Want to preview a film before committing to a screening?
Feel free to borrow any of the DVDs listed below to preview in a home environment for just $5 to cover handling and postage.
Please note however: it does not include the right to screen to members in a non-theatrical situation without advising the FVFS and paying the full rights fee.
BLUE LIES
Borrow the DVD from the FVFS for free or purchase the DVD from the director for $15.
Aust, 2008, 80min, M, Drama, 16×9 (M)
Written, directed and produced: Gerald Lawson.
Stars: Emily Stewart, David Yarrow, Andrew Stokes, Derek Fisher, Rod Ansell, Alison Cox, Barry Shepherd.
Filmed around Newcastle, NSW.
IMDB Score (N/A)
FVFS review panel voted 3 ½ stars (out of 5)
Blue Lies is the intriguing story of Stephanie McLean (Stewart), a young police graduate and daughter of respected doctor (Yarrow).
When asked to investigate a seemingly minor incident, she finds herself on a fateful and dangerous path that leads unavoidably back to her own father and the secrets that threaten to unravel the family. The father (well portrayed by Yarrow) finds that a single indiscretion can lead to a multitude of problems, especially when he tries to keep the past a secret, and offers to help don’t always work out for the best.
DVD is available to members for free loan from the FVFS Indie Library plus rights fee payable to the FVFS.
or to keep a copy, purchase from the director for $15 Gerald Lawson, gwl8491@hotmail.com , then pay the FVFS for the screening rights.
The agreed non-theatrical screening rights fee of $20 is payable through the FVFS.
Borrow the DVD from the FVFS and pay the FVFS $20 which includes screening rights fee.
Or purchase the DVD from the director for $25, which includes screening rights fee.
Australia, PG, 2008, 90min, Drama. (Not rated)
Writer and director: Ian Dixon.
Stars: Penelope Bartlau, Georgina Capper, Damian Walsh-Howling, Ian Dixon.
IMDb score 6.4
FVFS panel voted 3.5 (out of 5)
Love collides with duty when Nathalia, a 30-year-old schoolteacher, is forced to question her loyalties; she must choose between a vulnerable student and a fellow teacher, who also happens to be the object of her affections.
The film screened to full houses at Cinema Nova in 2009 and received highly complementary reviews.
Filmed in and around Melbourne, Vic.
The DVD is available for purchase from the director (Ian Dixon: email iandixon66@hotmail.com) for $25 and this includes non-theatrical screening rights. But please let us know if you do, so we can keep track of how useful this information is for you.
Or borrow the DVD from the FVFS library for free, but then pay through the FVFS for non-theatrical screening rights, $20.
Canada, 2000, 94 min. 4×3 ratio, (Not rated)
Stars: Richard Bull, Barbara Collentine, Vernon Chapman.
Writer: Pierre-Jules Audet
Directed by: Jean Mercier
IMDB score 6.6
FVFS film review panel voted 3.0 (out of 5)
A DAY IN A LIFE tells the story of five seniors who decide to turn an ordinary day into something special. This film will stay with you for a long time. It was filmed in Victoria, BC, Canada.
Covers love, aging, relationships, the choice of staying active, overcoming depression, the universal need for harmony, security and social contacts, family, healthcare and more.
Film Society screenings?
Screening rights fee: $20 per non-theatrical screening (payable to the FVFS)
The DVD itself can be posted to you by the FVFS at no extra charge.
So that we may keep across the success or otherwise of this offer, please let us know by email (admin@fvfs.org.au ) if you take up this offer.
Philippines, 2011, 94 mins, Drama, 16×9 (not rated)
Dir: Clodualdo del Mundo Jr.
IMDb score – ?
FVFS panel voted 3.5 (out of 5)
Borrow the DVD from the FVFS and pay the FVFS $10 for handling fee and rights fee
Flight of an Angel (Paglipad ng Anghe)l explores the story of Gabbyriel, a young accountant in a television network, who leads an uneventful, if not boring, life. He wakes up to a regular day, does his routine, until on his way to work he sees an old beggar asking for help. He helps the old, sickly lady and brings her to a hospice where the nuns take care of the old and dying. After this act of charity, he starts noticing feathers growing on his back. As the feathers grow into full wings and complicate his life, he starts to face the consequences of being an “angel”.
Malaysia, 2007, 97 min, Drama/Comedy. 4×3 ratio. (Not rated)
Dir Liew Seng Tat
Nominated for 8 awards. Won 5.
