Arts and Entertainment Archive

Oh Boy is the creation of first-time director Jan Ole Gerster. In 2013, the film received the most prestigious German film award, the Lola, and has audiences fascinated by its unique look at everyday life in Berlin. The film screened during this year’s Sydney Film …

If you want to get an insight into Putin’s Russia check out Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer, a documentary by a British and a Russian director about the official reaction to a performance by female punk band Pussy Riot in a Russian Orthodox cathedral …

Documentary movies made for the big screen generally present a dichotomy. The aim to tell the truth, get the raw facts out, is credible, but then the desire to make it a box office success or attract large audiences can lead to …

Acclaimed jazz saxophonist Matthew Ottignon assured me that Saturday night’s launch of his new band Mister OTT would be “something a bit different for the 505 crowd”. Despite his self-confessed “pretty standard” taste in jazz – John Coltrane, Wayne Shorte, Miles Davis, …

Filmmaker John Waters and drag queen extraordinaire Divine are the undisputed king and queen of filth. Divine tore up the screen in Waters’ cult classics Mondo Trasho, Pink Flamingos and Hairspray. Divine was a trendsetter and a rule breaker. He was counter culture pin up, partied …

You could be forgiven for thinking you were in an Amphitheatre on a cliff somewhere in the Mediterranean, not on Sydney Harbour watching a rare performance of the Jean Racine classic Phedre. The elegant but sharp Ted Hughes translation of the Racine …

In all the arts – music and film especially – many sins can be forgiven if a work has heart. The Beatles’ chirpier songs, The Sound Of Music, most Country music, Sly Stallone’s original Rocky – all beloved by millions, and who …

Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls is the story of a journey incorporating music, women’s issues, politics and globalisation, produced in a country at a time of massive societal and political change. We first meet the Tiger Girls in 2010 when Myanmar is …

Imagine falling asleep right there in the cinema, at a film festival with films screening back to back. Suddenly, a strange man who doesn’t belong in these movies breaks the fourth wall and begins addressing you about how the films are affecting …

Gurrumul doesn’t speak during his shows but he doesn’t need to. His quietly majestic music says more than words could ever hope to. Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was born on Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land, about 580 kilometres outside Darwin. …