Welcome to Issue 7 of our monthly journal! the editors June 2000 Editorial Issue 7 Short film mania dominates this issue with a special feature on the St.Kilda Film Festival, Australia’s oldest and premier short film festival. Its history and significance is uncovered in a series of interviews with past festival directors, who up till now have not been given the opportunity to express the highlights, frustrations and challenges they experienced in putting together Australia’s most highly regarded short film festival. These interviews also contain interesting musings on the current state of short filmmaking in Australia. In many ways, the Festival reflects the creativity, drive and personality of the Festival Director. These interviews document the evolving nature and the various faces of the St.Kilda Film Festival. In addition there is a comprehensive report of the 2000 St.Kilda Film Festival, which concluded on 4 June. In addition to an overall report, there are reviews of select short films and a discussion of the Festival’s digital, multimedia venture, Fusion. Over the next two months, the National Cinémathèque is screening two important retrospectives: Marlene Dietrich – A Foreign Affair and Robert Bresson – Radiant Light. In order to provide a critical context for these retrospectives, both cinema icons are represented in this issue by a series of essays ranging from introductory pieces to case studies of specific films. The ever-increasing importance of Asian cinema is documented in this issue with a collection of essays that reveal its many diverse aspects. Geoff Gardner uncovers the biased system of exhibition and circulation of Asian films in the West, while Stephen Teo provides a profoundly knowledgeable and rewarding account of Hong Kong cinema, and that’s only for starters. Take a seat, tune in. This issue also branches out into other directions: technology and poetry.
