HEART OF GOLD INTERNATIONAL MOVIE FESTIVAL
BY: CARLA ADAMS
Gympie’s Heart of Gold International Film Festival (HoGIFF) could be the ‘World’s Most Uplifting Film Festival’
Were the 'World's Most Uplifting Film Festival' a real award category, HoGIFF (a shoe-in to win) would bounce onto the stage, grab the mike, and likely sing its appreciation to the amazing people of its hometown, tireless volunteers, organizers, new artistic director Malcolm Blaylock, and of course, the filmmakers.
Filmmaking is, after all, at the very heart of HoGIFF. This very unique short film festival, supported by the Queensland Events Regional Development Program, screens films that are entertaining, uplifting, thought-provoking and that express a positive view of the world and humanity. Now in its fourth year, it has become one of Gympie’s major tourism attractions.
Gympie-Cooloola Tourism manager Amanda LePeilbet says many visitors to the town combine a stay in the region with trips to nearby Fraser Island, and to other Sunshine Coast attractions.
“The Mary Valley, Tin Can Bay, and Rainbow Beach are nearby, so we encourage visitors to enjoy the Heart of Gold International Film Festival, then take off from Gympie to explore the region further,” she says.
In 2010, HoGIFF will feature 170 films from 19 different countries. The home nations are as diverse as Belgium and Bosnia, Nigeria and New Zealand, Scotland and Singapore. Canada, USA and Australia are also represented – the latter by 54 different films.
HoGIFF will include ‘meet the filmmaker’ question and answer sessions at the end of a number of screenings. It’s a popular addition, as is the ‘Family Film Festival’ held on Saturday and Sunday morning featuring PG or G-rated films chosen for their ability to delight kids and amuse parents.
Brisbane-based journalist Trent Dalton and director Frazer Bailey’s short film Glenn Owen Dodds (G.O.D.) about a chance meeting about a chance meeting between two men, one of them claiming to be GOD (Glenn Owen Dodds), stars David Wenham (Public Enemies, Australia, 300, Lord of The Rings) and is an eagerly anticipated entry. The film has also been accepted into the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand film festival in France, the short-film equivalent to the Cannes Film Festival. Artistic Director Malcolm Blaylock says he has been amazed by the inventiveness and creativity behind each of the films selected for the 2010 program.
“They are great stories, and told so well,” says Blaylock.
Blaylock comes to HoGIFF after six years as Artistic Director of the Darwin Festival, and holds a curatorial role at annual St Kilda Film Festival. After spending the best part of a year travelling between Melbourne and Gympie, Blaylock feels he is an ‘unofficial local’, having experienced first-hand the community spirit which sets this film festival apart.
“Gympie has a particular flavour that reflects the entire region, that’s the attraction, we have something you can’t get anywhere else,” Blaylock says. (It also helps that, according to Blaylock, Gympie boasts ‘Melbourne-style’ coffee, at local haunt Emilia’s.)
“Festivals are a celebration of a community and society, and it’s apparent that one of HoGIFF’s great strengths is its enormous local support,” Blaylock says.
“Events like this don’t happen by themselves – there is a large volunteer base and a broad cross-section of people from Gympie are right behind it, encouraging visitors and other locals to join in the fun.”
Gympie-based teacher and artist Kym Barrett has volunteered for the third year in a row at HOGIFF, and says the festival unites the community.
“Each year HoGIFF has increased in significance, fulfilling the original universal vision of the founder, Toni Powell, which was ‘to touch the world with films that help us refocus our priorities, give us hope, make us smile and in doing so affect how we treat each other’,” Barrett says.
“The films shown at HoGIFF motivate people to treat those around them with more respect, compassion and humour,” she says.
“This wonderful effect is quite apart from the great economic boost the festival represents for our little community.”
So it seems that there are just as many thanking this festival for what is has contributed to their lives, as there are for HoGIFF – the world’s most uplifting film festival – to thank for its growing success.
Perhaps “At The Movies” presenter and 2007 HoGIFF Jury member Margaret Pomeranz summed it up best, when she said ‘The theme is amazing, perfect for this town.... there is something magic about this festival’.
Heart of Gold International Film Festival
Gympie
11 – 14 March 2010
