The Thousands

With the success of Shut Up Little Man, which screened at Sundance, Sheffield and Edinburgh, Closer Productions now know what the jackpot looks like and they hit it pretty hard. Their newly released box set contains five beauties which demonstrate that as much as we all love to say ‘Australian cinema is down the gurgle-hole,’ we must choose our examples carefully.

The documentary The Mystery of Flying Kicks is one of the best-made documentaries I have seen in a while. The phenomenon of the sneakers dangling over the powerline is questioned and interpreted by folk all over the world – the filmmakers set up a hotline which they invited people to call and leave messages about dangling shoes on. The result? A sweet celebration of a worldwide mystery which every knows of but no one understands.

My Last Ten Hours With You, directed by the talented Sophie Hyde, is the story of two lovers, Jeremy and Mark, who are spending their last night together before parting ways early in the morning. Remembering, fighting, loving – the short film is a bittersweet tribute to the fleeting moments that meant more than we ever realised.

This box set also contains the beauties Stunt Love, the story of the original stunt couple J.P. McGowan and Helen Holmes, Elephantiasis about a woman and her relationship with all things elephant, and Necessary Games, a gorgeous triptych of dance films. Closer have evolved into a force to be reckoned with, and this set of films explains exactly why.