Perspectives on story and place

Trenery: What is it about cinema that brings people together?

Christian Pazzaglia: Cinema is a common language, right? There are references we all share. And going to a film festival, there's a different set of expectations. There's more intention to it. Our audience ranges from kids, like mine—who are four and eight—to people in their nineties, and we all laugh, cry, feel those same beats together. That's pretty extraordinary.

TR: You personally select every film. What's the criteria—past favourites, instinct or something else?

CP: It's always a mix. You need to know your audience, then you adjust. Documentaries do really well. Our most popular film in year one was The Truffle Hunters [2020], a documentary about elderly men and their dogs foraging for truffles in Italy. We had all these big features, and that's the one that landed!

TR: Was there a moment this year that reminded you why you do this?

CP: We screened I Am the River, the River Is Me [2025], a documentary from Aotearoa, New Zealand, about the Whanganui River—the first river in the world to be granted legal personhood. It's a beautiful, meditative film, guided by a First Nations Elder. An hour before the screening, a Whanganui woman approached me and asked if she could introduce it. She turned out to be a ceremonial artist and performed a full welcome ceremony with this incredible singing. People were in tears. It was unforgettable.

TR: It sounds magical. Has your connection to this community shaped how you think about the festival?

CP: Absolutely. In some ways, it's a grassroots event, but the idea is that you don't need to be in a big city to see exceptional cinema. Our tagline says it all: 'world class films, small town charm'. Most of what we show, about 80 percent, are premieres. Sometimes distributors don't realise we're so small. They see my email, check the website and then ask where to send the film. And I say, “Actually... we're in a barn.”

TR: And you must have faced some challenges.

CP: That first year was surreal, but we had no recorded Covid cases, so we were able to go ahead, with precautions. In hindsight, we were incredibly lucky with the timing. By year two, things were different. Just weeks out from the festival, people were sick and we had to postpone to March. Then the [NSW] floods came; we moved it again. We scaled down and added family programs and activities. It was much smaller, but we did that to offer some peace and relief to our people.

TR: And this year, when Cyclone Alfred hit?

CP: It was tough. We had some major Australian filmmakers and talent lined up to be here. Then suddenly, no one could come. When we moved it from March to May, most guests were already committed elsewhere. Still, we adapted. We opened with The Tracker [2002], an iconic Australian film by Rolf de Heer, one of my heroes. He sent a beautiful introduction and joined us online for Q&A. That really set the tone. And closing with the Australian premiere of Milano: The Inside Story of Italian Fashion [2023] gave us this uplifting, gorgeous moment.

TR: That says a lot about your team's resilience behind the scenes, quietly making it all happen.

CP: Yeah, in a very particular way, it worked beautifully. This is what you can do when you're independent in a small town. There's no degree of separation. Your audience are your friends.