It's BIFF time again!

November brings the first hint of summer in Brisbane (although not today, a grey rainy day that is great for staying in and watching the box) and also the annual Brisbane International Film Festival.  For it's 21st birthday this year, the Festival has again brought a massive range of films from around the world to our door, with a mix of obscure, indie and commercial movies.

Many people who know me have got used to November being 'movie time' and they enjoy following what I get up to in the 10 days of the Film Festival.  But why not take it a step further and join me for a  movie?  You are likely to see something interesting, even if not the best movie you've ever seen.  For those who don't have time to review the whole program of films, here is a list of what I'm going to see, brief synopsis and when.

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai 3D - Monday 12 November 6:30pm.
- This is the latest film from Takashi Miike, a crazy Japanese director responsible for great films such as Dead or Alive, Audition, Sukiyaki Western Django and last year's slow burn, strong finishing 13 Assassins.

Sons of Norway - Thursday 15th 6:30pm
- Norwegian coming of age comedy drama with a 13 year old's attempts at punk rebellion being stymied by his easy going hippy dad's acceptance of everything.

Miami Connection - Thursday 15th 10:15pm
- A crazy sounding film where a martial arts rock band called Dragon Sound embark on a wave of roundhouse-kicking, crime-crushing justice against a band of ninjas running rampant through Miami, Florida.

Sound of my Voice - Friday 16th 7pm
- American indie with 2 filmmakers infiltrating a Californian cult only to be drawn in by charismatic leader Maggie.  This one appeals to me as it is written by and stars Brit Marling, who co-wrote and starred in 'Another Earth' which showed at last year's festival and I really liked it.

Compliance - Friday 16th 9:45pm
- A film shocking audiences around the world.  A compelling look at how people can be manipulated into performing shocking acts, as a fast food worker receives a strange phone call telling them a staff member has committed a crime and that they need to confine and strip-search her.  Should be unsettling.

Mission to Lars - Saturday 17th 2:30pm
- Should be a cute movie as brother and sister filmmakers go on a mission to help their autistic brother meet his hero, Lars Ulrich of Metallica.

West of Memphis - Saturday 17th 4pm
- Up to date documentary by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) about the 'West Memphis Three' case, where three guys were jailed for a lengthy period for a crime they didn't commit, mainly because they were a little bit alternative.  The true killers have never been found.

Last Days Here - Saturday 17th 10:30pm
- Doco about Bobby Liebling, a member of 70s cult metal band Pentagram who became a long term heroin user.  A fan (the maker of this movie) tracks him down and will he get a shot at redemption and musical fame after all?

Glitterdust + The Love of Books - Sunday 18th 11:45am
- Double play of documentaries. Glitterdust is about three middle eastern artists struggling to kick start their careers in the United Arab Emirates.  The Love of Books tells the tale of the library director and a group of booklovers who run an underground network to save 10000 ancient manuscripts and books from Sarajevo during the civil war in 1992.

The Loveless - Monday 19th 4pm
- First film by Kathryn Bigelow (director of The Hurt Locker, Point Break Near Dark), it's a tale of rebellious bikers stopping into a small town on their way to Daytona.  First feature role by Willem Dafoe, period 50s setting with early 80s style.
Dirty Ho - Monday 19th 6:30pm
 - Not what it sounds like! A kung fu movie with a Manchurian prince and martial experts in disguise, having to defeat a thief with 'stealth kung-fu': lethal fighting skills while maintaining the illusion of clumsiness.  Sounds like fun!

The Mercenary - Tuesday 20th 4pm
- An entry from the 'Spaghetti Western' retrospective mini-program showing a range of westerns from the 60s, starring Jack Palance, Franco Nero (the original Django).  Many of the other films in this program would be worth a look if you like Spaghettie Westerns.  Watch out for Sergio Leone's Clint Eastwoord starring trilogy A Fistful of Dollars; For a Few Dollars More; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Miss Bala - Wednesday 21st 9pm
- Mexican thriller about a poor woman who enters a beauty pageant to escape her life but gets caught up with a local drug cartel.  Based on 'an outrageous true story of a former Miss Hispanic America", this sounds like a pretty good glimpse into the horrific things going on in Mexico even to this day.

Show me the Magic - Thursday 22nd 6:30pm
- Doco on legendary Australian cinematographer Don McAlpine, showing what a cinematographer does on a movie.  One for movie buffs.  He's lensed many well known movies, including early Ausse gems such as Don's Party, Puberty Blues, Breaker Morant and then went on to become in demand in Hollywood doing films as diverse as Predator, Mrs Doubtfire, Patriot Games, Anger Management, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Following - Thursday 22nd 9pm
- The first movie by Christopher Nolan, that guy who directed a little trilogy called Batman Begins, Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises.  This is meant to be brilliant, so get along because this movie would be pretty hard to find otherwise.

