Island set for film festival
FROM the quiet NSW country town of Dungog to the hustle and bustle of Sydney, Allanah Zitserman has brought her talents as a producer, film distributor and screenwriter to the fore in a dramatic new film festival.
The inaugural Cockatoo Island Film Festival, which will take place later this month on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, was founded by Zitserman and her partner Stavros Kazantzidis, who also successfully established the annual Dungog Film Festival in 2007.
The Cockatoo Island Film Festival, from October 24-28, will showcase 100 international and Australian films, 200 shorts and documentaries, plus host a series of master classes and workshops.
Zitserman says the festival will celebrate Australia’s best talent in film, international movies and musical entertainment.
“The Cockatoo Island Film Festival is more than just a film event – it’s a five-day-and-night party and a festival in the true sense, just like Cannes or Sundance,” Zitserman explains.
“We’re creating a destination-based film event that is providing audiences with an extraordinary experience – it’s a world-class event that celebrates cinema on an island in the middle of Sydney Harbour.
“The festival encapsulates everything that is incredible about this country – the harbour, the beauty and the way the island is drenched in Australian history.
“Most of all, we chose the island because it allows us to create a world outside of the world that people come to because they’ve committed themselves to an experience … we call it the bubble effect.”
Zitserman, 35, won an Australian Film Institute Award for her first film Russian Doll when she was 22 and attributes her success to understanding societal needs.
“I love cinema, I love telling stories and bringing people together,” she explains. “With computers and social media, we’re all living lives that are getting more insular, so relationships are becoming less about human interaction.”
Zitserman has showcased movies at international film festivals over the years and says the Cockatoo Island Film Festival will present a high standard of Australian and overseas films.
The festival has partnered with Hoyts to turn the turbine shop on the island into a state-of-the-art cinema that can seat 1100 people and screen 3D films.
“For people to experience cinema in this kind of setting, which has so much history, is so exciting and will be an important part of the cinematic experience.”
Zitserman hopes the festival will attract 40,000 people with an array of top names and renowned films as well as master classes with leading Australian directors, actors, cinematographers and screenwriters.
The critically acclaimed film The Master, which won several awards at the recent Venice Film Festival, will have its Australian premiere at the festival as the opening night film. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as an American navy veteran who returns home after World War II uncertain of his future.
“It’s one of the most anticipated and respected films from Paul Thomas Anderson, who is considered up there with the Scorseses. The fact that it’s set on a boat, with the festival on an island, is serendipitous.”
Another festival headliner will be Tim Burton’s 3D Frankenweenie, which will be screened prior to its theatrical release.
And Ben Lewin’s film The Sessions starring Helen Hunt and John Hawkes will also be screened. It tells the story of a man confined to an iron lung who is determined, at age 38, to lose his virginity.
Zitserman has devoted an enormous amount of energy to make the new festival a success, despite being the mother of a one-year-old daughter, pregnant with her second child and running her film distribution company, Cockatoo Film.
“There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing the fruits of enormous labour, because it really does take Herculean energy to bring something like this to life – although I don’t know where it comes from,” Zitserman laughs.
“I guess it’s the reward of seeing thousands enjoy themselves and do something that takes them away from their ordinary lives.”
Reflecting on her success, Zitserman partially credits her Jewish roots and refugee background.
“I think a lot of who I am, how I operate, my determination, ambition and work ethic comes from the fact that I am a [Soviet Union] refugee,” she says.
“We left Russia because of the persecution towards Jews and we came to Australia because my mum wanted me to have the freedom to be Jewish and be proud of it.
“This also plays an enormous role in my patriotism and my passion for producing Australian films and festivals. As a refugee I could’ve been somewhere else, but I landed here and I appreciate that I can be Jewish and make the most out of my life.”
The Cockatoo Island Film Festival will be held on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour from October 24-28. Access by ferry and water taxi. Bookings: www.cockatooislandfilmfestival.com.
REPORT by Cassilee Kahn
PHOTO of festival creative directors Allanah Zitserman and Stavros Kazantzidis.
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