The Chaser Report - Nashen Moodley on the Sydney Film Festival

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

In this Afternoon Edition of The Chaser Report, Zander and Charles interview the director of the Sydney Film Festival Nashen Moodley. Nashen answers questions all about how the festival is organised, how many films he has to watch, and gives Zander a very important task. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chase of Report. Now we're joined by the director of the Sydney Film Festival, Nishen Moodley. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me on the show. We're about halfway through the festival now. How has it been so far? It's been great. It's been really fantastic to be back in cinemas. I think the audiences have really loved the films.

The filmmakers we have in town have really enjoyed being. in the cinema again with audiences, and the reaction to the program has been really fantastic. So we're so very happy to be at this point. The festival was supposed to run in August of this year, and then the massive COVID flare-up happened, and it got pushed back. Did the program change much from one version of it to the next? Actually, the festival was first meant to happen in June, and then from June to August, then from August to November.

And when we moved from August to November, we anticipated we could lose a great number of films. And actually, we only lost about 20 films. And that was because, of course, some films were scheduled for, you know, to be broadcast or to appear on streamers. Because cinemas were closed in Victoria and New South Wales, the main, you know, the biggest, largest number of cinemas, the impact on us wasn't as much as we expected because, of course, films couldn't release.

So many films just chose to hold for the festival. So we lost about 20 films and we added about 20 films. But I must say, we managed to secure so many great films from the Venice Film Festival, from the Toronto Film Festival, so that in the end we ended up with what I think is a pretty fantastic program. What's the most notable film of the festival, in your opinion? That's hard to, that's a really tough question. But I'd say, for instance, I mean, many films have sold out, but there was a really great

anticipation and enthusiasm for Jane Campions, new film, The Power of the Dog. She hasn't made a feature film in more than 10 years, I think. So that was a really exciting screening. I think that was one of the most anticipated films of the festival. But there are many more and many more to come. I think Titan, the film that won the Pando and Cannes this year, and is quite a controversial and quite hard going film. There was a lot of anticipation for that.

So there are a number of films through the program and even yet to come that I think are extremely notable. I'm on a journey to see 36 films over this festival, and I've seen such a wide variety of films so far. How do you decide what goes in it? Like, do you just sit down at the couch with like 20 of you and you're just eating popcorn for days on end to watching films over and over and over again? How do you choose the 200 films? That's not how we do it. So typically my colleague, Jenny Neighbor and I would travel to many festivals around the world and watch films.

Oh, what a hard life. I would program primarily the feature films and she programs the documentary films. We work with a group of curators who work on individual sections like the Freak Me Out section or the family film section, for instance. We receive thousands of submissions and have a large group of people who watch all those submissions and make recommendations to us. So it's a process that's quite a long process. Usually we start very soon after one edition on the programming for the next edition. And I've already invited about 20 films for the next festival, which will take place in June. So it's a long process, and what we try to do in that process, because we show quite a large number of films, we try to have a great amount of diversity in that program.

Geographical diversity, stylistic diversity, very established filmmakers, very new filmmakers working on their first films, and try to have something for everyone so that we get as many people coming into the festival as possible. Are some of the submissions that people send in really shit? Not every film that's submitted is great. We receive thousands of submissions. But if there are thousands, how possibly do you wade through the sheet? Well, I don't watch every submission, right? So we have a large group of people who watch, you know, go through all the submissions. And yes, some films are not great at all.

And so who are those people? Are they people who think that they've made a good film and don't really know? Or are they just? Well, you can make what is technically a film with your phone in your home. And do people? They do. Yeah. That's extraordinary.

And then they submit it and they go, here, we'll win the film festival. Oh, that's really sad. I feel really sad. Look, it's not many, but yes, they... Can we run a film festival of the worst of your, like... No, you can open submissions to your own festival festival and go through the process yourself, and then you're welcome. So how many films are you seeing each year, Nishan?

Several hundred. I don't count, but several hundred. maybe four or five hundred do they blur into one because i remember with the talks before films you talk about like undine which was this beautiful movie but you talked about how it stuck with you for nearly two years now how do you differentiate the movies in your mind oh that's not difficult for me i i i remember the films i might not remember every plot point or how it ends you know two years after i first saw it but i remember the films of course because uh i'm i'm I met David Stratton last year for the first time.

