alone and in anguish – though it’s not a simple premise, for when is abortion ever that?
A third film focuses on bodies, though Alpha Test isn’t gendered, it’s humanoid. An AI detective interrogates a hologram of a man who’s just been murdered, and the computer programmers are struggling to keep up. This is a slick production grounded in sci-fi. Stephen Packer’s editing – he’s also the director – is undeniably impressive and Alex Olijnyk’s score is on point.
While Alpha Test presents us with a future we don’t want, Into the Earth digs into our unbearable now. Initially dependent on fragmented shots of a family, their house, the surrounding bush, the old John Wayne films and the news that they watch, director Lucy Campbell patiently and skilfully builds up to a storyline that explains the snippets of shovelling and the intense smartphone-smashing scene. The lengthiest of the night’s shorts at 17 minutes, I could’ve easily watched this for another hour and a half.
At 6 minutes, Tunnel Vision is the shortest of the lot, and its succinctness feels perfectly suited to its brand of horror comedy. When a watch repairer, living in chaotic filth, finds his lights aren’t turning on, he follows the source, literally, leading him into a noisy, slurpy, ectoplasmic substance inside his wall. The 70s low-budget filming style works a treat.
Maybe horror comedy shorts work best when they’re kept very short, because the second in the running for brevity also falls in that genre. 7 Minutes to Rice is a commentary on share-house living, and from the sounds of the audience, plenty in the crowd could relate. When seven housemates make separate meals but one housemate – the new one – fails at making enough rice for everyone to share, murder seems a good enough punishment. This one has the feel of a group of friends getting together to make a film, and it’s kind of perfect that way.
Actor and director David Daradan created the crowd pleaser of the night, with actors Benji Groenewegen as a hilariously awkward disability support worker and Joshua Campton as the brazen man with Down Syndrome who is assigned to him. In the course of an outing there is sex and there are drugs, and there are thugs too. Liability is a film that boldly states that adults with intellectual disabilities are not children and should never be treated as such. Campton had a lot to do with developing his character, proving the point exactly.
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The final film of the showcase is The Knight, probably the most delightful of the films. Though the film also stars lead roles with intellectual disabilities, The Knight doesn’t need the characters to have any disability – they just do. Teenager Claude is smitten with Damien, and dreams he comes to her window over and over in various guises, only to wake before the good bits to the sound of the television and her mother’s laughter. Isadora Sweeney and Sid Debba are wonderful in their roles as Claude and Damien, two young would-be lovers, if only Claude could stay asleep. When she finally dreams what she wants, there’s a sense of triumph that rains down on Claude and at the whole of the film. Utterly quirky and feel-good, it’s a ripper of a way to end a fantastic screening.
By all accounts, the future of SA film is in excellent hands. Thanks to the Adelaide Film Festival for continuing the program.
Made in SA screens again on Friday October 24, 6.15pm, Odeon Star Semaphore as part of the Adelaide Film Festival