PIRACY and cultural cringe is killing Australian cinema, film buff Matt Eeles says.
“We would rather pay $25 to see Transformers Part 9 [watching] the same thing over and over, instead of supporting our own culture.”
Australian films are gathering attention at international festivals, but back home are on limited release, usually in art house cinemas, and rarely seen in WA.
“Films like Scare Campaign and others are making so much noise around the world, but once they get distribution in Australia, WA gets missed out.”
• Scare Campaign’s making overseas audiences scream, but how many Aussies will get to see it?
A determination to support the homegrown industry, which Eeles says is up there with the best in the world, and a desire to see film-makers succeed, sparked the Atwell local to launch website Cinema Australia, 18 months ago. It’s taken off like a rocket and is a must-visit site for film buffs. In a remarkably short time, Eeles has found himself well and truly on the circuit.
On March 29 he’s holding a Q&A session, with nibbles and a bar, for a special screening of Scare Campaign, “with some of the country’s finest film-makers…and a Skype Q&A with [writer/directors] Colin and Cameron Cairnes”.
It will be the first time Eeles will have seen the movie: “It’s going to be exciting to me…but it’s a risk I’m taking.”
The Cairnes brothers’ 100 Bloody Acres became one of the most illegally downloaded films in the world in 2013–but earned them squat.
• Matt Eeles with David Wenham (Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Men Tell No Tales) and Sarah Snook (The Dressmaker) at CinefestOZ. Photo supplied
And it’s still targetted: “It’s good to know that after all this time people are still discovering it and sharing it. We’ve just got to find a way to make them pay,” Colin said in an interview.
Scare Campaign is a slasher flick with enough blood to satisfy even the most ghoulish filmgoer.
Starring Olivia DeJonge (from M Night Shyamalan’s chiller The Visit) and Meegan Warner and Ian Meadows it’s about a prank reality TV show, whose producers have to up the anti to out-prank those on the internet — with disastrous consequences, and buckets of blood.
It’s on at boutique cinema The Backlot Perth, Simpson Street West Perth, Tuesday March 29, 6.30pm.
For more information about Aussie films or to book a seat for Scare Campaign ($22.50) go to http://www.cinemaaustralia.com.au and follow the links.
by JENNY DANGER