IMDb Rating 6.3
FVFS panel voted 2.8 stars (out of 5)
Director Liew Seng Tat creates a captivating but meandering film about two young boys who are growing up without a mother and without much attention from their father, who spends all his time at work fixing broken mannequins.
Free loan of DVD from the FVFS or purchase the DVD from Antidote Films for $6.99.
Then pay screening rights fee of $35 through the FVFS.
Or purchase the DVD from Antidote with rights for $49.95.
Four women, each with a well-hidden secret they are coaxed, tricked or forced into revealing. There is a lot happening here between the main protagonists and the outcome is a very satisfying film.
Filmed in and around Melbourne.
Source: DVD can be borrowed from the FVFS Indie Library for free, or purchased from Antidote Films for $6.99.
Or pay Antidote $49.95 for the DVD including non-theatrical screening rights.
Rights: Either : 1/ screen (non-theatrically) the $49.95 copy you purchased from Antidote for no extra payment, or 2/ screen the copy you borrow from the FVFS or purchased from Antidote for $6.99, and pay (through the FVFS) non-theatrical screening rights of $35.
Reviews are available on line at “At the Movies”, Antidotefilms.com.au and “Urban Cinefile”.
But please let us know if you purchased the $49.95 DVD from Antidote, so we can evaluate how useful our information has been to you.
At first sight this film comes across as four separate stories about four separate people, and unrelated stories about men questioning their gender or living a transgender life.
Into this mix comes Tonmai (Phanuphong Waraeksiri), a young man returning from America to attend to his father’s affairs on the occasion of his untimely death. The father owned and operated a successful nightclub (The Fountain) in the city.
Aust, 2017, 88 min, Com/Drama, M‘, in Mandarin with English subtitles
Dir: Sam Voutas.
Officially selected for Tribeca, Melbourne, London, Stockholm & Golden Horse Film Festivals.
Review by Kimber Myers: “Charming Chinese comedy has infectious love for cinema. With the same cinephile spirit as ‘Cinema Paradiso’ and ‘Be Kind Rewind,’ this Chinese comedy is an inventive and light exploration of a father’s love for both his son and the movies. “King of Peking” has many charms, but its passion for cinema is its most infectious.
Aust, 2004, 90 mins, PG, Comedy/Crime, 16×9
Written, Directed and Produced: Gerald Lawson
Stars: Derek Fisher, Chris Lee, Paul Mailath, Kerry O’Hearn, Dez Robertson, David Yarrow.
Filmed in and around Newcastle, NSW
IMDb score 3.2
FVFS panel voted 3 (out of 5)
Little Lies is a crime-drama-comedy about six disparate characters who unexpectedly, overnight, find themselves in deep financial strife. They devise a foolproof plan to solve their problems once and for all!
DVD is available to members for free loan from the FVFS Indie Library plus rights fee payable to the FVFS.
or to keep a copy, purchase from the director for $15 Gerald Lawson, gwl8491@hotmail.com , then pay the FVFS for the screening rights.
The agreed non-theatrical screening rights fee of $20 is payable through the FVFS.
THE MAN FROM COXS RIVER Documentary Australia. 2014. 84 mins. PG
Dir: Russell Kilby. Prod. Amy Scully
Features Luke Carlon, Chris Banffy.
In a forbidden valley 100 Km from Sydney runs a river where wild horses run free…
But for how long? Two men will try to find a way to save them.
A must watch documentary. A Heritage Award winner 2014.
With action shots and fireside chats interwoven with historical footage and one “fly-on-the-wall” observation at the project conference room, we get a good understanding of why the brumbies have to be moved in this way and the difficulties involved.
This doco is highly recommended not only for its clear explanation of the program, its reasons, pitfalls and politics, but as an outright adventure story set in the true Australian bush.
You are left thinking “Is a brumby still a brumby when not in the bush?”
Available from the FVFS indie DVD library as a free loan to members.
Or from the film maker at http://www.themanfromcoxsriver.com for $27.26
Screening rights payable through the FVFS by member film societies $35.
FVFS score: 4.2 stars (out of 5) … IMDb score: 7.8 … FiSMoTron score: 4.5 (out of 5)
Contact admin@fvfs.org.au for more details or to book the DVD for screening.
Australia, 2013, 97 min, M, comedy/ drama, (M)
Director: Gerald Lawson
Stars: : Henri Szeps, Rod Ansell, Barry Shepherd, Paul Malaith, David Gubbay, Dave Yarrow, Kay Gwynne, Tracy Ebbetts, Katy Carruthers, Phil McGrath, Matthew Halliday, Justin Bullock.
