the Curb

In 2024, director Natalie Bailey and writer Lou Sanz unleashed Audrey onto audiences in Australia and America. Here's a film that I called a caustic comedy that rains like refreshing acid rain. Here's the story of a mum, Ronnie (played by Jackie van Beek), who opts to literally take over the life of her daughter Audrey (Josephine Blazier) when she ends up in a coma after an accident.

This immaculately layered comedy film arrived in a time where Australian audiences are calling for more Aussie comedies, yet they're simply not paying attention to their existence, or if they do go and see them, they push off against them saying that they should be more like The Castle. As a writer and critic who predominantly covers Australian films, the notion of funnelling a creative voice into one style of genre storytelling is a frustrating and reductive one, and in turn, means that audiences are denying themselves the chance of engaging with some of the most inventive, exciting, and entertaining feature films that we've had in recent years.

That notion of reframing and recontextualising Audrey soon after its release is part of the scope of the upcoming screening of Audrey at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival, where the film has received the ReFrame Stamp for Gender-Balanced Production. This is an international mark of distinction that recognises film and television projects that have undertaken gender balanced hiring practices inclusive of women, non-binary and trans people across key production roles. Gender balance is something that's often discussed in relation to Screen Australia's Gender Matters initiative, but is rarely executed.

In the following interview, writer Lou Sanz unpacks the reactions to Audrey, followed by a discussion on how the script was built, including the creation of characters, the queer positivity on screen, and finding the empathy within dark comedy. Lou also talks about her work on the seminal early 2000s comedy series Life Support, which saw actors like Abbie Cornish and Brendan Cowell satirise lifestyle programming with some of the finest dark comedy we've been privileged to see on screen.

Audrey is screening with a discussion around the ReFrame Stamp at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival on Friday 21 March 2025 in Naarm-Melbourne. Tickets are available via MWFF.org.au.

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At just twenty years old, transgender wunderkind Alice Maio Mackay has crafted a filmography that would make most seasoned professionals envious. Alice's filmography is built within a defiantly independent space that centres queer stories on screen. From 2021's short film The Serpent's Nest, to the run of genre defying horror and sci-fi feature films that includes 2021's So Vam, 2022's Bad Girl Boogey, 2023's T-Blockers and Satranic Panic, and 2024's Carnage for Christmas, Alice has showed other filmmakers the possibilities of independent cinema within Australia.

Alice follows in the footsteps of fellow Aussie trans filmmaker Dee McLachlan, who made a name for herself with the 2007 film The Jammed and the acclaimed series Wentworth, paving a way for fellow trans filmmakers in Australia and across the world. With her own distinct style of filmmaking, Alice has inspired and worked with fellow trans filmmakers like Vera Drew (The People's Joker) and Louise Weard (Castration Movie). Trans critic Willow Catelyn Maclay called this trio of filmmakers the 'Three Headed Hydra of Edgy Doll Cinema' and it's their collective filmography that is shaping what modern trans storytelling looks like in cinema.

If you haven't already picked up Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema by Willow and fellow critic Caden Mark Gardner, then make sure to do so. It is one of the vital books about queer cinema.

In the following interview, Alice talks about kicking off her career as a filmmaker in Kaurna-Adelaide, growing up on a diet of Buffy and Keeping Up Appearances, while also talking about the fun of making an Australian Christmas film and working alongside non-binary actor Zarif, who has also made a name for themselves as they help shape what Australian queer cinema looks like on screen.

There's a notion of communal friendship that exists within Buffy that can be felt as a connective thread of Alice's work. It's a foundational aspect of T-Blockers, which sees a small town overrun by parasites that turn everyday men into horrifying, possessed hosts that spew literal bile, hatred, and violence, threating the local queer community. T-Blockers is a wickedly subversive film that engages in politics and queer identity, while also showing the possibilities of independent genre filmmaking.

Alice's work can be found on Shudder or Vinegar Syndrome (T-Blockers, Carnage for Christmas), and all good places where you can rent films.

If you want to find out more about the work we do on The Curb, then head over to TheCurb.com.au. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. If you can and have the means to support us, please visit Patreon.com/thecurbau to support our work from as little as $1 a month.

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For decades, David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz were Australian film reviewing royalty, having built up a loyal following with their weekly show on SBS, The Movie Show. The 90s and early 00s was the peak of David & Margaret’s influence over Australian audiences. What they recommended, people would head out and go and see.

