Lack of screens wreaks havoc on Mayhem release

Want proof that Australian cinemas are not getting behind good Australian films? Eddie Martin’s documentary All This Mayhem, about skateboarding brothers Tas and Ben Pappas, is opening in just two cinemas this week – Sydney’s Dendy Newtown and Melbourne’s Cinema Nova. But in Britain it will open in more than 30 cinemas with backing from the British Film Institute on August 8. And in the US, it will open in 10 cities on September 10. "It’s frustrating and it hurts that Aussie exhibitors aren’t giving us a chance like we're receiving overseas," Martin says. "We're Australian and this is an Aussie story, we'd love the opportunity to try and make it work theatrically in our home territory." The lack of success getting cinemas echoes The Rover, which despite huge publicity opened in only 41 of the country's 2000-odd cinemas last month.

Disney takes a magic carpet ride with The United

Who knew that Walt Disney Studios had made an Arabic-language movie? What’s described as the first film backed by a Hollywood studio in the Arab world, Amin Matalqa’s The United will screen at the Arab Film Festival Australia, which runs in Sydney from August 14 to 17, Melbourne from August 21 to 23 and Canberra from August 29 to 31. It’s described as an inspirational comedy about a legendary Egyptian football coach taking over a team of misfits to play France. Jordan-born, American-based Matalqa won the Sundance audience award with the drama Captain Abu Raed in 2008. The festival’s politically charged program starts with Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You, a drama about about a boy who lands in a Jordanian refugee camp after the Six Day War in 1967.