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On Saturday the 24th of June the Schonell theatre will close its doors and cease cinema operations. Operating for 34 years the Schonell is a cultural icon of Brisbane cinema. As a gift to supporters, the Schonell is having a closing down party in which all films will be screened free of charge on Saturday.

The closing is the result of budget cuts forced by the recently introduced Voluntary Student Unionism legislation. While VSU was designed to weaken the politicization of university union groups, predominantly controlled by the Left of politics with the intentional flow-on effect to the Australian Labor Party, the legislation achieves this through funding cuts which effect all services and clubs. 

Tonight I saw the Australian film Candy. I hated it. I hated it because I loved it; because loving it meant sharing the painful story of the two young characters, of their family, and the inevitable downward spiral into oblivion.

The acting was absolutely superb, some of the best I have seen. Going into it I shared some of the prognostic cynicism about yet another junkie film, but was buoyed by some good reviews. While much of the thematic context had been explored in previous endeavours, I still felt this film had much to offer. I guess because the characters and story were so authentic, you couldn't help but feel the reverberating effects. Indeed I spent much of the film with my head in my hands, painfully aware, embarrassed even of how achingly fallible the characters were yet unable to shape their decisions.