Amazing guy. But one of the things that he has is this extraordinary ability to not only recall every film in vivid detail, but tell you exactly where he was when he saw it. Yeah, like he can remember everything. Watch here. Yeah. It's encyclopedic. It's freaky.

I mean, I speak to him fairly often and he'll watch something or we might want something together. And he says, well, this reminds me of the Polish film I saw in 1964, the Venice Film Festival. I was sitting in C-F-4 and like, and I was drinking a soda water. Yeah. And the straw was pink. It's very much. Yeah. There's a director I know, one of my favorite directors, a Brazilian director, Clebo Mendoza Filio, who's come to Sydney Film Festival with each of his feature films. And he also has the ability to remember precisely which cinema. he saw every film that he's seen. So Zander, how many of you seen so far, Zendez?

So I've seen at the time of this recording 16 films, and I've got 17, 18 and 19 this afternoon. Can you remember anything about any of those 16 films that you've seen? Yeah, I reckon I can remember pretty much all of them. Oh, okay. But we've got a new, Dave's spreading on our hands. Maybe you should hire him as one of your people to wait through all the shit films. We'll see if he makes it through the 36.

Yeah, I'm confident. it. Well, Xanda, I must tell you that there are some people, this year it might not be possible, but there are some people that I meet each year who watch like 50 films at least at the festival. Yeah, I tried to do the most, but I think like with the COVID timing, it is harder

to get through more. Exactly. It is more difficult. And in that way, to get to like 50, you know, just over 50, you can't be that mobile. You have to stick to one or two cinemas that are close together. Yeah. One of

One of the most interesting things of the festival so far has been running into the people in the stalls, especially the state theater. And there's people who talk about going to the Sydney Film Festival for 30 years. And there's this one lady who was talking about how they would smuggle out films from the Eastern Bloc in the 80s. For a film festival that had a lot of underground elements and people still remember that, how do you make sure that it still feels artistic now and not too corporatized? Through the films, I think if you watch the films and you watch enough films, you'll understand that it's certainly not corporatized. It's still, we're still screening films that are considered dangerous in their home countries, films that are banned in their home countries, films by filmmakers who are banned. There's still very much that spirit of artistic freedom and expression and creating a space for that in Sydney, as a

as there always has been, we're showing films from 69 countries this year. So it's really not, it's really a reaction to the mainstream in many ways. When you consider what you'd see in cinemas, in general theatrical release in this country, and this country is better off than many, you're primarily seeing American films, sometimes very mainstream films from India, China. French films are not very much else I mean in little

smattering of things from elsewhere so we're showing films from 69 countries so I think that's a signal of how seriously we take what's happening in world cinema

and through that what's happening in the world and you're exempt from censorship laws aren't you? Films are exempted from classification for the purpose of the festivals

and many films are already classified but we have the ability through the exemption to present films prior to them being classified. Right, okay. So that means that even if it would get banned, you can still show it. Is that right? No.

Well, you don't know, right? You don't know that the film, the films don't get banned these days, really, very much. I know. It happened not a while ago, but. It's a pity. Did you see cats? Because that should have been banned. I saw the trailer.

has this lockdown and trying to run the festival last year and then having to go online and then this year having to delay it a few times has it changed how you'll approach festivals in the future obviously hopefully next year we can have filmmakers fly in and we can have some of the big names from around the world come to the festival again but has it given you any pause to think how you can evolve the format of a film festival or change it for the better going forward I think we've learned lots of things from this time in March last year

we had to cancel the festival and I'm referring to the 2020 edition and that was the first time that the festival had not happened in well over 60 years it was just such a shocking thing for us and of course all sorts of horrible things

happened around the world it would have been inconceivable to think of doing an online film festival for us before last year. And yet, three months after we cancelled, we were able to mount an online festival, something much smaller than we usually do, of course, but it showed we could do it.

So we've learned lots of things about how that works. We've learned lots of things about how you can engage audiences through presenting films online, presenting panel discussions online, filmmaker talks online. And through all that, I think we discover that for audiences, for filmmakers, for the festival itself, being in cinemas is the most important thing. It's the best way we can present the festival. But we have all these other

options now. And I think over the next few years, we'll work out how to integrate those elements that are most useful. Because having the festival become more accessible to people who cannot get to Sydney or cannot get to the cinema is a really useful thing to have. But But the primary experience, I think, is still having a lot of people there with the filmmaker. That's where the excitement is. We also feel that the cinema business has gone through such a torrid time. So many cinemas around the world have closed down. And we feel we have to support cinemas.

