Yesterday I kicked off the Festival with a couple of back-to-back screenings - a good to get into the rhythm of the Festival.

GHOSTS

Nick Broomfield's harrowing tale of the drowning of 23 illegal Chinese immigrants in 2004 is a tough one to watch at times. It's a very claustrophobic film: from the financial position that motivates lead character Ai Qin to borrow the money to pay the people smugglers; the six month journey cramped in trucks and shipping container; the futile reality of life as an illegal in England; the racism towards the foreigners; and, finally the rising tide that takes many of their lives.

Shot very much in a documentary style, all the key actors are themselves former illegal immigrants and bring their personal experience to their roles. Key facts and figures are periodically brought up to provide context for the story.

My only complaint was that the subtitling seemed at times to be a little inconsistent. There were periods where certain characters would say something that wasn't translated. That said, it never impeded the story in any way.

Ghosts is screening again at 9.15pm on 2 August at the Greater Union.

ORBIT

This was a new addition to the MIFF line-up this year: a collection of locally produced music videos. Really, it was like watching Rage on a Friday night when they show all the new clips - except it wasn't 4am, I wasn't drunk, and I hadn't just gotten home from the bar. As with any collection like this it's going to be your own musical tastes that decide whether you enjoyed the little three and a half minute presentation. And, like Rage, there were times you wished you had a fast forward button, but there was also the same possibility that the next clip was going to be gold. Standouts for me were Curse ov Dialect, Marcromantics, Eat Laser Scumbag, Mum Smokes and The Drones.

Orbit is playing again at 9.25pm on 4 August at ACMI.

SCOTT WALKER: 30 CENTURY MAN

This was one of my highly anticipated films of the Festival. I clearly wasn't alone as the cinema at ACMI was pretty much at capacity. I will come clean straight away and state that I am a new Scott Walker fan. I came to his music through the latest offering, The Drift. If you're unfamiliar with the music here's a simpleton's description: Sixties teen icon croons his way to immeasurable success singing other people's songs, drinks too much, starts writing his own dense and dark songs, public rejects him, years and years of isolation, then releases a bizarre, discordant yet beautiful record ‘Tilt', disappears again, finally resurfacing last year with ‘The Drift'. Purists can call me out on this oversimplification.

This film goes into the studio for some of the sessions on ‘The Drift' and provides an insight into the recording and arranging methods Scott Walker uses. Going beyond simply interviewing famous people (David Bowie, Jarvis Cocker, et al) filmmaker Stephen Kijak hunted down many of the people who have worked with Scott Walker from a musical and management viewpoint. That was where the really interesting stuff was for me.

This one is highly recommended by me and everyone I spoke to that was at the screening. The Q&A with director Stephen Kijak was really good as well - very honest about the whole filmmaking process. The best was his response to why certain people were or weren't in the film (I'm paraphrasing, but basically): Money. We put five seconds of Sting in the film and we've sold Japan.

Genius.

Scott Walker: 30 Century Man is playing again at 7.30pm on 12 August at the Greater Union.

Don't forget to listen to Film Buffs Forecast this Saturday on RRR for your chance to win tickets to next Friday's screening of El Topo.

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Leith