Golden Age of Humanity Film Festival – Vivid Sydney

Location: Golden Age Cinema & Bar, 80 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Dates: From 25 May, 2024
Buy Tickets: From $24

Nine great Australians, nine outstanding films, and nine evenings at Surry Hills’ renowned Golden Age Cinema. Nine renowned Australians have been chosen for their personal connection to Vivid Sydney’s 2024 topic of humanity, whether through activism, work, or a life narrative. They will present the film they have carefully chosen to connect with the festival theme.

Join us at Golden Age Cinema for nine evenings of illumination and surprise as we celebrate each curator’s contribution to culture, as well as some cinematic greats.

Program

25 May – Viceroy’s House with Amar Singh
28 May – Bend It Like Beckham with Saxon Mullins (Sold out)
30 May – The Tracker with Megan Davis (Sold out)
1 June – Sicko with Daniel Nour
4 June – The Quiet Girl with Kylie Kwong
6 June – Clueless with Carly Findlay
8 June – Beau Travail with Bernard Collaery
13 June – All the President’s Men with Kate McClymont
15 June – Flee with Craig Foster

About The Program

Amar Singh & Viceroy’s House

Saturday 25 May | 8pm

Delhi, 1947: Lord Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville) has been named the last Viceroy, in charge of overseeing the final days of British colonial power as India prepares for independence. The Viceroy and his wife Edwina (Gillian Anderson) must deal with culture shock, expectations of decorum, and simmering political conflicts among the Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh household staff. Among them are star-crossed lovers Jeet (Manish Dayal) and Aalia (Huma Qureshi), who are torn between their passion and their sense of familial duty. This upstairs-downstairs struggle offers a fascinating peek into the lives of regular individuals caught up in events beyond their control, as writer-director Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) broadens her canvas to make the complex web of history more approachable and engaging.

Saxon Mullins & Bend It Like Beckham

Tuesday 28 May | 8pm

Instead of aspiring to be like her older sister, who is preparing to be a traditional Indian wife, young Jess (Parminder Nagra) wishes to play football professionally, much to her parents’ dismay. Jules (Keira Knightley) recognizes Jess’ ability on the field and invites her to try out for the local women’s football team. The two become good friends, bonding over parental disagreements, fledgling romances, and football-themed fantasies. Will Jess’s family appreciate her enthusiasm, or will she have to choose between her family and the sport she adores beyond all else?

Megan Davis & The Tracker

Thursday 30 May | 8pm

Rolf De Heer’s legendary Western The Tracker, which was released more than 20 years ago, has only become more vivid and menacing in its portrayal of the bloody legacy of colonialism. In 1922, the government trooper known as the Fanatic, played by Gary Sweet, is in charge of an operation to apprehend the Fugitive, played by Noel Wilton, an Aboriginal man who is suspected of killing a white woman. In order to find their way through the desert, he and his white companions, the naive Follower and the cynical Veteran, enlist the help of an experienced Aboriginal Tracker named David Gulpilli. However, as the pursuit gets riskier, the group starts to turn against one another, and allegiance lines are made in the sand.

Daniel Nour & Sicko

Saturday 1 June | 8pm

In Sicko, provocateur and filmmaker Michael Moore faces off against the US health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations, two of his most formidable opponents. A quick overview of the history of health care in the United States reveals the complex network of corporate misconduct that has resulted in nearly 50 million citizens lacking health insurance in 2007. Additionally, many individuals who do have health insurance become mired in bureaucratic red tape and sanctioned fraud, leaving them completely unemployed. Moore compares the potential of a publicly supported health care system versus the for-profit one that forces Americans from all walks of life into medically induced poverty while visiting Canada, the UK, France, and Cuba.

Kylie Kwong & The Quiet Girl

Tuesday 4 June | 8pm

The Quiet Girl is an instant classic that has already made history by being the highest-grossing Irish-language picture of all time. Catherine Clinch, a child actor, makes an incredible debut in the role of nine-year-old Cáit, who comes from a troubled, crowded, and poor household. She has struggled at home and at school and has learned to blend in with the people around her. As summer approaches and her mother’s due date draws near, Cáit is sent to live with the Kinsellas, who are distant relations. Cáit grows and learns a new way of life under their loving and caring guidance. But she learns one unpleasant reality in this place where love thrives and secrets are not supposed to exist.

Carly Findlay & Clueless

Thursday 6 June | 8pm

naive, an absolute classic of 1990s teen drama, centers on Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), a popular, wealthy, charming, and, well, naive Beverly Hills High student. This movie opens with Cher and her best friend Dion (Stacey Dash) deciding to tutor the new girl at school (Brittany Murphy), which is somewhat based on the Jane Austen novel Emma. To make matters more complicated, Josh, Cher’s socially concerned stepbrother (Paul Rudd), has returned from college and a new, attractive man who adores Billie Holiday has moved to town. Clueless masterfully parodies the high school experience, Los Angeles life, and the fads, styles, and general atmosphere of the 1990s.

With this irresistible gem, Amy Heckerling makes a comeback fourteen years after helming the legendary ’80s high school comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It features an era-appropriate soundtrack (with No Doubt, Supergrass, Velocity Girl, and Coolio) and future stars Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, and lady-of-the-moment Alicia Silverstone. Along with that, it gave rise to a TV show and a few memorable catchphrases. Come on, roll with your buddies!

Bernard Collaery & Beau Travail

Saturday 8 June | 8pm

Claire Denis cemented her reputation as one of the greatest visual poets of all time with her breathtakingly sensual interpretation of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor. Beneath the crashing, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) plants the seeds of his own downfall amid the blue waters and sun-kissed desert landscapes of Djibouti, his obsession with a striking young recruit (Grégoire Colin) playing out. Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard create shimmering, mesmerizing visuals that eventually burst in one of the most shocking and unforgettable endings in contemporary film. These images combine violent envy, repressed passion, military and masculine codes of honor, and the heritage of colonialism.

Kate McClymont & All the President’s Men

Thursday 13 June | 8pm

Inspired by the Watergate crisis, which almost brought down a US government, All The President’s Men is a masterfully rendered tale of traditional investigative journalism and the individuals who spearheaded it. Five men were detained in 1972 for breaking into the DNC offices under cover of darkness in Nixon’s paranoid America. Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) receives this small story from The Washington Post and discovers that the men are connected to both the CIA and the White House. As the tale deepens, Dustin Hoffman’s character Carl Bernstein is tasked with serving as Woodward’s colleague. Despite their personal conflicts, the reporters are forced to cooperate as they are drawn further into a perilous plot that extends all the way to the top.

Craig Foster & Flee

Saturday 15 June | 2.30pm

This critically praised documentary tells an incredible tale of optimism and tenacity using animation spliced with historical material. Amin Nawabi talks about his terrifying childhood adventure, which brought him from Afghanistan through Sweden and Russia before arriving in Denmark as a refugee, in an interview with filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Away from everything he knew, Amin struggles with an agonizing secret he has concealed for 20 years, one that could ruin the life he has worked so hard to create for himself and his future spouse.

This movie will be screened alongside the 20-minute short video The Forgotten People, a documentary by Amnesty Australia in which Craig Foster visits Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, home of one million Rohinga refugees, the largest refugee camp in the world.

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