Revelation Film Festival

A zealous defender of the underground and the independent, Jack Sargeant has little time for the blockbusters of mainstream cinema. Instead, he has devoted his life to the hunt for more open and more challenging forms of filmic expression. Having written several books on the topic of underground cinema, contributed writing to various other collections and publications, and extensively toured through the world’s largest independent film festivals, he has a CV to match his passion and the perfect for Revelation Film Festival’s 2008 curator. The hunt for films beyond the mainstream has after all been his life’s focus. It’s only appropriate then, that when I arrive to meet Sargeant at a bustling Mt Lawley café, I catch him in the midst of an impassioned discussion about the latest Narnia film and its many vices.

This discussion inevitably provokes Sargeant to list a couple of independent films that have worked within a simple genre to produce cleverer results. “I’ve been doing it since I was 20, I’m wired this way!” Sargeant professes. “There’s a poster for The Velvet Underground that says, ‘So far underground you get the bends,’ and I’m like that. People ask where I found this or that film, but it’s just my world. I can sense these things. It’s like spider senses, but I have an underground film sense, just because I’ve been involved in that world for so long.”

For Sargeant, the Revelation programme evolved organically from a process that involved contacting old friends and following word of mouth. Appropriately, the final film list does mirror Sargeant’s own interests and passions. In particular, the high number of music documentaries reflects his concurrent interest in particular genres and musicians. For example, What we do is Secret, a biopic in the style of Control, focuses on one of Sargeant’s favourite bands, The Germs, while My Name is Albert Ayler and Weird Old America reflect his interest in free jazz and folk respectively. “All these music films are about stuff that I really love,” he admits. “It’s about sharing the music as much as it is about sharing the film, so will hopefully appeal to film and music buffs alike.”

While it may mirror Sargeant’s personality, the programme also paints a picture of trends in independent and underground cinema. As usual, it is dominated by documentaries; 19 to 11 features. “In terms of film as form of empowerment for individuals, anyone can make a documentary,” Sargeant suggests. “Everyone has a camera and editing software these days, so a lot of documentaries are being made, like Tarnation [which screened at a previous Revelation Film Festival] which was made for like $100. And obviously these films aren’t all getting a lot of attention. A lot more feature films are picked up by distributors, and if they’re going to be picked up and screened widely then there’s no point in showcasing them here. So, Revelation has always had a history of focusing on documentaries.”

Joining Revelation’s documentary hall of fame is a whole host of films focused on musicians, as well as a couple of quirky numbers such as The Last American Freak Show (the title says it all) and Hell on Wheels (which looks at 1970s’ women’s roller derby). There are several films that look specifically at individuals; Words of Advice follows William Burroughs during the last years of his life, while Gonzo: The Life and Death of Dr. Hunter S. Thomson combines archived footage and extensive interviews to present the infamous author as he has never been seen before. Some social documentaries have also made the cut, including Begging Naked, which looks at the impact the recent New York clean-up had upon the poorer portion of its people, and Flow, which focuses on water politics and economics. Sargeant is adamant that these films achieve something that more mainstream documentaries may struggle with, particularly An Inconvenient Truth.

“All these hipsters have gravitated towards Al Gore but he’s part of the power machine and I find that very troubling,” he sighs. “Al Gore’s wife Tippa Gore actually persecuted The Dead Kennedys for being obscene; she was one of the Washington Wives. And Al Gore, he wants to be in charge of America, so that’s an instant warning… [These Festival films] are different, they’re made by people who are politically directly engaged, and Begging Naked is actually made by a friend of one of the women who is the documentary’s focus.”

The programme is also dotted with a fair portion of films that explore specific Australian issues. The Tumbler is an Australian thriller that explores Australia’s experience of colonialism through its multicultural characters. Spirits, another documentary, explores the nature of Nyoongar storytelling. Sargeant adds, “It’s an amazing documentary… and I’m not interested foregrounding it as about indigenous issues, it’s just a really good film. I think that as soon as you start labelling films, people start projecting meaning on them.”

The label of “Queer,” however, is one that Sargeant has applied to some of his films, though he appreciates the gravity of the term. “There are large parts of the gay community who would rather see it called Gay Cinema or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Cinema; it’s a political gesture on my part as a curator…,” he explains. “It’s a term that engages with a whole range of political and cultural gestures, but it’s appropriate because the Queer films that we’re screening, Pangrogeny Manifesto, Words of Advice and even Cthuli (a thriller) are all about gay and lesbian politics in a way.”

Finally, the programme also includes a focus on experimental film, with a special event showcase of work from Britain. We discuss the hesitation that seems to stop certain people from engaging with experimental film and Sargeant chews over the topic: “I don’t know what people think experimental cinema is, but it’s beautiful stuff. It’s stunning to look at, vivid, vibrant cinema. People are scared of the word “experimental,” but in The Matrix, all that dodging of bullets and floating in mid-air is experimental, and that Australian film last year, Noise, that sound of tinnitus is also experimental. Yesterday’s experiments are tomorrow’s normal cinema, so every experiment in cinema is a good one.

“Change is good, risk is good, people should want to risk things and change their perspective. That’s the importance of Rev; that it will give you something you’re not going to normally see.” At this point I ask if he has any personal recommendation, and Sargeant suggests that everyone should see simply one thing that they had not previously heard of. “Take a risk, the worst thing that will happen is that you’ll see something you don’t like,” he urges. “But at least you will have seen something that has challenged you and changed you and that you can talk about. Otherwise, you can always just go and watch Narnia.”