The Weekender: June 21 – 23
IT’S all about the arts this weekend! Check out the Melbourne International Animation Festival, the Swan Lake ballet or the Fed Square Book Market. If you’d rather be away from the city, the Jam & Cream Cafe might satisfy your culinary cravings. Elizabeth Yick has more.
Melbourne International Animation Festival
Thursday, June 20 – Sunday, June 30; Australian Centre for the Moving Image
The 11-day Melbourne International Animation Festival kicks off this weekend with the opening gala and the launch of “RENDER”, a two-day animation conference. For the animation buffs that missed out on conference tickets, there are still plenty of other things to see at the festival, including sessions with a very special festival guest – the master-animator Koji Yamamura.
Other highlights of the festival include the “Best of the Next” – the international graduate festival showcasing the best graduate reels from top animation and films schools from around the world. And don’t worry about not being able to understand foreign dialogue as most of these shorts won’t have any. The idea is that the animated shorts of this festival are powerful enough to communicate without words.
Tickets to this mini-festival are priced at $10 per session and can be purchased from the official MIAF website. For a more detailed insight into the festival, you can read our report about it. Alternatively, if you’d like to get into the creative headspace of animator Isabel Peppard – whose short, Butterflies, will be screening at the festival – you can read our interview with her as well.
Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake
Friday, June 21 – Monday, July 1; Various sessions, Arts Centre Melbourne
For those who always thought ballet was unexciting, the 2010 film, Black Swan, sure proved otherwise. And for those who were confused or wanted to know more about the ballet that Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis were dancing to in the film, you’ll be able to have the chance to actually watch a production of “the world’s favourite ballet” – Swan Lake.
Described by the Sunday Age as “a dazzling and generous production”, Graeme Murphy brings to the stage the classical Swan Lake story but gives it a twist – a rather pointed reference to a certain British royal love triangle.
Performed by the Australia ballet in a Melbourne-only season, tickets for youth (under 26) range from $36 to $90 and can be booked online. For more information on sessions and the production is available on the Australian Ballet website.
Fed Square Book Market
Saturday June 22, 11am-5pm, Federation Square
A plethora of books await at the Fed Square Book Market.
In an age dominated by online media, blogs, and e-books, there’s still something special about reading an actual book and waiting to find out what happens at the turn of the page.
Federation Square hosts Melbourne’s largest weekly book market every Saturday, where more than 5,000 new and pre-loved titles are on display, waiting to be browsed. This book market boasts not only Melbourne’s most reputable and experienced book dealers, but also plays hosts to monthly poetry sessions and a variety of free book clubs for those who want to reconnect with their inner bookworm.
For those who are keen to rediscover the joys of reading and turning pages, this is a definite must-do this weekend.
Jam & Cream Café
All weekend, 9.30am-4pm, 1 Orr St, Heidelberg Heights
Jam and Cream, a delectable cafe found in Heidelberg Heights! Photo by loveandyouth via Urbanspoon.
The secret is out for the best scones in town! A quirky little café in Heidelberg is rumoured to be serving up some delicious, fluffy goodness not to be missed by any Devonshire tea lover. Jam and Cream café is said to be inspired by the owner’s Nanna, and those wonderful Saturdays they spent baking away together.
The décor of the café is adorably mismatched, and the little establishment has become a weekend favourite of the locals.
The sweet scones there have cute little old English granny names such as Peggy (delicious apple and cinnamon), Gertrude (a ginger and apricot invention), and Bertha (a modern Mars Bar twist), while the savoury selections are named after proper old English grandpas such as Alfred (cheddar cheese), Gilbert (onion, cheddar cheese, chutney) and Montgomery (sweet chilli, cheddar cheese, lime).
According to the word going around town, the scones at this cafe are warm, scrumptious and definitely worth driving down for!