Revelation Film Festival – Day Eleven

Perhaps the only thing that made Revelation’s departure palatable was the fact that it finished off with a bang, premiering a couple of Australian features, replaying a few festival favourites, and treating the most devoted patrons with a secret screening. Stefan Popescu’s Nude Study was one of the Australian films that received its premiere on Rev’s final night, and was easily one of the most challenging films of the festival (no small feat I assure you). The film stars both Jackie Alixander and Victoria Moss as Sarah (yes, two actresses), a woman devastated by tragedy who heads to Canada to conduct a new art project depicting nudes (and attempt to deal with the tragedies she had faced in her childhood home). In this small Canadian town, Sarah finds herself, unintentionally leaving a trail of destruction (both emotional and physical) in her wake. Intensely disturbing, Nude Study crescendos with a flurry of horrifying sexual violence. Full credit to Popescu and his devoted actors for giving their all to such a harrowing film.

I’ll hand it over to some of the festival’s frequent tweeters to offer their rundown of the final day’s other features.

@DanMarsland: “Cropsey was pretty spooky, in the vein of that old Unsolved Mysteries TV show. Quite captivating!”

@BlatantSam: “ The Silent House (#revfilmfest secret film number two) was the best single take film I’ve seen! Didn’t feel forced at all.”

@grum: “I did find one of the Cat Ladies in that movie kinda cute… Says a lot about the future ahead of me.”

@RichardGiles: “ Chris Rock’s Good Hair is fascinating…and damn hilarious.”

@the_fake_rwhyde: “Congrats to Tim Beckett, Tim Lethbridge & the cast of ‘A Day at the Oasis‘. Many genuinely funny moments. Well done.”

Finally, @the_exploder tweeted a concise wrap-up of his thoughts on this year’s line-up: “15 features. 13 HITs. 2 SH*Ts. 87% success rate!”

I too saw 15 films at the festival, and was also only mildly disappointed by two (Double Take and Bomb It, although Howl flirted closely with falling into the same category). How I wish I could have seen more. Damn this prison we call time! However, amongst those fifteen films, allow me to award my favourites: