First held in 1952, when some 800 people (including ASIO agents on the lookout for subversive elements) watched three days of films in Olinda, in the Dandenongs, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) today attracts crowds in excess of 182,000 over its 17 days.

Satisfying the diverse appetites of so many cinephiles is a challenge that MIFF executive director Richard Moore has embraced with gusto, presenting a programme that showcases everything from new Romanian cinema to Ozploitation classics.

The flipside of Australia’s film renaissance of the 1970s and 1980s, which produced the likes of Picnic At Hanging Rock and The Getting of Wisdom, the Ozploitation era rarely rates a mention in official film histories despite being one of the most successful periods in Australian filmmaking.

“To be frank, I don’t think it fit in with official visions and official versions of culture, and also what funding bodies at that stage thought Australian film might be,” Moore says of films such as Razorback (1984), Dead-End Drive In (1986) and Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974).

“After all, it’s a cruder, ruder, more brash side of the Australian character. These are films which, in a way, have been hidden away; despite the fact that they connected with audiences, despite the fact that – guess what? – they’re entertaining.”

Moore’s delight in the over-the-top elements of Ozploitation – which includes lashings of gratuitous sex, violence and muscle-car mayhem – is palpable, but there are some films in this year’s programme that even he finds a touch confronting: most notably, Otto, or Up With Dead People, a zombie horror-porno from underground gay auteur Bruce LaBruce.

“I saw Otto at Berlin; it was like a one o’clock in the morning screening or something, and Bruce LaBruce was there,” Moore recalls, laughing.

“I was watching the film between closed fingers and going ‘Oh, don’t do that. Get away from that wound!”

Queer treats

A JIHAD FOR LOVE

Gay Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma travelled the world to make this documentary (shot in 12 countries over five years, often secretly) about GLBT Muslims and their struggle to reconcile their sexuality with their faith.

AN ISLAND CALLING

An Island Calling explores a brutal double murder committed in Fiji in 2001, when the Director-General of the local Red Cross, the openly gay John Scott and his partner, Greg Scrivener, were killed in God’s name by a young indigenous man. A postcolonial tragedy about a country divided along religious, class, and ethnic lines.

BASTARDY

Meet Jack Charles: a 63-year old gay Aboriginal elder, award-winning actor, cat burglar and former heroin addict. A new Australian documentary produced with the support of the MIFF Premiere Fund.

BE LIKE OTHERS

Welcome to Iran, where gays and lesbians are executed on the basis of religious law, yet gender reassignment is supported by the state. This film follows several gay men who have chosen surgery over death, and explores the reasons for and the consequences of that decision.

DEREK

The life and legacy of filmmaker, artist and gay activist, the late Derek Jarman, is examined in this documentary by Isaac Julien (Looking for Langston, Young Soul Rebels).

FOX AND HIS FRIENDS

Screening as part of a tribute to the 40th anniversary of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Fox and His Friends is a frank depiction of gay life made a time when Hollywood still considered such a subject untouchable.

KENEDI IS GETTING MARRIED

Kenedi Hasani, a brash Serbian emigrant in Paris, works as a gigolo in order to pay off his debts, servicing older women and widows  - and eventually, wealthy men. Why not? With potential citizenship of the EU at stake, Kenedi will try his hand at anything!

OTTO, OR UP WITH DEAD PEOPLE

The world’s first gay zombie movie is the latest offering from Bruce LaBruce (Hustler White, The Raspberry Reich), and follows the recently reanimated Otto (Jey Crisfar, this week’s MCV cover-boy) as he shambles sadly about Berlin trying to piece together fractured memories of his life before death. Not for the faint hearted, the film features gore aplenty, as well as ‘graphic sex scenes that will titillate anyone who’s ever wanted to see someone shagging an open wound’ (Variety).

THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN RAQUELA

A gritty fairy story about transgender Filipino prostitute Raquela Rios as she embarks on her quest to become ‘a real girl’. Winner of the Teddy Award for Best Feature at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival.

THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA

Following a fling in China with Yang, a former opera star, 18-year old Sasha finds herself a) in San Francisco, and b) pregnant. Contemplating an abortion, she falls in with Boshen, Yang’s gay lover, who tries to convince her to keep the baby and set up a family together in the hope of baiting Yang to America. Measured and masterful storytelling from veteran director Wayne Wang.

WILD COMBINATION: A PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL

Screening as part of the Backbeat music program is this documentary about ‘gay disco auteur’ Arthur Russell; an unconventional talent whose work spanned pop, disco, classical and experimental forms before his AIDS-related death in 1992.

WITH GILBERT & GEORGE

Responsible for a series of often-confronting works, British artists Gilbert & George are, in their own words, ‘two poofs’ who met at Art School. ‘It was love at first sight,’ they said in a 2002 interview. This film looks at the men behind the art.

WHO’S AFRAID OF KATHY ACKER?

Director Barbara Caspar’s cinematic eulogy to the novelist, punk poet and performance artist Kathy Acker, a bisexual, sex-positive feminist who died of breast cancer in 1997.

WORDS OF ADVICE – WILLIAM S BURROUGHS ON THE ROAD

A documentary about William S. Burroughs, the Beat Generation writer, homosexual and drug addict whose abject existence resulted in a series of remarkable novels, including Junkie, Queer and the infamous Naked Lunch.

WIN! Want to get your hands on a MIFF mini-pass, providing entry to 10 sessions (and three bonus weeknight sessions before 6pm)? Email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and tell us who your favourite director is, and why.

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