As we approach another hot, dry summer here in Australia, this inspiring documentary is both timely and relevant. A Fire Inside was filmed largely during the bushfires that devastated much of Australia’ east coast in the so-called “Black Summer” of 2019-20, the worst fire season ever recorded. An area the size of the UK was…
On the Sunday sliver of space between the end of Brisbane Festival and the Tony Awards celebration of Broadway being back, Queensland Theatre’s Artistic Director Lee Lewis launched its 2022 season with promise of continued celebration of the resilience of the arts and cultural sector, and the power of great stories told by talented artists….
Screening from 20 October (with Canberra and Melbourne to follow on 17 and 19 November respectively) Palace and ST. ALi coffee have announced the full line-up for the 2021 ST. ALi Italian Film Festival. After another disrupted year, this hallmark event celebrating Italian culture, stories and language hits screens around the country just in time…
Silvia Moreno-Garcia seems determined to prove that she can deliver in any genre. Her breakout book Mexican Gothic was, as the name suggests, in the traditional gothic style with a Mexican twist; her book The Beautiful Ones was a historical fantasy set in an alternate Central America; and her Gods of Jade and Shadow was…
The 27th Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) has unveiled its program. BIFF presents a Brisbane-wide program of international festival favourites, Australian content, award-winners and critical darlings over 11 packed days from 21 to 31 October 2021. The program this year includes 81 feature films – including 4 world, 26 Australian and 33 Queensland premieres –…
A love story against a backdrop of civil war, Skies of Lebanon has a decided artistic and poetic bent. It is the 1950s and despite not speaking a word of Arabic, Alice (Alba Rohrwacher) leaves her straitlaced existence in Switzerland for a nannying job in Beirut. In a café she meets and falls for a…
A Midnight Visit is an award-winning immersive live theatre show that, having previously been unleashed in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne, has recently resurrected in Brisbane. Inspired by the life and works of Edgar Allen Poe, the magnificently macabre multi-room experience, invites its guests to explore a dark dream world of gothic thrills, obsession, decadence and…
German author Mariana Leky’s latest novel What You Can See From Here (translated by Tess Lewis) falls into an almost fairytale style. Set in a small German village peopled by a range of eccentric characters, it uses some old story telling ideas to build a tale of tragedy, compassion and unrequited love. And it does…
I’m starting to suspect at some point during the 2020 lockdowns, a bunch of screenwriters all had the same idea: a highly trained assassin is redeemed through a connection with a child. Cut off from regular contacts, they all pitched this same idea – and many were accepted. That could explain the slew of movies…
The ABC’s brilliant little gem Rosehaven is now no more. We’ve reviewed it in the (web)pages of The Blurb previously. But with the show now wrapped forever, it seems a fitting time to look back at this memorable work of local production. What began as “the little show that could” in 2016 has vaulted into…
