GERRINGONG PICS AND FLICKS

Bring all the family to our Christmas screening on Friday Dec 2, 2011 , 8pm Red Dog Review by David Stratton                                         Rated PG Tom, LUKE FORD, arrives at Dampier, centre of a huge mining operation in Australia's north-west. He discovers that a dog is sick and may have to be put down, but he can't understand why everyone's so concerned about it. The locals, including barman Jack, NOAH TAYLOR, tell him the story of the dog - how it was first seen some years earlier, how it hitched rides with people it liked and how it eventually attached itself to an American, John Grant, JOSH LUCAS, who soon after fell in love with Nancy, RACHAEL TAYLOR, who worked as a secretary for the mining company. Initial misgivings about a film partly financed...

SPECIAL SCREENING:  FRIDAY OCTOBER 21 AT 8PM BAG IT: Is your life too plastic? SPECIAL SCREENING: FRIDAY OCTOBER 21 AT 8PM  Bag It  has been garnering awards at film festivals across the nation. What started as a documentary about plastic bags evolved into a wholesale investigation into plastics and their effect on our waterways, oceans, and even our bodies. Bag It follows an ordinary man, Jeb Berrier, as he tries to make sense of our dependence on plastic bags. We can’t live without it so we need to learn how to live with it! T The film explores how our daily reliance on plastic threatens not only waterways and marine life, but human health, too. Bag It aims to raise awareness of plastic pollution in our oceans and the simple things we can do in our lives to reduce our plastic footprint and prevent plastics entering the sea.    We have created a vast sea of floating plastic garbage, ensnaring and stifling sea life for miles and miles, a...

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 4, 2011 Oranges and Sunshine Rated M Review by David Stratton In 1986, Nottingham social worker Margaret Humphreys, (Emily Watson), is approached by Charlotte, (Federay Holmes), an Australian woman who wants to discover her true identity. Later, in a group therapy class, Margaret meets Nicky, (Lorraine Ashbourne), who laments the loss of her brother, Jack, whom she believes was sent to Australia as a small child, while she was brought up in an English orphanage. After further research Margaret discovers that Charlotte and Jack were just two of the many thousands of children who, in the 1950s and 1960s, were transported to Australia 'for their own good', told that they were orphans. On her first research trip to Australia, Margaret reacquaints Nicky with her brother, Jack, (Hugo Weaving). She also encounters Len, (David Wenham), who masks his pain with his overbearing attitude. This first feature from Jim Loach, son of K...

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011 THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER A tragi-comedy centered on the HR manager of Israel's largest industrial bakery, who sets out to save the reputation of his business and prevent the publication of a defamatory Article.     RATED M Review by Margaret Pomeranz     4 STARS THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER was Israel's submission to the Academy for Best Foreign Language film. It's a wry, compassionate film about the human resources manager for a big bakery in Jerusalem, played by MARK IVANIR, who finds out that a woman who is working for them was killed a fortnight ago in a terrorist bombing. In order to avoid a scandal in the press, the owner of the bakery orders him to accompany the body back to an unnamed Balkan country to her relatives. The bureaucratic processes make finding the relative that can sign the burial form complicated. It leads the Human Resources Manager accompanied by the woman's son, NOAH SILVER, and the journalist, GURI ALFI...

It's a film that's taken the world by storm, made across four continents, the four lead characters are on the ride of their lives. Thrills spills and adventures this film will hold you captivated from the very first frame but without a single word of dialogue. The film is called 'Babies' and it is directed by French Filmmaker Thomas Balmes. BABIES is a French documentary by filmmaker Thomas Balmes. But you don't have to worry about subtitles with this one because all that you will hear are gurgles and occasional screams. It's about the first year of life of four babies in different parts of the world - Mari in Tokyo, Bayar in rural Mongolia, Hattie in San Francisco and Ponijao in Namibia. They are all just babies. It doesn't matter where they're from or how sophisticated a life their parents lead, they're just babies. This film has had audiences mesmerized in a way that is extraordinary. It's not as if there's a grand narrative, it...

Friday 8th July (NOTE: this months film is screening on the 2nd Friday of the month for July only!) 'Our Generation' A documentary film by Sinem Saban & Damien Curtis Hidden from the eyes of the world, Australia’s First Peoples are fighting for freedom. Our Generation is their call to the nation, a fresh and unflinching look at unresolved issues, driven by the Yolngu of Northeast Arnhem Land. IN BRIEF OUR GENERATION is a powerful and upfront documentary on the Australian Aboriginal struggle for their land, culture and freedom – a story that has been silenced by the Australian Government and mainstream media. Driven by the remote Yolngu of Northeast Arnhem Land, one of the last strongholds of traditional Aboriginal culture in Australia, as well as the voices of national indigenous leaders, historians and human rights activists, the film explores the ongoing clash of cultures that is threatening to wipe out the oldest continuing culture in the world. With music by John...

