Revelation-Film-Festival-Rev-Couched
Rev Couched!
Photo Credit: Revelation Film Festival

Fancy a double dose of the Rev Film Festival in 2020 ?!

For the past few months, we have hit the pause button on just about everything in Perth due to covid.

But not any longer!

The Revelation Film Festival returns with a vengeance!

And we are in for a double double shot of the #revfest this year.

First up this month will be Rev Couched! - the digital film festival kicks off on 9 July for a 10 day marathon.

Then in December, The Rev Film Festival will revert back to a physical event where we will be able to attend in person. Yay!

Rev Couched! will feature 30 plus brand new international films from across the globe consisting of features, short films, live streams, talks and more with a good dose of Aussie films and local talent.

Perth Walkabout’s Top Picks

Perth Walkabout’s Top 7 picks from Rev Couched are as follows:

The Florist

The Florist premieres as a feature film at this year’s Rev Couched.

Careerist millennial Annika (Rebecca Murphy – also as the producer) makes her living selling edible hypnotic flowers to trendy eateries in Los Angeles. Business appears to be going well till she hears that her competitors are moving in, so she has to act fast.

Annika announces that she has found the elusive Comet Flower, a legendary plant that may have unique qualities. However, the catch is all she needs to do is find it!

Writer director Andrew Ryan’s (writer and creator of MTV’s The Sellers) deadpan comedy The Florist is based on his short that screened at TriBeCa, and the script was a finalist for the 2016 Sundance Alfred P Sloan Prize.

Australian Short Film Showcase: Program 1

An interesting mix of films spanning different genres including drama, animation and comedy.

Here are a few of the shorts from the showcase:

In the “Idol” (by Director Alex Wu) a young Chinese celebrity is called into an emergency meeting after a fan of his commits suicide.

In “The Sand that Ate the Sea” (by Director Matthew Thorne) , in the opal mining red dirt of Andamooka, South Australia; a son faces the memories of the mysterious disappearance of his father in a great flooding storm, while the same storm appears on his own horizon.

In “Norm” (by Director Amanda Kaye), sometimes married life can just be a little bit too much.

Australian Short Film Showcase: Program 2

And more Aussie short films presented in Program 2.

Here are a few of the shorts from the showcase:

Back Burn (by Director Jake Shannon)

After the loss of her parents, a teenage girl in the Australian Outback tries to cope with looking after her elderly grandfather.

The Grave of St Oran (by Director Jake Shannon)

Narrated by the masterful Neil Gaiman and based on his poem In Relig Odhrain, this is a tempestuous tale of sacrifice and faith. Director Jim Batt brings Gaiman's poem to life with beautifully illustrated paper cutouts, meticulously animated using stop-motion techniques and in camera visual effects.

Simon You're Done (by Director Drew Kendell)

A timid writer struggles to find his place after waking in an alternate universe, where his latest novel has already been published.

Many Undulating Things

“ The film begins and ends in a shopping centre in Hong Kong. We carefully observe the smooth movement of the escalators, the constant flow of people that never stops, the musical fountain that presides over the centre of the internal courtyard, as if this gigantic complex could concentrate the circulation of the entire city, or even, the entire country.

From there, it will be more a tale about concrete, enormous port warehouses, glazed galleries built for the 2010 universal exhibition, overpopulated tower blocks, the fragments of still recent colonialism.

Through the history of urban changes, we witness the profound social transformation of this territory that is constantly swinging between the East and the West. Hong Kong thus emerges, like an archetypal space of many other cities of globalised capitalism.

Many Undulating Things offers a complex reflection on the relationships between landscape, nature, urbanisation and society. Thanks to its exhaustive approach, the film questions the function of cities in the development of the capitalist system. “

Official Selection: Vision du Reel Film Festival
Official Selection: Open City Film Festival
Melbourne Design Week Film Festival

Push

" Push is a new documentary from award-winning director Fredrik Gertten, investigating why we can’t afford to live in our own cities anymore. Housing is a fundamental human right, a precondition to a safe and healthy life. But in cities all around the world, having a place to live is becoming more and more difficult.

In Harlem, New York, we meet a man who spends 90% of his income on a flat. Soon, the two-bedroom will cost 3600 USD per month. His 1.700-unit housing project has just been bought by a huge private equity fund.

In Barcelona, Ahmed and his family are the last left in their building where all other apartments are sealed off. The new owner has been pushing all of their neighbours out.

In London, people talk about ‘bank boxes in the sky’; new condo buildings and flats sold on international fairs as investment pieces. Now many apartments in these shiny new buildings stand empty.

Who are the players and what are the factors that make housing one of today’s most pressing world issues? "

In the Shadow it Waits: Live Performance & Q&A

Friday July 10th and Saturay July 18th

Commences 7.30pm Perth time

“In the Shadow it Waits” is a horror film performed live and edited in real-time. With 61 Scenes, 58 Camera Setup and actors performing live from their own homes in different states across Australia, the film is made as you watch it. Each performance is a different experience and Perth International Film Festival is proud to be presenting two live screenings.

The film tells the story of four twenty-something co-workers bored with their day jobs and sick of being locked up in isolation, who play a silly online game and unwittingly prove the truth of an urban legend. And while these co-workers might not be able to get out, it doesn’t mean that something can’t get in. Would you dare to play?

Creator Michael Beets says,

“This project was created and rehearsed entirely in isolation, in fact, the actors and myself have never met. We've created a meticulously rehearsed performance that feels like a film but hinges on the excitement and energy of live performance.”

Short Film Documentary Showcase: Real worlds Unfolding

An interesting mix of short film documentaries including:

The Kimberly Man (Director Jeremy Thomson)

Filmmaker Jeremy Thomson goes on a journey to discover more about his fascinating grandfather, Indigenous Politician Ernie Bridge, a man who transformed tribulation into triumph giving the Aboriginal people of the Kimberley an unprecedented voice in Western politics.

POST MORTEM berlin (Director Anton von Heiseler)

“POST MORTEM berlin“ shows the choreography of a body’s last journey. We experience the process of a cremation: from the arrival of the coffin in the crematorium to the filling of the ash capsule. The technical and hygienically perfected process of cremation renders the deceased´s last encounter as industrialised ritual.

A Safe Space For All (Director Shannon Taylor)

The film focuses on 4 members of the LGBTQIA+ community in Perth as they reflect on their experiences and discuss why queer safe spaces mean so much to queer individuals and society.

Bright Lights: The Perils of the Pokies (Director Charby Ibrahim)

Sharon’ (63) has been addicted to poker machine gambling since they first arrived in Australia in 1992. Through this fully animated documentary film, she takes stock of the devastating costs. Told in the first person, Sharon’s story culminates with an incident that pushed her over the edge; an encounter with her 7 year old daughter, and her precious piggy-bank. Sharon’s cautionary tale is unique in that it is comprised of several real life stories (taken verbatim), and amalgamated into a single narrative that speaks to a universal, yet personal experience, as voiced by Claudia Karvan.

For more information, check out the Revelation Film Festival website and the program for Rev Couched!

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Double Shot of the RevFilmFest starting with Rev Couched!