PRESS RELEASE
As well as a host of highly anticipated premiere screenings and special events, the Inner West Film Fest will also get audiences up close and personal with the talents behind the films, with a number of stars and filmmakers confirmed to attend this year’s feast of film.
“One of the best things about putting on the Inner West Film Fest is providing audiences with the opportunity to meet the makers behind some of the films we’re so excited to be showing,” says Dov Kornits, co-director of the Inner West Film Fest. “This year, we’ve got some great guests lined up for the festival, from local heroes like Paul Fenech through to hot international talents like critic and screenwriter Nick Pinkerton, whose comedy The Sweet East is sure to be one of the highlights of the festival.”
Leading the charge at this year’s Inner West Film Fest is no-holds-barred comic genius Paul Fenech, the creator of in-your-face Aussie television classics Pizza, Housos, Bogan Hunters and Darradong Local Council. Paul Fenech will be on hand to introduce his new comedic opus Outback Outlaw Comedian, which sees the legendary Aussie comic spreading the confrontational cheer and delivering chaotic laughs aplenty to the nation’s comedy-hungry small towns and suburbs.
Flying in from New York, the Inner West Film Fest will also welcome Nick Pinkerton, who will be presenting his film The Sweet East. A Cincinnati-born, Brooklyn-based writer focused on moving-image-based art, Nick’s writing has appeared in Film Comment, Sight & Sound, Harper’s, The Baffler, and The Village Voice, among other publications, and he now makes his screenwriting debut with The Sweet East, a deliriously bent comedy in which a high school senior (dazzling newcomer Talia Ryder) takes a picaresque journey to the stranger corners of American society and culture.
Another highlight of the Inner West Film Fest will be the first public screening in over two decades of the lost 2000 Aussie coming of age comedy Angst, the witty, cinema-savvy tale of a Kings Cross video store clerk navigating life, love, friends and work in the curious, long-gone days before social media and the internet changed everything. A terrifically entertaining movie time capsule, Angst will enjoy its first cinema screening at the Inner West Film Fest since its theatrical release over twenty years ago, and the cast and crew will be reuniting to celebrate, with director Daniel Nettheim, screenwriter Anthony O’Connor, actor Justin Smith, and producer Jonathan Green all set to attend this very special event.
A burgeoning Australian filmmaker with talent to burn, and a proud Butchulla man from Queensland, actor, writer, and director David Cook will bring his distinct brand of gravitas to the Inner West Film Fest to present his debut feature Heart of the Man. A film as tough and uncompromising as it is emotionally affecting, Heart of the Man revolves around towering one-time boxing champ Sammy Wundurra (David Cook) and his aspiring boxer son Chris (Parker Little). As brutal as it is tender, Heart of the Man is a quiet Aussie triumph.
Matching David Cook for charisma and screen presence is wild child, mother, abuse survivor, UFC contender and bare-knuckle fighting champion Bec Rawlings, who is stunningly showcased in the compelling documentary Fight To Live. Bec will be at the festival with Fight To Live director Tom Haramis, and the dynamic duo will take audiences into the making of this tough, candid, no-holds-barred drill-down into the complex life of a truly brave and inspirational woman.
The Inner West Film Fest will provide a well-deserved showcase for the incredible work of award-winning Australian photographer Stephen Dupont, whose searing, unforgettable documentary Kaugere: A Place Where Nobody Enters is a modern-day parable of once tribal men in violence-wracked Papua New Guinea finding their feet again through the great game of rugby league. As well as presenting his deeply compelling and insightful documentary, Stephen Dupont has also curated a selection of his photographic work to tie in with the film for a very special exhibition which will be on from Saturday 13th April at Unexpected Guest Gin Distillery in Marrickville.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the amazing lineup of talent we’ve organised for the Inner West Film Fest this year,” says Dov Kornits, co-director of The Inner West Film Fest. “Make sure to come along and meet them.”
The Inner West Film Fest will run from April 11-21. For all information, head to the official website at https://www.innerwestfilmfest.com.au/
