Rave about Arts

Flickerfest

A Taste of Bondi in Hopetoun

Each year Flickerfest screens for 10 days at Bondi Beach in January, with selected highlights then touring Australia. For the very first time, thanks to Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council, the tour landed at the Hopetoun Community Centre on Saturday 18^th March.

A gathering of about 80 got comfy with blankets and beanbags, accompanied by BYO cuisine which ranged from gourmet platters to bags of chips. Anticipation was high as the crowd wondered what they were in for. What the heck was a Flickerfest anyhoo?

Opening with a heart-warming and very Australian short film called “Welcome to Country” it was soon apparent that the films were very well put together, and worth the effort of pulling out the very heavy Hopetoun Community Centre tables.

Whilst watching the films, you had to remind yourself they were a product of a competition with tight scrutineering, made by cutting edge leading film makers. They were not your average episode of Home and Away. Some were touching, some were absurd and others, particularly “the psychiatrist one” namely The Eleven O’clock were very clever indeed.

As audience members, we walked (and trespassed) through breath taking landscapes, we pondered our environmental footprint, we tasted authentic dishes and what could have been, we found out that rotating your mattress is an important part of adulthood and we were even lead to ponder our evolution – and the demise of it.

A nice cosy night out with laughter, applause and puzzled facial expressions which exacerbated the laughter. We look forward to the next Flickerfest, the question…. Where in the Ravensthorpe Shire will it pop up in 2018?

Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council receives core funding from Country Arts WA, which receives funding from the State Government through the Department of Culture and the Arts and Lotterywest.

Ravensthorpe Bus Run Supported by Lotterywest Funding