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Thursday 6 November 2008
The prestigious International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) has announced the selection of six Australian titles that reflect the diversity of Australian documentary filmmaking.
In My Father’s Country (d: Tom Murray) will screen in the First Appearance competition, where it will compete with 15 films for the First Appearance and IDFA Audience Awards. This screening will be the international premiere of the film. In 2007, director Robert Nugent received the First Appearance Award for his film End of the Rainbow – a first for an Australian film.
Selected to screen in Reflecting Images: Best of Fests is the sports documentary Solo (d: David Michod, Jen Peedom), which charts the brave attempt of Andrew McAuley to cross the wild Southern Ocean from Australia to New Zealand in a kayak. This screening follows the European premiere of Solo at the Sheffield Doc/Fest earlier this month.
Skin (d: Rhys Graham), an intimate and confronting film exploring art, the body and mortality, will have its international premiere when it screens in the Silver Cub competition – a competitive section for short documentaries. Wanja (d: Angie Abdilla), a documentary about the block in Redfern, has also been selected to screen in the Silver Cub competition and will have its European premiere at the festival. Wanja received development funding from Screen Australia’s Indigenous Branch.
Twelve Canoes (d: Molly Reynolds, Rolf de Heer), made for release on the internet and comprising 12 shorts that portray the history, culture and homeland of the Yolngu people of the Arafura Swamp, will screen in the Reflecting Images: Masters program of IDFA.
The final film in selection is Indonesia Calling, a film by famous Dutch documentary maker Joris Ivens. Made in 1946, the film was sponsored by the Waterside Worker’s Federation of Australia and is about the refusal of seamen and waterside workers in Australia to man Dutch ships containing arms and ammunition for attacks on the Indonesia Republic.
The International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam runs
20–30 November 2008.
In My Father’s Country
(80 min)
Production Company: Mayfan Pty Ltd
Writer/Director: Tom Murray
Producer: Graeme Isaac
Co-producers: Tom Murray, Amy Frasca
Domestic & International Sales: SBS Content Sales
Synopsis: In remote North East Arnhem Land a small homeland community is fighting for its future. It's Elders are struggling with the difficult task of mediating the demands of a richly complex traditional culture and a globalised 21st Century world, while hoping to raise their kids with the dignity, insight, and self-respect necessary to succeed in both.
Skin
(27 mins)
Production Company: Big and Little Films
Writer/Director: Rhys Graham
Producers: Tony Ayres, Michael McMahon
Synopsis: An unsettling meditation on death and creativity, Skin examines the 15-year collaboration between tattooist and artist Ex de Medici and her subject Geoff Ostling, as they negotiate the possibility of bequeathing Geoff’s completely tattooed skin as an artwork when he dies.
Solo
(58 mins)
Production Company: Essential Media and Entertainment
Executive Producer: Chris Hilton
Directors: David Michod, Jen Peedom
Writer: David Michod
Producer: Jen Peedom
Distributor: Hopscotch
International Sales: RDF Rights
Synopsis: The extraordinary journey of a man who refused to be ordinary. This story charts the brave attempt of Andrew McAuley to cross the wild Southern Ocean from Australia to New Zealand in a kayak. After a month at sea and one day away from success, a distress signal was received. His empty kayak was found only 30 miles from shore. His body was not recovered, but the tapes from his cameras were. The exact circumstances of Andrew's death remain a mystery, which will be examined in the film.
Twelve Canoes
(66 mins)
Production Company: Indigemedia Incorporated
Directors/Writers: Molly Reynolds, Rolf de Heer
Producers: Molly Reynolds, Marshall Heald, Rolf de Heer
Web Design: Wanted Digital
Distributor: Ronin Films
Synopsis: Made for release on the internet, Twelve Canoes comprises a dozen shorts that portray the history, culture and homeland of the Yolngu people of the Arafura Swamp. The 12 'tone poems' include Creation, Our Ancestors, The Macassans, First White Men, Seasons, Language and Kinship.
Wanja
(26 mins)
Production Company: Jotz Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Tom Zubrycki
Writer/Director: Angie Abdilla
Producer: Tom Zubrycki
International Sales: Jotz Productions Pty Ltd
Cast: Barbara Stacey
Synopsis: A documentary about The Block, through the eyes of Auntie Barb, and the life of her blue heeler dog (recently deceased). The many and varied stories of Wanja reflect on the issues affecting this Indigenous community in the heart of Sydney.
Media enquiries: Victoria Buchan, The Lantern Group, victoria@lanterngroup.com.au
T: (02) 9383 4033 M: 0408 114 864