Friday 3rd June On Friday 3rd June Gerringong Pics & Flicks Inc. present “Barney’s Version” [Rated M] Review by Margaret Pomeranz The adaptation of Mordecai Richler's 1997 novel BARNEY'S VERSION was a project very close to the heart of Canadian producer Robert Lantos. This is about Barney, PAUL GIAMATTI, telling his story, his way. About his first marriage in Rome where he and best mate Boogie, SCOTT SPEEDMAN, live the artist life of ex-pats in 1974. And then there are the years back in Montreal where Barney becomes a successful producer of schlock television and where he meets the Jewish princess, MINNIE DRIVER, who will be his second wife. Unfortunately at his wedding he meets the woman he knows is the love of his life. She's Miriam, ROSAMUND PIKE, with whom his life will have enormous rewards and some terrible downs. Barney is a chain-smoking, hard-drinking hockey fan. He's capricious, he's not exactly the greatest looking guy, but he has a zest for l...

Sarah's Key Rated  M Review by David Stratton SARAH'S KEY is by French director GILLES PAQUET-BRENNER. The original title is ELLE S'APPELAIT SARAH. Julia, KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS, an American journalist married to a Frenchman and living with their teenaged daughter in Paris, becomes obsessed with the story of Sarah Starzynski, a Jewish girl who in July 1942, at the age of 10, was rounded by French police and, with her parents, confined with 13,000 others in a sweltering sports arena while waiting to be sent to concentration camps. Sarah is particularly anguished because when the police came she locked her little brother in a secret cupboard in their apartment - the same apartment that, in 2009, Julia's husband is renovating. Further comments DAVID: Margaret, what did you think of this film? MARGARET: David, do you know it's another one of those films like THE READER that looks at the horrific things that happened in World War II and the fact that those incidences...

Join us for the "IN THE BIN" Short Film Festival on Saturday April 9 from 7pm at the Gerringong Town Hall. Bring your friends and family to this travelling short film festival, the biggest of its kind in Australia. Films include: Aphrodite’s Farm, directed by Adam Strange (15Mins). When the Aphrodite’s Farm patriarch dies, the future of the farm is thrown into jeopardy, and the arrival of young farm hand Friday creates even more chaos before finally bringing the family’s destiny full circle. Country of Origin: Australia. Awaken (right), directed by David Gould (14mins 45secs) Awaken is set in a time of war between humans and robots. A robotic soldier, whose sole purpose is to kill, gradually learns that life is precious. Its newfound convictions are put to the ultimate test in the film's dramatic climax. Country of Origin: Australia Boundless, directed by Stephen Kanaris (17mins 24 secs) Craig, 35, has Downs syndrome, is single, lives with his parents, doesn’t work, driv...

The Pics and Flicks has a special treat on April 1 as part of the Kiama Jazz Festival! Doors open 7pm and the cost for this special night is $15. The Kid Stakes , made in Australia in 1927, is one of the greatest comedies of the silent era. An original score will be performed on the night by Jan Preston, renowned composer, jazz and blues pianist. The Kid Stakes is based on the comic strip, Fatty Fin, a scruffy 6 yr old leader of a gang of kids in the dockside suburb of Woolloomooloo in Sydney. Fatty enters his pet goat Hector in the annual goat races, but his rival Bruiser Murphy tries to ensure that he won't win. Hector is let loose in the grounds of a Potts Point mansion where he eats a large portion of the prize garden. The comedy continues!! Composer and performer Jan Preston is one of Australia ’s leading film composers and a renowned jazz and blues pianist. Her theme to the iconic ABC TV series, Australian Story can be heard every Monday night nationwide in Australia . ...

Don't miss our next movie: WINTER'S BONE (2010) An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact. With an absent father and a withdrawn and depressed mother, 17 year-old Ree Dolly keeps her family together in a dirt poor rural area. She's taken aback however when the local Sheriff tells her that her father put up their house as collateral for his bail and unless he shows up for his trial in a week's time, they will lose it all. She knows her father is involved in the local drug trade and manufactures crystal meth, but everywhere she goes the message is the same: stay out of it and stop poking your nose in other people's business. She refuses to listen, even after her father's brother, Teardrop, tells her he's probably been killed. She pushes on, putting her own life in danger, for the sake of her family until the truth, or enough of it, is revealed.

When: Fri Feb 4, 2011 7.30pm for 8pm Synopsis: With THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES, Argentinean writer—director—editor Juan Jose Campanella has created a multi—layered and poignant thriller interweaving the personal lives of a state prosecution investigator and a judge, with a manhunt spanning twenty—five years. Recently retired criminal court investigator Benjamin (Ricardo Darin), decides to write a novel based on a twenty—five year old unresolved rape and murder case, which still haunts him. Sharing his plans with Irene (Soledad Villamil), the beautiful judge and former colleague he has secretly been in love with for years, Benjamin’s initial involvement with the case is shown through flashbacks, as he sets out to identify the murderer. But Benjamin’s search for the truth will put him at the center of a judicial nightmare, as the mystery of the heinous crime continues to unfold in the present, testing the limits of a man seeking justice and personal fulfillment at last. "This spellbi...