Now in its fifth year, the Indie Gems Film Festival has long been luring audiences to Sydney’s west with the promise of quality film. From tent-pole features likeThe Babadook,The Roverand opening night English/Hindi thrillerBlemished Light, to a brace of short films and student submissions, the festival promises to showcase some of the most diverse cinema you’re likely to see this year. Artistic director John L. Simpson is committed to a program that has something for everyone, and it all goes back to the very first time he discovered the magic of the movies.
“The first movie I ever saw at the cinema was a Doctor Who film, sometime around the late ’60s,” Simpson recalls. “I would have been about five and went with my brother. It was exciting and terrifying all at once. I can still see the Daleks, and they were absolutely horrifying!” he laughs. “Now though, you look at them, obviously made just from bits and pieces left around by the BBC – floor stands, a plunger – it doesn’t really strike you as all that much. But of course as a child, seeing these things come together made it seem like something real, something that was invading from the screen. It’s absolutely the magic of the movies, that transporting yourself to another world, something that makes you think and feel.”
Despite lying just over 20 kilometres from the CBD, Parramatta remains an oddly distant suburb for many Sydneysiders. Even with the strong reputation of the Riverside Theatre, much of the city’s creative focus tends not to drift very far from the coast, and Parramatta is too often overlooked as the vibrant, culturally diverse entertainment hub that it is. Changing this artistic blind spot is one of Simpson’s enduring struggles.
“What we learn every single year in Parramatta is that you can never underestimate an audience,” he says. “They are sophisticated, they are film literate, and so culturally diverse. While in the cafes of Bondi they might know all about American and European cinema, but when you go out to Parramatta, there are people who know the width and breadth of Indian cinema, they know Chinese cinema. The lovely cultural mix that you get there is far broader than anywhere else. You really only need to walk down Church Street in Parramatta and look at the different restaurants. Go on a Friday night and see the range of ethnicity, the amazing cuisine, the Lebanese and Egyptian restaurants with those hookahs, those scents of apple tobacco. I just get goosebumps. I love those extraordinary cultural sights, and for me that’s quite a strong visual metaphor for the festival. It’s what makes me really excited when people submit their short films to Indie Gems, because they’re often bringing us into their home and culture, and there’s this great sense of cultural sharing that happens through the festival.”
With its mix of features, documentaries, student film and shorts, it is difficult to imagine someone walking away from Indie Gems feeling left out. Horror, slapstick, drama; the festival has it all. Not that you can simply throw a bunch of films together and hope they all fall into place – the curation of the program has been meticulously crafted.
“I believe it’s about getting the balance right, so I try to accommodate lots of different tastes,” says Simpson. “There’s a lot of suspense and drama in the programming this year, but I think that has more to do with the zeitgeist. Throughout the width and breadth of the festival, particularly in the shorts, we go from comedy to quite heartfelt social issues – it’s really our opportunity to show people a plethora of difference.”
Indie Gems Film Festival atRiverside Theatre, Parramatta fromThursday September 11 to Sunday September 14.
