A decade of arthouse films on the Bellarine

BELLARINE Lighthouse Films (BLF) celebrated 10 years of bringing eclectic international cinema to the region at its annual film festival recently.

Held at the Queenscliff Town Hall over the last weekend in June, film critic Margaret Pomeranz and daughter in law Pippy Pomeranz kicked off the event with a discussion of their new cookbook Let’s Eat, a celebration of film, food and family.

Their appearance was a perfect match to the festival showing of French film Delicious, a historical comedy set in 1789 about the opening of the country’s
first restaurant.

In keeping with the festivals culinary theme and opening night of local cheese and wine, as well an Iraqi dinner on the Saturday night to support the refugee community, food commentator and advocate Dani Valent was also on hand to facilitate the event.

“We look for movies that people don’t normally see at local cinemas, we like to bring the world to Queenscliff,” BLF chair Rose Ott said of the five films shown at the festival, that also included features from Japan, Bhutan and Finland.

Ms Ott said Margaret Pomeranz was similarly well qualified to introduce Chinese film One Second, a drama about a man’s escape from a farm-prison during the cultural revolution, “because she knew about the director and how the film was made”.

“She congratulated us on our selection of films… she was pleased to come down to a regional film festival.”

With a history of impressive opening night guests, including comedian Denise Scott, actor Kerry Armstrong and international guitarists the Grigoryan Brothers, Ms Ott said the BLF’s 2023 festival headliner “will have to be really good… this one will be a hard act to follow”.