A breath of fresh air is an expression we all use. But what does it mean? Freedom! New ideas! Innovative ways to change things for the better. These fundamental aims of every artist are also the mantra for Australia’s newest film festival – the Tasmanian Breath of Fresh Air (BOFA) Film Festival, which 2nd annual edition runs from 23th to 27th November this year.

Taking place against the stunning backdrop of one of Australia’s most beautiful regional centres, Launceston in the Tamar Valley of northern Tasmania, the BOFA Festival offers not only great films from international and local filmakers (The Hunter, Here I Am, 33 Postcards, Bill Cunningham New York; documentaries My America and Home…), but also exhibitions and debates.

We were particularly impressed by the movie The Fall, which reminded us of Zorro’s adventures and Mille et une nuits tales.

In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl, a fantastical story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances…

We also liked Patrick Bradley’s photographic essay of current cinema – The Present –, shown in the premises of the QVMAG, Lauceston’s Museum. Being a film photographer for over 49 motion pictures and 32 television shows both in Australia and the United States, Bradley’s portraits includes cinema legends Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Uma Thurman and Will Smith among others.