IMDb score 7.3
FVFS panel voted 4.1 (out of 5)
Wealthy widower Edward McLean is heading towards a major health scare. Some of his relatives are more concerned about his will than his health, so he decides to “sort them out”. Filmed in and around Newcastle, NSW.
Seven stories about Vietnamese women spanning different generations, exploring their inner lives and forbidden loves.
The award winning Vietnamese / Canadian film Pearls of the Far East, from director Cuong Ngo is now available through the Federation of Victorian Film Societies (FVFS) to Australian film societies for free loan at just the normal screening rights fee of $20 per non-theatrical screening. It is highly recommended.
To book this film or for further enquiries please email admin@fvfs.org.au.
Phillipines, 2005, 103 min, Comedy/Music, 4×3 ratio, (Not Rated).
Dir: Clodualdo del Mundo Jr
IMDb score 7.0
FVFS panel vote = 3.4 (out of 5)
Nominated for 10 Awards – won 4
Pepot Artista is a comedy-musical that focuses on a ten-year-old boy whose dream is to become a movie star. Pepot, the dreamer, is surrounded by people who are equally dazzled by the movie world – from his own mother to the principal in his school to the impersonators in the neighbourhood carnival.
Filmed for the environmental group “Care for Hedland” with the support of BHP Billiton and others.
The rare flatback turtles of Port Hedland have been returning to the same beach to nest for thousands of years but with tourism, development and shipping, their future is under threat.
This is the story of a community that is doing something about securing the future of the turtles.
The glamour of India, the glamour of the 1920s, the depth-sounding drumbeat of the ancient mythic world, and the woman who loves the wrong kind of man – Nina Paley gets them all together, along with a relevant chunk of autobiography about a disappointing husband of her own, in her dazzling first full-length animated feature.
This documentary is an Australian independent production of 94 minutes filmed in five countries by director Rohan Spong including Israel, France, Lithuania and America. It contains songs written in the Vilna Ghetto, Lithuania during the Holocaust, many of which were later arranged/recomposed by Australian composer Joseph Giovinazzo.
The Songs They Sang is the true story of the performances, which took place inside the Vilna ghetto, Lithuania, during World War II. These performances brought hope to the Jewish people during the horror of the Holocaust.
WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN
Australia, 1996, 96 mins. Drama/Mystery. (R)
Stars: Martin Jacobs, Gillian Jones, Jacek Koman, Angie Millikan.
Dir: John Hughes.
IMDb score 6.7
FVFS Review panel 3.5 stars (Out of 5)
An erotic mystery involving a couple married 7 years but on the verge of breaking up. After Christopher suffers a debilitating stroke Sorel discovers a novella which describes Christopher’s secret affair during their recent trip in Paris. But what is real and what is fiction? Discovering the truth takes Sorel on quite a journey. Different film styles representing the different points of view and the different locations make this an intriguing and enjoyable film.
It is the story of a boy, Drukda, abandoned at birth, who is brought up by the caretaker of a monastery in rural Bhutan. The film follows his life at the monastery, his growing friendship with Mendrel – a girl from the village – and we see him perform well socially and academically.
When he moves away to complete his education he meets Tshongdey, daughter of his host in the city, and loses touch with Mendrel. Mendrel meanwhile is abused by her new step-father and becomes pregnant to him.
After completing his studies, Drukda returns to the village to research his true identity and to discover the name of his mother. When he discovers Mendrel’s plight he is clearly moved.
This is one of very few films to come out of Bhutan, and shows how green and luxuriant the country can be. The impact of modern innovations also comes through clearly – even the country folk have mobile phones now!
Borrow the DVD or BluRay from the FVFS for free. Just pay the screening rights of $20.
Purchase the DVD or BluRay from the FVFS for an additional $25.
Reviews from the FVFS review panel are attached. They scored it an average of 3.2 stars.
In this remote corner of Australia (NSW), footy is king and music education is rare as rain.
Determined to see the children reach their potential, Moorambilla Voices’ passionate and driven choir director, Michelle Leonard, strives to open up their world through music.
We look into the lives of Kyh, Mack, Opal and Taylah, four brave and hopeful primary school children who travel far from home to music camp to prepare for the choir’s big concert.
They have just three days to learn a demanding repertoire.
(Winner, Audience Award Best Documentary, Sydney Film Festival 2015.)
Borrow the DVD from the FVFS for free
Or purchase a copy from the film’s website for just $24.95
Then pay non-theatrical screening rights of $20 to the FVFS, who will pass the payment on to the distributors.