And because the future of festivals is inextricably linked with the future of cinemas. If there are no cinemas, we have no place to show the films. we have no place to create that ideal experience. So I think we have to double down almost in our support of that cinematic experience because that's in peril. It's seriously in peril. Is it really, though? I mean, I don't know about you, but literally the day after we got out of lockdown,

the first thing my kids wanted to do was go to the cinema. And we did. We went to the movies, you know. Well, that's excellent. Well, you know, your family is a mind. for... Well, I think it's just because they got to look at a different screen for once. But I think, I'm not sure, like, people say it's in peril.

And of course, you know, COVID's been rough to it. But surely it'll just bounce back. You can't replicate, you know, like, you just go there and you go, oh, yeah, this is so vastly better than sitting at home in front of a shitty little TV. Sure. Look, I hope that's the case. I hope that's the case. I hope that, and I'm certainly not writing cinema off.

Better not, me. Exactly. The head of the fucking film festival. Nash and I need to get to 50 films next year. We've got to have enough cinemas open for that to be possible. But I think it's something we have to support. I think we have to be active about it. We shouldn't take it for granted.

Oh, cinemas will always be there. I think cinemas have gone to a terrible, terrible time. So we shouldn't take it for granted. We have to be aware that, There are many options out there, and it's something about cinemas that we have to support, but also enhance the experience, make sure that the programming in cinemas is right to attract people in great numbers, and for that to keep going. You're completely right that cinema has been written off so many times over its history, and it's always come back and always thrived, but we have to be mindful.

I know there's been a lot of interest in Korean sort of cinema in the last few years, especially with Parasite and stuff like that. But are there any other countries that are making interesting and creating a sort of cinematic culture within their own societies that perhaps are a little bit off the radar? There's so many. I think, for instance, Romania makes not that many films. They're not that many cinemas in Romania, as far as I understand it. But the films are typically extraordinary, just incredible.

The small country of Georgia, you don't see many films from Georgia, but whenever I see film from Georgia, it's pretty amazing. The Balkan region, again, not very many films are made, and many are made around the war that still has such a pervasive influence of that society. And I think those are extraordinary films. I think they're really extraordinary films that make this. this body of work by very different filmmakers that looks at this lingering trauma

in a way that's, I think, truly moving and special. It creates a very special cinema. So I think you can look at various countries in the world where so much is happening. Korea, of course, has a very big tribe in film industry. They're, you know, typically the blockbusters of Korea are Korean films, not than Hollywood,

Hollywood films. And that was very intentional, wasn't it? They did that. Yeah, exactly. They basically looked at cinema and went, hang on, you know, the profitability of filmmaking is enormous. Look at Hollywood. We could do that same thing here.

And they studied not just Hollywood, but Bollywood as well, didn't they? That's right. And created a quota system, which I think no longer exists, but the quota system meant that films that appeared, a particular percentage of films that appeared in cinemas had to be Korean. And that built a really amazing industry. And I think a filmmaker like Bong Joon for instance, might would have tens of millions of admissions for his films in Korea before the film even goes outside Korea. And that's an amazing thing. There are many other examples of that. And that's a country just saying, as you say, very actively, let's just do it.

Why should we give it all away? I reckon we should do the same thing here. I think we should have a minimum quota of Korean films that you've got to see at the cinema. I think that'd be great. Yeah, they're great. Now, Nash, thank you so much for coming on the show. But just quickly before you go, at the end of the film festival this year, do you have any big events coming up?

Any gala's anything to cap it off? Or what's it looking like to celebrate or is COVID kind of tap those plans? There are no parties for the festival this year, which is very odd. There are no events. No. But we do have a closing night where all the awards of the festival will be presented. And then there's a closing film, which is the French dispatch by Wes Anderson. Fantastic.

Oh, wow. I'm excited for that. But does that mean there's a space we could potentially organize an underground closing night party? There's space for you to organize an underground. closing night party i would you come in my personal capacity if you invited me certainly i would come oh wow yes that's great you heard it here first thanks so much for coming on the show nash and it's been amazing it's been a great pleasure great to speak to you guys thanks for having me thank you and you just heard that zander is now the official organizer of the sydney film festival closing night party do you hear it here first

Thank you very much for that. Thanks so much. That was fun.