The full program for this year’s Revelation Perth International Film Festival was just announced, comprising over 150 feature and short films.
The festival is set to run from Wednesday, July 8 to Sunday, July 19 at venues across the city, including Luna Leederville, The Backlot, SAE Perth, Tribe Perth Kings Park, and the State Library of Western Australia.
Highlights of the program include Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut in The Chronology of Water, two new documentaries Sentient and Silenced, and the festival opener, the Gus Van Sant-directed drama Dead Man’s Wire.
Stories of social justice to high-end arthouse premieres feature throughout the program, as well as special screenings like the free International Family Animation Explosion, the Trasharama-agogo short film program, and the City of Vincent Film Project .
Festival Director Richard Sowada spoke of the festival and this year’s program, saying that “Revelation is known for an independent spirit that is not afraid of issues, subcultures, adventurous art and culture and seeing how far it can take audiences and filmmakers.”
Opening Night plays to that independent spirit with Dead Man’s Wire, the true story of a hostage situation adapted to film by Gus Van Sant. The film features an all-star cast of Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Colman Domingo and Al Pacino.
Another key film on this year’s lineup is The Chronology of Water, the directorial debut of Kristen Stewart (Twilight). The film is adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch’s bestselling autobiography, in which she finds her voice in exploring how trauma can be transformed into art.
Hollywood stars feature throughout the program, including in Dreamquil, starring John C Reilly and Elizabeth Banks. This film is a Black Mirror style sci-fi melodrama following an unsatisfied woman’s experiments with a futuristic “digital ayahuasca.”
On the comedy front, Fleabag’s Sian Clifford stars in Lady, a hilarious mockumentary in which an aristocrat dreams of the spotlight, and Hen follows an escaped chicken that fights to protect her eggs. Holy Days follows three unconventional nuns (Jacki Weaver, Miriam Margoyles, Judy Davis) travelling across New Zealand to retrieve the deeds to their convent, with a young boy in tow, while $Positions centres around a Midwesterner trying to save his family from poverty through crypto investments.
Aphelion exemplifies impressive Australian filmmaking through a drama focused on a junkie trapped in a co-dependent relationship – a character study of crime and control.
The documentary program is packed with compelling features, including the ethically-charged Sentient, in which former ABC Q+A host Tony Jones interrogates the question of animal consciousness and the systems that deny it. Jones will be in attendance for a special screening of the film at Luna Leederville on July 11.
Silenced is another highlight, a powerful documentary exposing how defamation laws are used to silence survivors of gendered violence, coming from International Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Selina Miles and Blayke Hoffman.
The festival is set to champion the local screen sector with several events across the program, including Displacement and Replacement: A Remixed Narrative of Western Australia at The Backlot, the sixth annual WA Screen Culture Awards night, and Get Your Shorts On: City of Vincent Film Project & Life in Pictures Closing Night on Sunday, July 19. This event includes the films commissioned as part of the City of Vincent Film Project, and the finalists of the Life in Pictures filmmaking competition.
Revelation has also announced a new partnership with SAE, a free professional development program entitled Industrial Revelations. Around 16 workshops, masterclasses, panels and presentations will cover marketing, distribution, working with actors, and more on Saturday, July 11.
Revelation Perth International Film Festival runs from Wednesday, July 8, to Sunday, July 19, at multiple locations across Perth. Tickets are available at revelationfilmfest.org.