Both David and Margaret are staunch supporters of cinema, becoming advocates for all kinds of cinema and decrying the impacts of censorship. While both have played roles in the way that film censorship in Australia has impacted what we see, it’s Margaret’s role with the notorious Larry Clarke film, Ken Park, which saw her make headlines after she put on an ‘illegal’ screening of the film after it received a ‘Refused Classification’ status, aka, the film being banned from Australia.

That pivotal moment in Australian film criticism history is what sits at the heart of Zachary Ruane and Alexei Toliopoulos’ comedy show Refused Classification, which is currently making its way around Australian comedy festivals, having recently played at the Adelaide Fringe, with shows to be held in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth on the horizon.

The show sees Zachary don a salt and pepper wig as David, while Alexei somehow manages to imbue himself with the spirit of Margaret Pomeranz with her trademark golden locks. Together, they retell this point in Aussie cinema history through the form of comedy show, documentary and verbatim theatre.

In the following interview, Zachary and Alexei talk about how the show came about, their experiences watching Ken Park, how Simon Miraudo’s brilliant Book of the Banned (buy it here) helped inform the show, and Alexei goes deep on his personal connection with the At the Movies board game.

I should add too, if you’re interested in reading the transcripts of David and Margaret’s work on both The Movie Show and At the Movies, then check out this Letterboxd account which has logged all of them over the years. And keep in mind that the shows are all available on SBS On Demand too, if you want that real nostalgia trip.

To keep up to date on where the show is playing, make sure to follow both Zachary and Alexei on Instagram.

We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. If you can and have the means to support us, please visit Patreon.com/thecurbau to support our work from as little as $1 a month.

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This podcast is also recorded in Naarm, Victoria, with fellow critic Nadine Whitney reviewing two of the films screening at the 2025 Alliance Française French Film Festival.

In the following reviews, Nadine discusses Anne Fontaine's Bolero and Éric Besnard's Miss Violet.

For all the festival details and to purchase tickets, visit AFFrenchFilmFestival.org.

If you want to find out more about the work we do on The Curb, then head over to TheCurb.com.au. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. If you can and have the means to support us, please visit Patreon.com/thecurbau to support our work from as little as $1 a month.

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Carmen & Bolude marks something of a first for Australian films. Here is a comedy about two close friends, Carmen (Michela Carattini) and Bolude (Bolude Watson), who both call Australia home. Carmen proudly embraces her Latin heritage, while Bolude navigates the line between Western values and her Nigerian roots. Together, they take on the world and the rampant Americanised identity politics that have caused much society to turn against itself.

We meet Carmen on the subways of New York where a man uses the close proximity of a packed train to touch her. Carmen loudly and proudly advocates for herself, standing up against the patriarchal dominance of the spaces we live.

When we meet Bolude, she is also working abroad in new York, a home away from home where she needs to navigate the surprise marriage proposal from her white Aussie boyfriend Tommy (Liam Grienke). That navigation means a careful consideration of how she approaches her cultural roots, and the path that she wants to follow in her life. After all, it's quite likely that her father Akin (Wale Ojo) would disapprove of the marriage.

And disapprove he does, giving Bolude the ultimatum that she needs to collect 100 welcomes from Australian locals to prove to her father that she has a home away from home. What follows is a bright and delightful celebration of sisterhood, friendship, and remembering the cultural roots that tie us to our parents and our past.

What makes Carmen & Bolude something of a first for Australian films is in its proudly women-led foundations, driven by voices that want to hear themselves on screen in an industry that regularly asks for more diversity on screen. We so rarely get to hear from the Nigerian diaspora on screen in Australia, so to not only see and hear their stories, but to also witness the joy of dance, is an impactful step forward for Australian cinema.

Carmen & Bolude is a joyous, life affirming comedy that'll have you grinning from start to finish. Full of rich and beautiful characters that make you feel like you're spending time with family and friends. It's a genuine delight, and I'm grateful for the time and openness that both Michela and Bolude shared with me in the following interview.

Carmen & Bolude is produced by Yolandi Franken and Michela Carattini, with Michela co-directing alongside Maria Isabel Delaossa. Michela and Bolude co-wrote the script together, and take co-lead duties in the film, with a supporting cast that includes David Collins, Olivia Vasquez, Wale Ojo, and many more.

