the Curb

Whether it be loneliness, solitude, finding sanctuary in a stifled relationship or waiting for a takeaway meal, or maybe one of the most precious things of all, the comfort in creating for ones self, Kaite Fitz is shifting how we see ourselves on screen. Her short film Smoke, which premiered at the St Kilda Film Festival, presents Lianne Mackessy's main character, a woman who moves through her day, quietly being hollowed out by a void that's emerging within her. Her relationship exists, but it's more of an idea than anything else, yoga becomes an event tinged with friction. Her work, restoring art, is a rare sanctuary.

The title, Smoke, alludes to the lingering presence of something burnt, the smell of the past hanging into the future. Sometimes this is a comforting smell, like incense, or sometimes it's a smell that heralds a lie or the smothering of truth, like the lingering haze of cigarettes.

Kaite is an emerging Australian filmmaker who presents women who live familiar lives, rolling forward on a continuing existence that persists in the face of stagnation. We rarely see these characters on screen because we're so rarely invited to hear from and engage with women storytellers who present real people on screen. It's no surprise then that Kaite looks to filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt or Alena Lodkina as inspirations for the work that she's doing.

In the following interview, Kaite talks about her creative process, about having learned from filmmaker Michael Rowe, working with producer Miki Clarke, the notion of truth on screen, as well as exploring what her creative voice looks like on screen with films like Smoke, and in her as yet unproduced feature screenplay Peachy.

This interview is part of the ongoing series of emerging filmmakers who are part of the rising swell of Australian filmmakers. These are storytellers who are collectively, yet singularly, shaping what the Australian film oeuvre looks like, feels like, and sounds like. In turn, they are forming a new language for Australian cinema, shaping what stories are being told, how they're being presented, and much more.

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When Nadine Whitney interviewed actor Frank Mosley, she started their chat with a game akin to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Want to know how to get to Meryl Streep from Frank? Easier than even Frank probably thinks. Frank starred in Geoff Marslett’s Quantum Cowboys which also featured Alex Cox. Alex Cox directed Ed Harris in Walker. Ed also features in Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of The Hours.

Frank is usually a supporting or character actor, but when given the chance to lead a film such as Cameron Bruce Nelson’s award-winning 2015 film Some Beasts there is a particular grace to his performance which proves he can (and should) carry a film.

Originally from Texas and now living in Los Angeles, Frank has been in three films with Lily Gladstone, Chained for Life directed by Aaron Schimberg, and is an accomplished director in his own right.

Frank has the incredible ability to create and sustain community within his artistic practice. He’s open to the absurd, the heartfelt, the just plain weird, and the full dramatic spectrum.

Nadine spoke to Frank about working with Albert Birney and Peter Ohs (he also featured in Ohs’ excellent Love and Work) about their 8-Bit fantasy OBEX in which he plays a television named Victor. Take a listen to Frank and his generous and warm presence (even before he’d finished his first coffee) and then go find his work.

Check out Nadine's reviews of OBEX and Quantum Cowboys.

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Filmmaker David Robinson-Smith is one of the major voices of the new Australian film industry. His films include Mud Crab, We Used to Own Houses, and his latest effort, The Shirt Off Your Back, each an essential entry in an increasingly vital filmography.

When we talk about this 'new wave of Australian filmmakers', a term which I'm starting to lean towards calling 'the rising swell of modern Australian cinema' - it doesn't role off the tongue, it's at least distinct from the last Australian new wave that we had, - we then think of people like David Robinson-Smith, cinematography Jaclyn Paterson, actor-writer Laneikka Denne, actor-director Frazer Bull-Clark, or actor Josh Mehmet.

Over the coming months, this notion of the rising swell of Australian cinema is one that I'll explore at length via conversations like this one with David Robinson-Smith, or essays about the creatives I'm spotlighting. Look out for upcoming chats with filmmakers like Lucy Coleman and Kate Fitzgerald.

To find out more about David's work, visit DavidRobinsonSmith.com.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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In their first conversation Nadine and Virat speak about two films which are pilgrimages of a sort. Kasimir Burgess’ Iron Winter, a documentary that takes the viewer into a land rarely seen — that of the nomadic Mongolian horse herders. An immersive and intimate piece of cinema which invites people to see a dying ancient tradition undertaken on the Mongolian Steppes during a five month journey herding horses to viable snow covered pastures. Transcendentally lensed by Benjamin Bryan Iron Winter is almost elegiac. The ravages of the climate crisis are making extreme conditions significantly more brutal and two young herders have to come to terms not only with the elements but also their futures.

