Arts and Entertainment Archive

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. …

“I don’t get it,”  my 14-year-old whispered half way through The Great Gatsby. “It’s a love triangle between Gatsby, Daisy and Daisy’s husband,” I explained. Having read F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel in anticipation of Baz Luhrmann’s new film, I had a …

Walking in late, two minutes into the first number of US tenor icon Ernie Watts’ gig at VJ’s, I was blasted by four cats utterly grooving high. No warm-up for these men – it was straight into the blistering bop of ‘To …