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Hi Chris. Hello, can you hear me? We can. Thanks for joining us. So tell us, what is
Sinema? Well Sinema is a science film festival and we, I mean science is very
broad, the sciences are very broad and so we tend to lean towards the kind of the
pure sciences, we get, we're an international competition so we kind of
put the word out there. This year we got about 400 entries from around the world.
We get lots lots of entries that kind of stretch the meaning of the word science
so I get lots of entries about creationism and the Richard Dawkins in me
says thank you but no thank you. We get a lot of entries that are, in
fact we get quite a few entries that are you know kind of sociology, archaeology,
anthropology and we kind of tend to, otherwise that kind of tends to include
every single documentary ever made so we kind of try and stick to the pure
sciences. Sinema is 11 years old this year and it was started in 2000 just by
a bunch of friends who loved science, loved going to the movies and wanted to
kind of you know put their two passions together and so it started just as a
small event in Canberra in 2000 at the Centre Cinema that's now closed down. We
had the boys from, I can see myself on the screen it's very disconcerting, we
had the boys from the Curel City show, did a sexy, skivvy science, did a
session of old episodes and kind of a fun new show. At the first Sinema we
kind of, we were actually pretty well funded for the first Sinema and then
all the funds dried up and we, so we've been kind of building back up to that
ever since. We started second year, we screened at the National Museum of
Australia, third year we had four venues, like fifth year we had about 30 venues
and this year we're on 400 screens across Australia. That's fantastic, so who
can enter? Anybody or? Anyone, anyone can enter. We tend to get, I mean a lot of
professional filmmakers, documentaries that you might see on TV but
especially documentaries that kind of don't get TV releases for whatever
reason, you know they tend to kind of try and enter their films in the festival
round so at least they're getting an audience and we have for the last six
years we've had a national student short film competition and this year being
the International Year of Chemistry, chemistry was our theme. So you mentioned
it's an international competition, were there any interesting entries from
around the world this year? Yeah, I mean so we got a, we got a film on VHS from
Bulgaria that was about raising goats, that was pretty cute. We still haven't
had, my favourite film was from a couple of years ago, it was about plastic
surgery, labia surgery, it was called Design of Vaginas, fantastic film. Where
was that one from? As cool a title this year. Yeah, it's funny kind of you know
films, film subjects kind of come in waves so we so we did actually get quite
a few films on climate change this year, on water, yeah and as I said lots of
films about creationism. So how is Sinema judged? We put together a jury, in fact
we we did our judging this year in your beautiful RALs building which is just
gorgeous and the jury is kind of you know a kind of a mixture of science folk,
film folk and anything in between. So we had you know your director there Paul
Willis was on our jury this year, Claire Petty from The Advertiser, we had a few
scientists and a few of the Sinema staff. You know I kind of recused myself
because I'd already seen everything a couple of times but it was and it was
it's very interesting you know where you're what you're watching these films
I kind of curated if we had 400 entries we curate that down to the 26th that are
on the program and and you know you're pretty convinced of the merits of
those 26 films but when the jury get together it's kind of funny the films
that they pick and run with you know they aren't always the ones that you love. So what
happens to the films after the festival's over we had someone asked
tonight actually about worm hunters now we showed that on Saturday as part of
our family friendly screening at the Mercury so what can someone do if they'd
like to see worm hunters? Officially for a film like that it's made by Gulliver
Meteor and Brisbane they'll actually do their own marketing and sell the film
so your role I introduced you before as a festival director but you act for CSIRO
don't you? What does your role as festival director involve? Well actually I'm the
director of the CSIRO Discovery Center here in Canberra Science Museum and so
my Sinema director's job festival director's job is well honorary or at
least unpaid that's what it is it's unpaid it's a labor of love and you know
I mean it's just kind of event management it's it's putting the word out there to
filmmakers I mean Sinema actually has quite a good reputation internationally
I've been to a couple of events overseas and people have heard of Sinema in
fact I was at the Margaret Meade Film Festival a couple of years ago and I
met a woman who did her masters on Sinema which I thought was quite funny
because I'd never spoken to her she never called me. Did she know you? Yes she did
yeah that's great and so the other question I have you is if we have a
budding filmmaker here tonight what advice would you give them Chris? I tell
you what advice I'd give you narrative the filmmakers often lose the plot in
literally in trying to you know convey whatever that you know the thing that
they got so passionate and felt like they needed to make a film in the first
place and they often forget just to tell a story and they also often forget
that brevity is the soul of wit. Thanks for that so budding filmmakers tune in
and how do they find out about next year is there a website? Well yes there's
Sinema website it's cinemawithanessonthefront.com.au we get all
variations on that name but often people will call up and ask about Sinema
which is amusing. But that's another division of CSIRO right? Yeah join our
mailing list on our website and and we'll post out in fact in fact entries
are open now where we actually use a thing called Without a Box an online
festival submission company and they in fact I actually already have a box of
discs that I'm starting to go through for next year. Fantastic lots of sleepless
nights for you then Insomniacures. Yeah absolutely. So so what can you tell us
about the films that we're gonna show tonight? Okay so I think you are seeing
Teclopolis which is my favorite film of all of the films that entered this year
and when I said you know it's funny how a jury will will read a film that you
quite like. Teclopolis was my hands-down favorite but a couple of the jury you
know they just didn't see the science in it so I got very cranky about that so it
didn't win I was you know I would have set it up to win it didn't win. The jury
voted at the best animated or experimental film this year and about
it they said that it's an extraordinarily beautiful piece of
filmmaking critiquing consumerism and the failure of sustainability in modern
society visually superlative and moving which I think pretty much sums it up
but they it's it's a stop-motion animation made by a team of guys in
Argentina Javier Morad is the director he he runs an ad agency in Buenos Aires
called Bansai he's a designer and animator and and the agency must be
doing pretty well because a couple of years ago he retired from commercial
work just so he could concentrate on his stop-motion animations and when you'll
see it you'll you know he obviously made the right decision it's it's gorgeous
wouldn't be lovely to do that yeah exactly let's say you're also saying
you're seeing a film called 99% rust which is very very cute and you know you
know like it's a filmmaker it's a very simple film they've got a very simple
message and you know it could almost even be a PowerPoint you know it's so
simply made but its message is really effective and and that's what I like
about that one and and you're also seeing the light bulb conspiracy from
Spain but it's in English so don't worry and it's it's a gorgeous film and
about you know a very complex subject light bulb conspiracy one best film at
Sinema this year and deservedly so but and it's about a subject that is is
still going on it's still a very much part of our lives and in fact when I was
an Adelaide for the judging of Sinema the other week there was a story in the
advertiser about this very thing about how President Bush had you know had had
some cronies who he wanted to appease you know when he passed a whole bunch of
legislation that made it easier for people to produce shonky merchandise so
that we will buy more of it that doesn't sound good hmm and so they made a film
about it yeah it's gorgeous it's it's it's just lovely okay so thanks a lot
Chris I meant to ask you what is the prize for winning oh we've got these
gorgeous trophies and I think I might have taken mine home there there are we
just have a trophy we we we don't offer a cash prize the Tasmanian
kaleidoscope company I've got another one of their products here they're very
cute so thanks a lot Chris and so I think we might get on with showing these
films I hope your appetites are wet now for the film so thanks Chris and thanks
for joining us coming out it's so nice to see so many of you there terrific
thanks a lot
