Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley On The Politics Of Contemporary Cinema

Since arriving in Australia five years ago to helm the nation's most prestigious annual celebration of cinema, Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley has kept a weather eye on the shifting range of films on offer year-round. His observations have played a major role in sculpting his programming strategies.

"Film festivals are such an important platform for filmmakers, now more than ever I think," he notes. "In some instances, it's the only opportunity for them to screen their works publicly and engage with an audience. Since I arrived in Australia the number of international theatrical releases has really narrowed. Even a relatively short time ago, there was a much greater variety on offer, but that's become significantly reduced and skewed towards English language films - and that's not just an issue here, it's happening all over the world. So festivals are now incredibly valuable, not just for film lovers, but for filmmakers too, because in many cases, they are the only platform they have."

"We're showing the most important auteur cinema of the previous 12 months, but we're also showing a number of accessible, really well-made pictures and films with big name stars."

This double-hinged responsibility, to both patrons and producers, is just one variable in the complex equation faced by Moodley in assembling the right combination of genres, nationalities and aesthetics represented in the 288 films on this year's billing. Key to his program's integrity is finding just the right balance, Moodley insists. "It's crucial to make as many entry points as possible - this is not just a festival for serious film buffs. Not everyone is going to want to watch a four-hour black and white Filipino romance or a six-hour documentary in Portuguese about life under austerity. Of course, those kinds of films are a vital part of what we do, but at the same time, it's really important that there is something for everyone."

Judging this equilibrium is a skill Moodley has perfected during his lengthy career as a film curator, which has included a decade-long tenure as the Head of Programming at Durban International Film Festival, the longest-running event of its kind in South Africa, as well as numerous guest engagements programming festivals in Tehran, Kerala, Mexico City, Busan in South Korea as well as other international locations. Such a dynamic and eclectic resume, catering to the tastes of audiences from vastly differing cultures, has made Moodley keenly aware of how crucial variety is to the success of a festival. "It's key to create a balance. We're showing the most important auteur cinema of the previous 12 months, but we're also showing a number of accessible, really well-made pictures and films with big name stars appearing in productions outside of the mainstream context," he explains. "There will be some attendees who want to see 50 or so films over the 12 days of the festival, and the program is set up to allow them to do that. But we also hope that people who may not be familiar with many films outside of the Hollywood blockbuster type can also feel comfortable and welcome."

Ensuring festivalgoers are well sated with a healthy mix of movies is only one measure of success, however. For Moodley, his programs also have a duty to chronicle the issues facing our society today, as seen through the eyes - and lenses - of the world's great filmmakers. It will come as little surprise then that the political, both international and domestic, is a major presence in 2017's line-up. This in itself is nothing especially radical, as Moodley notes, "It's something we've always done."

However, today's fraught geopolitical environment has become an arena where dominating social media trends and dog-whistling tweets have increasingly been used to crush complex topics into glib soundbites. The rigorous, long-form medium of the documentary is the necessary antithesis to this, Moodley believes. "Filmmakers have always captured a reflection of the times, and it's a particularly strange moment in history we're living through, so it's inevitable that those concerns have made their way to the screen," he observes. "We're consuming news in a very different way to other moments in our history. Nowadays, everything is short and sharp, and it's becoming shorter and sharper with time, it seems. That's why it is so important that we have nuanced, patient analysis of particular situations on screen. One of the films in this year's program, Insyriated, is a beautiful feature film, that really takes you into the world of a Syrian family, in their apartment, just trying to survive for one day. It's incredibly gripping, it really sucks you in and I think it explains this situation, which we see on the news all the time, in a way that makes it tangible and emotionally real. It reveals the humanity of the Syria crisis in a way, I think, only cinema can."