Focus on Lav Diaz

Slow down on Saturday afternoons with a fortnightly program of transcendental films from the Filipino master of slow cinema.

Is slow cinema the new punk cinema of the 2020s?

When we consider commercial cinema, the films that come to mind are bright, fast-paced, dialogue-heavy and often run for a neat 90 minutes to maintain a steady flow of foot traffic through the candy bar. The antithesis of this, in every regard, is Lav Diaz.

Filipino director Lav Diaz is a contemporary master whose unique brand of slow cinema is postcolonial and intensely political. Its long form and slow pace give it an intrinsic anti-commercialism. He has made some of the world’s longest films, and while they might be impractical to screen at your closest multiplex, they take pride of place here at ACMI.

Diaz’s films ask a lot from audiences – they demand time, planning and patience – but the rewards are rich. Discarding the three-act structure and storytelling conventions of any kind, his films don't allow audiences to anticipate. Instead, we’re profoundly anchored to the present, watching sequences unfold gradually, casting meditative spells as they go.

Join us to move at a different pace for a while and experience the slow and ironically hushed films of one of cinema’s true punks.

– Reece Goodwin, Senior Programmer (Film & Screen Industry)