The final film in our Winter @ The ARTSLAB series is THE CARNIVAL, a colourful documentary about The Bells, a carnival family from Batemans Bay, who have been hauling their convoy of rides and workers across Australia for six generations. Join us at the Upper River Hall on Saturday 3 August at 5pm, for this wonderful film about family and the generational pressures, expectations, and unspoken desires that shape them.
The Bells and their workers have a mission: to keep their carnival alive and thriving, and to keep it in the family. This travelling show family have been touring Australia for a hundred years and are now facing some of the toughest times they’ve ever seen. Filmed over seven years, THE CARNIVAL is an epic road-trip unveiling not only the mystery of the traveling show-people, but a family grappling with traditional life in a modern world.
THE CARNIVAL was written and directed by Isabel Darling who lives on the NSW South Coast, and who travelled the country chasing after trucks and sharing campfires with the Bells beneath the starry desert skies, to capture an insight into the real lives of the “showies”. And yes, if you were wondering, Isabel Darling is related to documentary film maker and sometime KV resident Ian Darling. However, they only met each other for the first time recently, in between COVID lockdowns, when Isabel discovered her second-cousin-once-removed was also a documentary filmmaker and head of a documentary film philanthropic foundation! Ian went on to support the final stages of the making of THE CARNIVAL through the Shark Island Foundation.
Director Isabel Darling and editor Hilary Balmond will be at the event to introduce the film and answer questions after the screening. The cosy Upper River Hall will be open from 4.30pm for drinks and nibbles, which is all included in the ticket price. As always, all proceeds from ticket sales will be split between the filmmaker and the hall.
This will be the last ARTSLAB event until October, so don’t miss it! I hope to see you there!
Sarah Butler
The ARTSLAB
