Gloom, begone. The Sydney Herald reports that uplifting themes are at the heart of this little film festival that could.AT A time when the world is hurtling towards a recession, flanked by doomy predictions about global warming and terrorism, people are still paying good money to go to the movies to be scared, angry and depressed. For Toni Powell, this just didn't make sense.
The amateur filmmaker from Gympie, in rural Queensland, was tired of cinema that focused on the darkest aspects of human nature, especially after she toured festivals with one of her own short films.
"When I went to festivals I thought: 'This feels like it was programmed by a 22-year-old guy with a sadistic streak,' " Powell says. "I would have to sit through a whole pile of other shorts which left me feeling assaulted."
So in 2006 Powell did what anyone who lived in a small town and had no experience in the festival industry would do: she started a festival of her own.
Powell is now the director of the highly successful Heart Of Gold International Film Festival. All the films at the yearly event in her town - attended by more than 5000 people - are chosen because they intrigue, inspire and uplift their audience.
The festival is now going on tour around Australia for the first time and will come to Sydney next week, where Powell hopes it can alleviate some of the city's cynicism.
"People are so over being depressed and that's the attraction," she says. "They're sick of living in fear and they want a change. Movies change people."
The films that will screen in Sydney from next Wednesday are a selection of the best movies from the past two years: a mix of dramas, comedies and animations from the world over, from local productions to Oscar-nominated foreign shorts.
The films have been divided into three programs, each of nine to 12 films that will screen throughout the week.
Included in the second program is Mavis, a short documentary by Sydney filmmaker Loosie Craig. It's about a 90-year-old grandmother who sabotages her entries into a yearly doll competition after she finds out the winner can't keep their winning entry. By sewing on buttons backwards, she can enter without winning and keep her precious dolls.
"I just really love the fact that she totally thinks she screwed them," Craig says of her subject. "Just that little cheeky revenge factor that was in the story."
From the beginning, Powell devised a selection process for the films to ensure they would appeal to a broad audience.
"I literally went down the street to an art gallery, a library and various other places and got a group of people aged 14 to 80 who agreed to meet every week," she says.
The festival has earned some high-profile support. Actor Tony Barry, playwright David Williamson and At The Movies critic Margaret Pomeranz are among the industry heavyweights who have got behind the little festival that could.
Pomeranz sat on the judging panel last year. "It's about films that are really affirming of the human spirit in a variety of ways but they're not cloying films," she says.
Powell is confident Heart Of Gold will have as big an impact on a festival-weary Sydney audience as it did in rural Queensland.
"It's hard to talk about this festival without it sounding sweet but it isn't sweet, it's complex and nourishing," Powell says. "It's just like going out to a top-class organic restaurant compared to McDonald's."
The Heart of Gold International Film festival at Cinema Paris, Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, opens on Wednesday ($30, including wine and nibblies) and runs until November 25; $17/$12/$10 for each set program of nine to 12 short films.
Gold index: Four of the best
Binta And The Great Idea: This film about a young girl in Senegal sharing her father's idea for changing the world was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film last year. In program two.
Ruby Who?: A children's film from Australian director Hailey Bartholomew about a girl who spends her time trying to imagine she's someone else. In program three.
Bloody Footy: George Kapiniaris stars in this Australian film about an Italian son who defies his father to play Australian rules instead of football. In program one.
Agricultural Report: An animated comedy from Ireland concerning a cow that becomes distressed after hearing about a bovine disease on the radio. In program three.
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