A RADIANT SPHERE / ABOVE US ONLY SKY / DEMONIC

During the Second World War, Joe Wallace, a Canadian poet and communist activist, was jailed for radicalism. His country’s literary critics were harsh judges of his art, and yet his work became famous in China and Russia during the Cold War. Sara Wylie pays tribute to a paternal great-uncle she never knew, in this investigative essay combining archival footage with contemporary investigations. As she retraces the poet’s eventful life, the director, who barely met her father and his side of the family, also explores her own roots but the wider context of Canadian history is always present. With a sure but gentle hand, she connects past and present in a nuanced look at political activism.

Sometimes a short film comes along that’s able to capture an entire world in just a few minutes. This uncommon filmic investigation is one of them, transporting us with surprising ease from the 2010 eruption of Eyafjallajökull in Iceland to the factory run by Wittgenstein’s father, to the impact of the Beatles on Czech youth. Based on brilliant associations between ideas and visual synchronicities, Above Us Only Sky celebrates the curiosity, moments of extraordinary chance, revelations and intuitions that form the basis of our understanding of the world. Past, present and possible futures melt together in a waking dream: an original look at the deep connections between the 20th century and the present day.

In the 1980s, a strange phenomenon emerged in the United States and soon spread to several other Western countries: hundreds of people claimed to be victims of satanic ritual abuse. The collective hysteria – the “Satanic panic” – was stoked by hypnotherapists and some media, particularly popular talk shows. Australian experimental filmmaker Pia Borg examines this strange chapter, creating an amusing but nonetheless frightening collage of archival television broadcasts and historical reconstructions. She takes a wry look at how the potent blend of psychiatric and media authority gave rise to false memories of debauchery, murder and human sacrifice.