Festival films, fine food and a fiery handshake…

Festival films, fine food and a fiery handshake….  You do not often witness sons setting fire to their father. But in the Page family this is a regular occurrence. My early films highlighted the work of uniquely Australian stunt master Grant Page, so it was very gratifying 36 years later to see Grant spontaneously combust on opening night at the Melbourne International Film Festival, sprayed with fuel, then ignited by sons Leroy and Gulliver. Their father strode forward, a genial pillar of fire, and shook hands with a bemused Geoffrey Rush, as flames reached 4 feet above his head. Grant went on to circle the astonished crowd for maybe 20 more seconds before signaling for the family fire extinguisher.  You can get a sense of Grant’s charm and total mastery of his chosen environment from the attached interview by The Age.

http://media.theage.com.au/?rid=39866

Grant’s stunt was part of the promotion for Mark Hartley’s feature documentary NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD which premiered at MIFF to great response. The film is kind to me, so I’ll leave opinions to others. The Empire review, I think, is a good analysis.

Click here to read the Empire review

The Melbourne and Brisbane Film Festivals were a two week binge of films, fine food, Q & A panels, media interviews. If you check out their web sites, you can see what a diverse range of films and activities there were. Given the complexity of the events, I was impressed at how well organized both Festivals were. A lot of praise is due to both festival organizers, programmers, and volunteers in both cities for making everything run so smoothly.

Mark Hartley (Dir. Not Quite Hollywood), Claire Dobbin (MIFF Chair) & Richard Moore (MIFF Exec. Dir.)
Photo: Jim Lee

To international festival junkies, I recommend you add MIFF and BIFF to your annual itinerary. Melbourne might remind you of Toronto and Brisbane of Santa Barbara. You’ll have a fun time.