First Films is a new festival dedicated to introducing Sydney audiences to daring debut works from emerging directors. Celebrating its first edition with two Australian premieres and two Sydney premieres, First Films will take place from 18 – 20 November 2022 at Golden Age. Programmed by film curator Paul Struthers, First Films aims to challenge, inspire and entertain.
Beba
Friday 18 November, 6:30pm – Selling fast
Rebeca “Beba” Huntt undertakes an exploration of her own identity in the remarkable coming-of-age memoir Beba. Reflecting on her childhood and adolescence in NYC as the daughter of a Dominican father and Venezuelan mother, Huntt investigates the historical, societal and generational trauma she’s inherited.
Official Selection
TIFF, Tribeca, Berlinale
“A virtuoso bomb-drop of a documentary”
— The AV Club
FIRST TIME [The Time for All but Sunset – VIOLET]
Saturday 19 November, 3:20pm
Have you ever locked eyes with a stranger on a train, and thought of what could be? In Nicolaas Schmidt’s FIRST TIME [The Time for All but Sunset – VIOLET], a connection sparks on a Hamburg subway. As golden hour sets in, two young men steal glances at each other as they circle the city. A Special Mention at Locarno and voted Top 10 Films of 2021 by The Film Stage.
Official Selection
Locarno Film Festival, Queer Lisboa, Hamburg Film Festival
“What if Before Sunrise, but Tsai Ming–liang? … The work of an original”
— The Film Stage
The Apartment with Two Women
Saturday 19 November, 5pm – Selling fast
Winner of five awards at Busan, The Apartment with Two Women is an uncompromising and superbly performed mother-daughter tale. Yi-jung lives with her mother Su-kyung, but they do not get along well. While out grocery shopping one day, they fight as usual and Su-kyung’s car ends up hitting Yi-jung in the parking lot. Was it accidental, or on purpose?
Official Selection
Busan International Film Festival, Berlinale, MIFF
“Impressive … an unflinching family psychodrama marbled with wry humour”
— Screen International
Faya Dayi
Sunday 20 November, 3:30pm
A sublime work of personal vision, Mexican-Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi is a hypnotic documentary immersion in the world of Ethiopia’s Oromo and Harari communities, places where one commodity—khat, a euphoria-inducing plant once prized for its supposedly mystical properties—holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life.
Official Selection
Sundance, International Film Festival Rotterdam, MIFF
“Transfixing … unlike any other documentary you’re likely to see”
— Los Angeles Times
