Dark MOFO shines as Australia’s most highly anticipated arts event of the cold and miserly months, achieving this extraordinary feat in only three short years. In a time when our government is intent on squashing independent arts in Australia, I am personally thankful that MONA exists. The benevolent wealthy will potentially keep cultural life in…
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Enter the bedazzling land of the West! On May 16th, Footscray’s Nicholson Street came alive with the rich cultures of Africa at Emerge in the West Festival. Waves of vibrant traditions washed over me as I strolled through the avenue. A potpourri of emerging top artists hailing from Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa, Papua New Guinea…
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WOMADelaide is not your usual music festival. Sure, there are the teens strutting in groups, with festival-appropriate attire and the right-shaped sunglasses, but there are also toddlers running around the thick grass and, later, small children asleep on their parents’ ponchos spread across the ground. There are picnics and tents for napping and a sense…
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Mona Foma (or MOFO) is the summer art and music festival hosted by Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (better known as Mona). Held each year in January, the festival has a national reputation and is considered to be a stalwart of Tasmania’s cultural fabric. Reviewing a whole festival is a difficult task- every aspect…
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Evelyn Tadros has achieved so much in such a short time. Just a few years ago in 2006, she founded the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival in Melbourne and since then it has expanded to include a national tour and more recently, a Schools and Community Program that provides events year round…
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The eighth Possible Worlds Film Festival is just around the corner, showcasing the best new independent cinema from Canada, and for the first time, the United States. Films will screen at Dendy Opera Quays and Dendy Newtown from the 8th to 18th August and selected titles will also screen at ARC Cinema in Canberra from the 21st to 23rd August 2013. Sarah Polley’s…
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Inside is a captivating and bizarre show by Frank Woodley and acrobat/physical comedian Simon Yates. Performed in the Famous Spiegeltent as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Inside is a must-see for those looking some something out-there this comedy season. It is edgy and often nonsensical, reminiscent of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist plays. Woodley’s…
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A fiery Spanish mama called Amparo Sanchez cooks albóndigas for you (and the rest of the crowd in the open tent), speaking in the rhythmic, lisping tongue of a Catalan native. Her stories of Spanish food, a family cooking together, and gender inequality are translated while four screens around the tent show the view…
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‘Melbourne is the epicentre of interesting dance and music’ observed choreographer Antony Hamilton during our interview. It seems fitting, then, that Melbourne is the home of the Sugar Mountain Music and Art Festival, which will take place at the Forum Theatre on January 19. I recently had a chat with Hamilton to discuss his collaboration…
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The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival aims to use art to transcend cultural, ethnic and linguistic barriers, with the goal of inspiring and educating the Australian public, and connecting them with human rights organisations. The National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra screened three films from the festival’s touring program, and one of these films was Our…
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The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival is heading to Canberra from the 28 – 30th May and as a sponsor, lip has three double passes to giveaway to each screening at the National Film & Sound Archive! Simply email [email protected] with the name of the film you would like to see! Only winners will be notified. The…
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I have a confession: This morning I woke up in a cold sweat when I remembered that I was reviewing the first day of the Paste-Up Project (a You Are Here festival event that involves turning the outside wall of the Canberra Museum and Gallery into an open-air gallery). I called myself a variety of…
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The 23rd Alliance Française French Film Festival is soon approaching, and there are a variety of acclaimed films from internationally renowned talent that are not be missed, including Anouk Aimée, Woody Allen, Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Dany Boon, Isabelle Carré, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Julie Delpy, Gérard Depardieu, Jane Fonda, Audrey Tautou and many more. For your chance…
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Last year, the You Are Here Festival held in Canberra was a bit of an unexpected success – funded in part by the Centenary of Canberra and Canberra CBD Ltd, the festival showcases independent art, theatre, music and other great projects and activities in Canberra through a series of free events held in the city…
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