Stranger With My Face Horror Film Festival begins (today Thurs)!
featuring special international guest Jennifer Lynch and outstanding genre filmmakers from around Australia and the world
7-10 March 2013, Salamanca Arts Centre and MONA Cinema, Hobart
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hobart – 6 March The Stranger With My Face Horror Film Festival begins in Hobart tomorrow, with a program of film screenings, talks, workshops and social events across four days.
Jennifer Lynch, daughter of iconic filmmaker David Lynch and a highly regarded genre director, is the event’s featured filmmaker, with screenings of her films at the Peacock Theatre and at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA Cinema).
“We’re absolutely thrilled to have Jen here, and to be able to screen several of her films. She’s an original and bold filmmaker and represents everything we love about independent cinema.”
“We’re even more honoured that she’s visiting Australia for the first time to attend Stranger With My Face.”
Eight other genre filmmakers are travelling to Hobart from around the country, as well as special guests like Special Effects wiz Steve Boyle (Predestination, The Hobbit) and acclaimed playwright Hilary Bell (Wolf Lullaby, The Splinter).
The festival will open with a showcase of new films on 7 March, the screening and awards night for the inaugural 48-Hour ‘Tasploitation’ Challenge. Fourteen filmmaking teams (eleven Tasmanian and 3 from other states) made a short horror film of 5 minutes or less over the course of a weekend.
The theme was ‘Tasploitation’ (the idea of a uniquely Tasmanian brand of schlock horror) and the signature phrase ‘spit it out’.
Filmmakers and other VIPs will gather on the red carpet prior to the sold out screening, for photos in their most outrageous outfits.
The second major event is the official opening on 8 March, with the opening night film—the documentary Despite the Gods, about Jennifer Lynch’s experiences in India making the ill-fated feature film, Hisss.
Both Lynch and the director of that film, Penny Vozniak, will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.
“Aside from being a very entertaining documentary, it’s a film about how incredibly hard it is to make a film,” says Festival Director Briony Kidd.
“From the statistics it’s clear that female filmmakers face unique challenges in the industry, so it’s also highly relevant to our festival in that sense.”
The Stranger With My Face Horror Film Festival focuses on female perspectives in genre and seeks to highlight the work of female artists specifically. Most horror film festival are heavily male-dominated, despite the massive numbers of women and girls who are avid fans of the genre.
Stranger With My Face is part of the international movement Women in Horror Month and this year also coincides with International Women’s Day.
Briony Kidd & Rebecca Thomson Festival Directors