Django - Friday 23rd 12:15pm
- Another spaghetti western, deemed one of the most violent movies ever released at the time in 1966.  The introduction of the character 'Django' who has appeared in over 30 unofficial sequels plus other adaptations (such as Takashi Miike's unofficial tribute 'Sukiyaki Western Django') and possibly inspiring Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film 'Django Unchained'.

The Substance: Albert Hoffman's LSD - Friday 23rd 2pm
- A doco about the drug LSD and the scientist who discovered it and thought it would be the key to turning us in to our full potential - until the world realised there could be some pretty bad side effects.

God Bless America - Friday 23rd 7pm
- A man who discovers he has an inoperable brain tumor decides to go on a killing spree to remove some of the worst examples of stupidity in American society, teaming up with a young girl who feels the same way.  This should be a wickedly funny satire.  Empire gave this a 4 out of 5 star review.

Liberal Arts - Friday 23rd 9pm
- An indie rom-com by Josh Radnor, who plays Ted in sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Maniac - Friday 23rd 11:30pm
- A remake of an 80s slasher film starring Elijah Wood, that cute little Frodo guy as the titular maniac.  A mannequin restorer by day, scalp hunter by night.  A selection from the "Monster Fest" mini-program.

Disturbing the Peace and So Sorry - Saturday 24th 4pm
- Double documentary from Chinese artist, activist and provocative filmmaker Ai Weiwei (known for designing the Bird's Nest Stadium for the Beijing Olympics, less well known for his films).  These two movies promise to be a disturbing peek behind the tightly controlled media face of China, from a first-hand perspective of someone who has done jail time for airing his views.

Sinister - Saturday 24th 9:30pm
- Scary little supernatural thriller starring Ethan Hawke as a crime novelist in need of inspiration, who moves his family (unknowingly to them) into a house where a young family was killed but the crime was never solved.  Are they alone in the house?  BOO!

Inbred - Saturday 24th 11:59pm
- A gory splatterfest being compared to early classics 'Bad Taste' and 'Re-Animator', as a group of teen delinquents and their social workers head to a small English country town overrun by homicidal degenerates who don't really like the visitors!

The Reluctant Revolutionary - Sunday 25th 12pm
- A first hand view of the beginning of the 'Arab Spring' as filmmaker Sean McAlister was in Yemen in early 2011 documenting a decline in tourism when the sudden popular uprising began.  This should be pretty astonishing as he follows local guide Kais as the Yemeni people stand up to the savage regime.  Up for the BIFFDocs award prize.

American Mary - Sunday 25th 2pm
- From the Soska sisters who made the horror flick 'Ginger Snaps' a few years back, a disturbing gothic horror flick about a surgical intern by day, performer of radical body modification surgeries by night.  But what is her motivation?

The Queen of Versailles - Sunday 25th 4:30pm
- One for my financial planning compadres, a doco described as the 'riches to rags' story of a billionaire couple's run in with the GFC.  Promises to be a fascinating look at some pretty repulsive people.  Also up for the BIFFDocs prize.

The Man with the Iron Fists - Sunday 25th 6:30pm
- General craziness from the pen of rap collective Wu Tang Clan's RZA.  RZA also stars as the titular hero, a blacksmith with marial arts skills who defends a village against an army of arcane warriors.  He's roped in Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu to lend some star cred, but the true interest here is that Eli Roth (director of Cabin Fever, Hostel and Hostel 2) took a co-writing and producing role and the film appears under a 'Presented by Quentin Tarantino' banner.  Should be super violent and funny.

The ABCs of Death - Sunday 25th 8:30pm
- A mash-up of mini films where 26 directors were given a letter of the alphabet and a $5,000 budget, which they had to use to show different ways to die.  One for the people who chortle in glee at the inventive deaths in movies such as Final Destination, Scream or indeed The Raid.  Directors are mainly unknown, although the film should end with a blood soaked bang with Yoshihiro Nishimura doing 'Z' as he is the guy who directed the insane 'Helldriver' from last year's film fest (see blog post from November last year).

With such a packed schedule, even though most films are shown twice during the program there are a few I'm missing.  The ones that should also be good but not listed above are Berberian Sound Studio, Save your Legs!, A Fulldome Odyssey (a group of 'full dome' films showing at the Planetarium at Mt Cootha), Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry, Once Upon a Time in the West, Sightseers, BabyCall, Errors of the Human Body, Robot + Frank.  Check the program if any of the movies in my list appeal to you but the time doesn't, because most movies have a second screening at some stage.

The full program is available at the website www.biff.com.au so check it out.

Wow, I just realised I've listed 28 movies above.  Some of these may drop off if I get too tired!  This will be even more than last year!  Which I didn't get tired of judging by my wrap up blog post, but this will be a lot to do.  We shall see.....