The premiere of Robert Connolly’s Balibo as the opening night film at MIFF in 2009 was an extraordinary event, in the presence of Jose Ramos Horta as both a character in the film and as President of East Timor, local actors who lived through the events, and family members of the murdered journalists.
The premiere for Tim Winton’s The Turning, which Connolly invented as a giant compendium film and drove as producer, was a wonderful convocation of the participants and allowed the audience to contemplate the range and depth of Australian cinematic creativity.
