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Reviews
First Contact (2012)
21 minute family drama set in remote Australia
First Contact is the story of teenage girl "Jess" (Isabelle McMaster) who's tired of her isolated existence with overly-protective father "Jack" (Olaf Savage), a dirt-poor rabbit hunter still grieving the loss of his wife. Living basic in caravans on the edge of a giant salt lake, the uneasy calm between the pair is broken when Jess finds a dying black man "Chenzira" (Ian Harry) lying half naked in the nearby bushes. Jack is wary and fearful but Jess insists on helping. She's now caught between the needs of the frightened stranger and the demands of her suspicious father which comes to a dramatic head on a lonely bush track. The sombre sound track and vast empty landscape bring an eerie mood to the film, helping to capture the loneliness, fear and frustration felt by all three characters at various times and set up the film for a moving resolve. The production design is intricate, the dialogue measured and the performances outstanding. Emerging writer-director, Matt Richards, can be proud of this work.
Automata (2011)
Rare view into the confused mind of a hunter
I saw Automata at Dungog Film Festival in 2011 in the experimental section of the program. What struck me was its power to seduce me into the delicate and intriguing world of the hunter and this one is haunted by all kinds of crazy visions and sounds as he stalks his pitiful prey in a dark and misty landscape. With an intricate and eerie sound track, the film draws the viewer deep into a rarely trodden world of anguish and confusion. Devoid of dialogue, the director relies on facial expressions and performances of the hunter (played convincingly by Tom McCaffey). Screened alongside a clutch of truly wacky films with barely a plot line between them all, Automata was surprisingly accomplished, satisfying and thought-provoking for an experimental piece. To the director's credit, it's a film one could revisit, unearthing pithy new insight on each occasion. Well done!