Romería by Carla Simón translates to Pilgramage in English. An autobiographical fiction about Simón’s parents and the quest for an orphaned 18 year old woman to find remnants and memories about her father and his family in Vigo, Galicia. Simón’s avatar Marina (Llúcia Garcia) needs documentation for a university scholarship to study film in 2004, but whether she can convince her father’s patrician and evasive parents to accept her as Fon’s daughter is complicated by the way he died and their shame.

With her mother’s diary from 1984 through to 1986 guiding her she imagines their lives as young lovers, but it is a bittersweet imagining as Fon’s family obfuscate truths and misremember because his life has been erased. Again, a film that is spectacularly lensed by Hélène Louvart capturing Vigo and its islands. Will Marina be claimed or rejected? Will she find vestiges of her parents? Will she be able to prove she is more than a reminder of the hidden ghosts of the past?

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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'Art is labour'. This is a statement from composer Jung Jae-il, the man behind the iconic scores to Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, Okja, and Mickey 17, the Netflix smash hit Squid Game, and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker, amongst other works. For Jung Jae-il, the art of composing a score is work.

For Jung Jae-il, artists like Roxette, Metallica and Björk are notable influences on his work, with Pina Bausch's dancing leaving a lingering mark on his mind. It's these kinds of artists who influenced Jung Jae-il on his solo album, Listen, released in 2023.

For Jung Jae-il, there is a clear delineation between art for the self and art for a job, and it's with his work on Parasite that the distinction is felt, while his passion for his album Listen shows an artist in harmony with his craft.

These are just some of the things discussed in the above interview with Jung Jae-il, recorded ahead of his performance of the live score for Parasite at the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival.

Jung Jae-il participates in a conversation with Caitlin Yeo on 23 August at MIFF, with the composer performing a live score for Parasite on 23 August over two sessions at MIFF. Tickets are available here.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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When documentarian Shalom Almond received access to document a group of women prisoners training retired greyhounds to become house-friendly pets for her 2017 film Prisoners and Pups, she opened up a door to be able to capture the hidden stories of women prisoners in Australian jails. Prisoners and Pups is a gentle film that shows the power of rehabilitation programs in prisons, not just for the prisoners, but also for the greyhounds.

Now, in 2025, she is back with her essential documentary Songs Inside. Here Shalom captures the lives of women in the Adelaide Women's Prison, becoming part of their lives for six-months as she documents their participation in a music program which sees prisoners learn how to play the ukulele, write songs, and sing, all in preparation for a performance with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in front of 200 inmates. The climactic performance became the largest concert staged within an Australian correctional facility.

Along the journey, Shalom sits in the cells of the prisoners listening to their stories, accompanies them to hearings, and captures their rehearsal processes. Art becomes a salvation for those inside, a release that is given to the prisoners who show good behaviour. But Shalom is not alone in this process, with Barkindji singer-songwriter Nancy Bates guiding their process to becomes singers and songwriters in their own right.

There's a beautiful charm to Songs Inside that never detracts the reality that these are women who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law. But Shalom also never focuses on what crimes they may have done to find themselves in this situation. Instead, she taps into the notion of redemption, showing in the process that their futures are in their hands and this musical process is a part of the healing journey they find themselves on.

Ahead of Songs Inside's screenings at the Melbourne International Film Festival, I had a chat with Shalom about her work on the film, what it means to be a supportive filmmaker for her subjects, and more. With a career that spans over two decades, Shalom is someone I know I could talk for much longer about her work, and hopefully one day I will.

Songs Inside also screens in competition at CinefestOz, with a full release to come down the line.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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If we consider who some of the great modern Aussie cinematographers are, we immediately think of names like Michael Latham, Stefan Duscio, Jaclyn Paterson, or the man behind the camera of such films as Of an Age, You Won't Be Alone, Hafekasi, Howl, Blue Bayou, My First Summer, and Sophie Hyde's upcoming film, Jimpa.

I'm of course talking about Matthew Chaung.

Across his filmography, Matthew has lensed films with a level of empathy, compassion, and understanding that imbues the work with a warmth and tenderness that ensures that the stories linger in your mind long after the credits. When I think of Matthew's work, I think of the golden hour shots in Katie Found's My First Summer, or the discovery of queer identities in Goran Stolevski's intimate Of an Age, or the child level perspective of the world in Annelise Hickey's stunning Hafekasi. With Jimpa, he becomes part of Sophie Hyde's family, shooting the film with inspiration from Nan Goldin's work.

In the following interview, recorded at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025, Matthew talks through his work and creative process, while also exploring the notion of what makes his cinematography unique. For Australian audiences, you can see Matthew's work in Domini Marshall's stunning new short film Howl, which is making the festival rounds. Matthew also talks about Dario Russo's new film, The Fox, which is on the horizon and stars Jai Courtney, Damon Herriman, and Emily Browning.

