Lost on the Summit: An Interview with Sherpa’s Jennifer Peedom

Australian documentary filmmaker Jennifer Peedom has spent much of the past decade telling stories about Mount Everest. After cutting her teeth as a high-altitude filmmaker on the TV series Everest: Beyond the Limit (2006), she began her directorial career with the documentary Miracle on Everest (2008), which chronicled Lincoln Hall’s astonishing brush with death on…

The Best Films of 2015

As befitting the blood pact all movie bloggers must sign upon founding their website, what follows is a list of my favourite films of 2015. It’s been a strong year at the cinema, even if I felt it was a slight step down from last year (specifically, I didn’t see a single new film I…

Eleven Days of Cinema: What to see at BAPFF 2015

The Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival (BAPFF) hits Brisbane tomorrow night, and any self-respecting cinephile has plenty to look forward to at the sophomore appearance of Brisbane’s annual, Asia-Pacific-centric replacement for the dearly departed BIFF. We’ll be covering the festival over the next two weeks – and you can expect to see more coverage from…

Which is the Best Weekend of MIFF 2015?

Breaking down a film festival program – especially one that stretches to 370 films, as does this year’s Melbourne Internal Film Festival – is a daunting task. And, frankly, kind of futile. Unless you’re a Melbourne-based cinephile with no day-to-day commitments, the films you choose to see are going to determined more by scheduling than…

Sydney Film Festival: Sherpa (2015)

On the 18th of April, 2014, an avalanche on the slopes of Mount Everest claimed sixteen lives; the worst accident in Everest history until the recent devastation of the Nepalese earthquake. The sixteen men that died were all Sherpas – underpaid Nepalese who risked and, ultimately, lost their lives on the treacherous Khumbu Icefall so…