“Couture is more than a piece of clothing. It's an expression. It's art.”

Recognised for her luxurious fabrics, intricate embroidery, use of gold thread and jewels, Chinese designer, Guo Pei calls herself one of the slowest designers in the world. With pieces taking between five-thousand and fifty-thousand hours to make and weighing up to 50kg, Guo’s spectacular works of art have gained global recognition, even naming her one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2016.

West of Sunshine is a critical film that portrays a harsh and authentic experience, shredding apart individuals lost in their game of success. This new Australian release at the annual Sydney Film Festival, doesn’t quite invite you to witness a private moment between Jim, a struggling father and his young son Alex - instead we invade it, ogling as Jim tries to skip past the races and pokies to pay off a dangerous debt.

“Stories remain in our hearts even after all else is gone.”

Adapted from Deborah Ellis’ 2000 Young Adult novel of the same name, the film follows 11-year-old Parvana (brilliantly voiced by Canadian newcomer Saara Chaudry) as she navigates life within the oppressive Taliban-era Afghanistan. In a society where women are prohibited to be outside without a male family member, Parvana quickly grows to understand the misogyny and chauvinism that pervades the world around her, forcing her to mature far beyond her years.

The Changeover is the film adaptation of a young adult novel of the same name by Margaret Mahy from 1984. Naturally the phrase “film adaptation” sparks some alarm bells, especially when paired with “young adult novel”. Initially excited for this film, because of my love for the supernatural in Australasian settings, I became apprehensive after watching the trailer. Why? Because there was a tall, brooding, dark haired boy. Before I start on about that though, I’ll talk about everything I loved, and I assure that there was a lot of it.

‘I wouldn't believe the story if someone else was telling it, but I'm telling it.’ - Bobby Shafran

Three Identical Strangers tells the story of triplets separated at birth, completely unaware of each other's existence, and coincidentally brought together at age nineteen.

Sounds like an elevator pitch, doesn’t it?

Here at Playwave we are big fans of Sydney Film Festival. But with a program of over 200 films, events and experiences, it's hard to know what not ...

An invitation into our beating, shifting, sorting bodies, Nicole Pingon introduces Organs!, an inner body experience reflective of our most basic human functions.

Lights. Camera. Action. Blood Moon Theatre’s remount of Fleur Kilpatrick’s, Yours The Face, sheds light on the corruption of the fashion industry, and the shortcomings of gender equality in the 21st Century, this time explored through a focalised female lens, and told from a female voice and body.

Just like life, James Raggatt’s Youth + Destination is fluid, exciting and unpredictable. The collection of sixty vignettes each capture a moment in time, in someone’s life, somewhere. All varying in length, shifting from comedic to gut-wrenching - we never know what’s coming next, whose world a light will shine on, and what part of our own reality we will delve into. The only thing we’re sure of is:

Every moment is fleeting.

Recently Playwave Creatives, Yuchi and Zack went to the Australian Museum's Culture Up Late. Yuchi created this illustration in response to the experience. ALSO watch a video covering the Playwave Creatives' out night at the Museum, edited by Zack Lewin! 

My favourite things at age eighteen: theatre, environmentalism and satire. So obviously Kill Climate Deniers instantly become a must-see for me. I was super keen to be handed a ‘how to defeat climate change’ handbook, and go on to save the world. Even though I left the theatre without a definitive answer of how to assure the planet’s survival, what I did leave with was way more powerful. 

Reality.

A generation mouthpiece for all young people and especially for those a part of the LGBTQ community. The emotionally moving Love, Simon represents our current societal concern amongst bullying and acceptance. This is a crucial piece of film that uproots the primitive school system of the ‘standard’ cultural image of relationships. I like to believe that this film contributes vastly to the new wave of LGBTQ cinema...