VHS Tracking Presents:
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) presented by Cass Lynch
Wednesday 13 November 2024 6:30pm
Goolugatup Heathcote
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
The original Spanish title, El laberinto del fauno, does not refer to the Greek deity of Pan, but the fauns of Roman mythology. Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro was inspired by childhood dreams of a faun, and the film’s story was intended to be a parable about the rise of fascism in Spain. We follow a young girl Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) during 1944 whose pregnant mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), is wed to a military officer, Captain Vidal (Sergi López). As Ofelia meets fairytale creatures in her new surroundings, Vidal hunts down the guerillas fighting against dictator Francisco Franco. A mysterious faun (Doug Jones) guides Ofelia into a fantasy world, providing tasks that must be completed to save her mother from illness.
Pan’s Labyrinth was a return to Spanish filmmaking for Del Toro after his adventures in Hollywood, making Blade II (2002) and Hellboy (2004), and connects to his previous movies blending historical tensions with fantasy and horror elements such as The Devil’s Backbone (2001). While some CGI is used, the film mainly employs make-up and animatronics for its effects including five hours in the make-up chair for Jones – who plays both the Faun and the Pale Man creature. A commercial and critical success, Pan’s Labyrinth won three Academy Awards (Best Art Direction, Cinematography and Make-Up) and remains a contemporary classic in Del Toro’s continuing career within fantasy genres.
About the programmer and presenter, Cass Lynch
Cass Lynch is a Koreng Wudjari Noongar woman, and is descended from the families of Ravensthorpe in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. She is a writer and Research Fellow, and has a PhD in Creative Writing that explores Noongar stories that reference climate change. She is a member of the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories group who focus on the revitalisation of culture and language connected to south coast Noongar people.
She is the co-founder of Aboriginal literature project Woylie Project, which facilitates bringing Noongar stories into print and training community members to be presenters. She has published short stories, essays, and poems, and her multimedia storytelling works have been featured at Perth Festival, Fremantle Biennale, PICA, Arts House Melbourne, CCA Glasgow, and more. Her Noongar language haikus, published in Westerly 64.1, won the 2019 Patricia Hackett Prize. Her short story ‘Split’, a creative impression of deep time Perth, is a key text for high school students studying VCE English in Victoria and can be found in the UQP publication Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now.
VHS Tracking 