In the following discussion, Michela and Bolude talk about the journey to getting this story on screen, the joy of dance, and the importance of seeing and hearing your own stories on screen.

Carmen & Bolude will be screening at the Hayden Orpheum on 19 March 2025, with further screenings around Australia. Find all the dates and more here.

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My Melbourne is a powerful and uplifting new collaborative feature made with an array of established Indian directors and emerging Australian filmmakers, alongside a diverse group of writers behind the scenes, who each bring one of four stories of Naarm-Melbourne to life on screen.

My Melbourne opens with the narrative called Nadini, it's directed by Onir with co-direction from William Duan. This story followed Indraneel, played brilliantly by Arka Das, and his partner Chris (Jackson Gallagher), who both prepare for the arrival of Indraneel's father, Mihir (Mouli Ganguly), in Melbourne to perform the Asthi Visarjan (ash-scattering) of Indraneel's mother.

This is followed by Jules, directed by Arif Ali, with Imtiaz Ali as the creative director and Tammy Yang as the co-director. Jules tells the story of Sakshi (Arushi Sharma), an Indian woman moving into the world of chef work at a prestigious restaurant. She encounters abuse and resistance from her distanced husband who demands she lives a life in service of him. Sakshi's life is disrupted in interesting ways by the appearance of the homeless woman Jules (Kat Stewart) who sleeps rough outside the restaurant.

The third story follows Emma, played by Ryanna Skye Lawson. Emma is directed by Rima Das with Samira Cox working as a co-director. Emma lives with Usher's Syndrome, which impacts her hearing and her ability to dance. We follow Emma's journey as a dancer as she encounters discrimination, all the while finding her path to dancing her way.

The final story is Setara's story, following the 15-year-old Afghan refugee Setara (played by Setara Amiri) as she immerses herself in her new school, and finds her way into the schools cricket team. Setara is directed by Kabir Khan, with co-direction by Puneet Gulati.

My Melbourne is a narratively rich, powerful and uplifting film about diverse lives in Melbourne. It's an enriching and grounded experience which encourages audiences to see their city differently - namely, through the eyes of diverse folk who we rarely get to see or hear on screen. Much like its northern counterpart, the 2022 film Here Out West, My Melbourne is a collaborative experience that aims to change what stories we hear on screen.

In the following interview with producer Mitu Bhowmick Lange, we talk about the journey to the screen for My Melbourne, while also touching on the importance of the collaborative relationship between Indian filmmakers and Australian storytellers. We also talk about the creative journey for the script writing process, and what it means for emerging filmmakers to be able to work alongside directors like Onir, Kamir Khan, Rima Das, and Arif Ali, who have each created rich bodies of work in Indian cinema.

My Melbourne is heading out into cinemas today, from 6 March 2025. I strongly encourage you to head out into the cinema to catch this brilliant film and to show filmmakers and funding filmmakers that diverse voices are important and what we need to hear on screen. As I mention at the close of this interview, I would love to see films like My Melbourne and Here Out West inspire filmmakers in other cities to create similar diverse stories of their home on screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQhQEryxDQg 

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Matt Mirams is a indie creative who has over two decades of experience as a musician, actor, director, theatresports enthusiast, and independent filmmaker. His latest film, Residence, is a bloody zombie comedy that sees Australia inflicted by a brain eating parasite that turns its hosts into mindless zombies that wander the countryside looking for their next victim.

It's also a biting satire about the consumerist world we live in, asking whether it's the mind-sapping parasites that have turned us into mindless beings, or whether it's our reliance on technology and automation that has sucked our engagement levels down to zero.

In the following interview, edited for length purposes, Matt talks about his journey into filmmaking, what his drive is as an indie filmmaker, and what it means to be able to work with a huge cast of emerging talent, some of whom share the screen with industry legends like Ian Smith and Don Bridges. Matt gets open and honest about the difficulties of releasing a film in todays landscape, how to engage with audiences, and more.

Residence will roll out around Australia this year. Keep an eye on the Instagram page for more details.

