5 films to catch at the Sydney Film Festival

Cinemas are reopening after the long COVID lockdown and, if Hollywood blockbusters aren’t your cup of tea, there’s a feast of more substantial international fare to enjoy at the Sydney Film Festival.

Midnight mass – Horror and Catholicism

Horror and Catholicism have walked hand in hand on screen for almost a century. From Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 film “Häxan” to Mike Flanagan’s 2021 Netflix series “Midnight Mass,” scary films and television shows have portrayed the Catholic religion in both reverent and shocking ways.

A tale of devotion

Hannah Kent’s latest novel describes the lives and loves of women bound for the new colony of South Australia.

5 reasons to love your local bookshop

COVID-19 has disrupted the book industry, but the pandemic has also helped readers see clearly what they love about their local bookshops.

The day of the Triffids

An intimate new film tells the inspiring but tragic story of David McComb, cult Australian singer/songwriter and driving force behind one of the greatest Australian rock bands.

Sir Gawain rides again

The medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was recently reimagined as a movie, but the poem itself already has a surprisingly contemporary message about tradition, modernity and our sense of self.

No Charlie, no Stones

Modest, understated and reliable in a musical world characterised by volume, extravagance and mercurial personalities, Charlie Watts was always good on the night.

Who gives a mandarin?

People disagree about what is or isn’t slang, whether or not something is Aussie, whether slang is dying, and what any of this means to us Aussies. Now you can have your say in a new survey.

The art of curation

There is more to curating an exhibition than meets the eye.

Titian’s “The Death of Actaeon” and the capriciousness of fate

Great art, such as Titian’s The Death of Actaeon shows that disasters should not make us despair, but rather celebrate the preciousness of life while we have it.

An eye for difference

Please do not adjust your sets, normal service will not be resumed because dream, hallucination or reality are all a product of the same thing – your brain.

The more you know, the less you need

Indigenous traditions of food cultivation highlight the different approaches of European and indigenous people to environmental knowledge and land management.