If you're keen on finding out more about Matthew's work, visit MatthewChuang.com.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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Dogmilk Films is a collective based between Naarm-Melbourne, Makassar Indonesia, and Paris, France. Founded in 2017, Dogmilk brings alternative and ambitious films to life on screen with impactful screenings of world cinema. In addition to their screenings, Dogmilk has also expanded into filmmaking, with their searing short film Faceless being a prime example of risk-tasking Australian cinema that actively pushes boundaries and questions the status quo of this nations history.

Faceless is a piece of co-authored cinema, with co-directors William Jaka and Fraser Pemberton working alongside co-writer, producer and editor Chris C.F., cinematographer Alexandra Walton, composer Josh Peters, production designer Anna Ross, and many more all working together to critique, question, and examine the class system that lives on the Birrarung-Ga (the Yarra River).

In the film, William plays an Indigenous man through three parallel realities; in one world he's on the banks of the Birrarung-Ga, encountering a rough sleeper who reveals himself to be a war veteran. Heading up the steps into an art gallery, William takes on the role of an aspiring actor encountering a world of fellow artists utilising pain, distortion, and the recurring motif of fish, to turn anguish into art - or is it entertainment? Finally, as they head up the lift to the heights of Naarm, overlooking the city in a luxurious restaurant, William embodies the role of alpha-male stockbrokers and mining companies, lavishly devouring seafood and guzzling wine, all the while mocking his engagement with Andrew Forrest's Mindaroo mining corporation.

There's an acidity to Faceless that, once splashed on the surface of this land, exposes it for what it is: a fractured home of unresolved issues. In turn, those issues have become an unhealthy source of income or salvation.

Faceless screens as part of the Accelerator Shorts sessions at MIFF on 13 and 23 August. William received a nomination for the Uncle Jack Charles Award, in collaboration with the Kearney Group, which recognises an outstanding Australian First Nations creative whose film is screening at MIFF 2025. Visit MIFF.com.au for tickets. To find out more about Dogmilk Films, visit DogmilkFilms.com.

In the above interview, Fraser and William talk about what their co-authorship process looks like, how exploring pain on screen plays out, and what they're hoping to see from the upcoming screenings at MIFF.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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Suri Chan is a queer artist who pulls from her migrant roots to tell stories about her heritage, her future, and her identity through her poems. In her book But I Don't Feel Empowered, available through all bookstores, Suri uses illustrations and her words to invite readers into her world, often utilising stories of iconic landmarks or food to enrich the senses even more.

In the following interview, Suri talks about where her interest in poetry came from, what being a migrant, queer artist means in todays world, and a lot more.

To find out more about Suri's work, visit Suri-Chan.com or find her on Instagram at PoemsBySuri.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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'The front fell off.' The 94 metre 100 metre track. Fred Dagg. 24 years of political satire with Bryan Dawe. These are just a handful of the impactful comedic works from the one and only John Clarke.

For over 40 years, John Clarke brought an unparalleled level of wit, politically astute comedic understanding, and pitch perfect timing to Australian and New Zealand audiences. John Clarke's work as a comedian wasn't just to entertain, but to also make audiences sit and think. Whether it be utilising the landmark comedy series The Games as a way of presenting an apology to the Stolen Generation of Australia, or by calling out the hypocrisy of the colonial state we live in, John Clarke utilised his comedic genius to masterful effect.

In 2017, the world lost John Clarke, and Lorin Clarke lost her father.

Now, after having explored over 200 boxes of John Clarke's work and letters, having written about book about her relationship with her dad, and having interviewed countless fellow comedic masters like Sam Neill, Rhys Darby, and Ben Elton, Lorin has crafted a documentary about her dad called But Also John Clarke.

It's just about one of the most enriching and delightful experiences you'll have this year, even if you're not familiar with John Clarke's work - and I kind of almost envy you if you aren't, as you've got decades of work to be entertained by. For a film that could quite easily have become a hagiography or a maudlin experience, Lorin manages to balance the film with a delightful level of charm and compassion. Compassion not only for the loss of her father, but also for the audience who loved him, her mother, and most importantly, herself.

In the following interview, recorded ahead of But Also John Clarke's world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, Lorin talks about getting the balance right for a film like this, while also touching on the process she undertook to be vulnerable this way.

I had an absolute blast and shed more than a few tears watching But Also John Clarke, as I'm sure you will too.

It screens at MIFF from 15 August to 24 August, with select Q&A sessions with Lorin in attendance. To buy tickets, visit MIFF.com.au.

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