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With her debut feature documentary film Queens of Concrete, Eliza Cox takes audiences on a seven year journey with three skateboarders: Ava Godfrey, Charlotte Heath, and Hayley Wilson. They each embrace a different style of skateboarding, with street and park being the two styles that are featured at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics. It's that 2020 Olympics that the girls have their sights set on, with Eliza following their journey from the skateparks of Melbourne to the sponsored events in London and LA, to boarding schools dedicated to bringing up the next generation of skaters.

There's an inherent drama to skateboarding - you never know if the skater is going to fall, what they're going to pull off, and how they're going to take a risky jump - and that's paired well with the inherent drama of being a teenager turning into an adult. Or, in the case of Charlotte, a kid turning into a teenager. Each of the girls has their own life journey to follow, and Eliza's dedicated observational lens follows them in a caring and considered manner. This is not a director simply documenting the lives of their subjects, but supporting their journey in an empathetic manner.

Queens of Concrete moves in the same vein as the great skating docos of the turn of the millennium, with Eliza noting the impact that Dogtown and Z-Boys had on her work. As a viewer, I couldn't help but feel the pull of Eddie Martin's excellent All This Mayhem, a film which also hails from the streets of Melbourne. Either way, the impact of sports documentaries is a strong one on Eliza's creative vision.

I caught up with Eliza ahead of the AIDC panel Levelling the Playing Field: Celebrating Trailblazers in Sports Docs, where she joins fellow documentarians Frances Elliott, who co-directed Renee Gracie: Fireproof, and Marlee Silva, of the upcoming film Skin in the Game. In the following interview, we talk about her journey into filmmaking, what it means to be a supportive director, the choice behind making a sports film about girls or a film about girls who skate, and a lot more.

If you're in Naarm-Melbourne this weekend, then make yourself known and head along to ACMI on Monday 3 March where you can catch Levelling the Playing Field, alongside a stack more great panels and events at the Australian International Documentary Conference.

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Jesse Vogelaar is a writer and director whose works spans across Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, flitting between the stage where he masters the art of improvisation, to advertisements, where he transforms the products of Samsung or Specsavers into savvy slices of commercial entertainment, to his growing body of short films, which includes You Lose, a short that Junkee called Australia’s Greatest Work Of Art to Room for One More, a tale of a bloke trapped under his collapsed house, calling his mate, asking him to make a short film for him, to Accoladia, an absurd comedy about being the best of everything in the world.

Jesse's work stands as a way of exploring the complexities of society through an absurd lens. It's a style of creativity which Jesse dubs 'imaginative logic', a term that makes complete sense when you let his work wash over you and change your world view.

In the following interview, recorded ahead of Accoladia's appearance at Flickerfest, Jesse talks about his creative process, the way critics or writers like me apply our own logic to absurdist work, the freedom of advertising, and a lot more.

To view some of Jesse's work, visit JesseVogelaar.com. I highly recommend you watch Room for One More, a brilliantly executed short film that is both absolutely hilarious, and quietly moving too.

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Listeners should note that the following interview contains discussions about trauma as it relates to #MeToo.

The work of director Ruth Caudeli regularly appears at the Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival, with her previous films Eva and Candela and Leading Ladies both screening at the festival. Her latest film, Same, Again, makes its world premiere at the festival on 25 February 2025.

This improvised drama follows a Colombian theatre troupe who join together to bring the play La Casa de Bernada Alba (The House of Bernada Alba) by Federico Garcia Lorca to life on stage. This play follows the impact of men upon women, which then becomes a textual point within Same, Again, as one of the guiding forces behind this staged appearance is a man.

Same, Again deals with impactful themes of trauma, showing the power of coercion and control that takes place from the foundational aspects of putting on a play - as we see in some intense and controlling audition sequences which forces actors to put themselves into vulnerable situations - to the final performance. Throughout the play, the actors each expose their own vulnerabilities, insecurities, and exposure of their own past traumas. What results in a narrative that delves into male-created trauma, all the while giving agency back to those who have experienced pain.

In the following interview, recorded ahead of the films world premiere at Queer Screen on 25 February 2025, Ruth talks about the foundational work of the film, what it means to be able to give space to trauma on screen, and about her work with long time partner Silvia Santamaría.

Queer Screen continues its cinematic run until 27 February 2025, so you've got plenty of time to head along and catch a film in a cinema before this years festival heads online for the On Demand section of the festival, which runs Australia wide from 28 February to 10 March 2025. For all details, visit QueerScreen.org.au.

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