We are soo proud to be working with Dolby on this incredible new award to the SF3 lineup – the SF3 First Nations Award supported by Dolby.
We had entries from around the country but our winner was an easy and unanimous decision amongst our judges – eight minutes forty six seconds by Kara Rose, a young Kamilaroi filmmaker from Sydney, Australia. Kara is inspired by the stories of her people and communities. Her ideas for the characters are from her own life stories. She is a year 11 student, who has studied many film related courses during school holidays and her electives are drama, ITM and music. Kara’s main love right now is editing, special effects and music in film. Kara hopes that she can eventually gain employment in the industry that she loves. And when you watch her film, you won’t believe she was only 16 when she made it!
About eight minutes forty six seconds
This short film/documentary highlights the horrific issue of Aboriginal deaths in police custody. In Aboriginal communities every person knows a family who has had one of their own killed while they were in the custody of police. I wanted to highlight the deaths of Aboriginal people that have died in custody and yet not police have been charged. To date there are over 500 deaths.
Aboriginal deaths in custody is a political and social issue in Australia. It rose in prominence in the early 1980s, with Aboriginal activists campaigning following the death of 16-year-old John Peter Pat in 1983. Subsequent deaths in custody, considered suspicious by families of the deceased, culminated in the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC).
SF3’s Co-Founder and Director, Angela Blake, is also the Online Accessible Filmmaking Tutor for the amazing Bus Stop Films – a pioneering, not-for-profit organisation that uses filmmaking and the film industry to raise the profile of people living with disabilities and other marginalised groups, on both sides of the camera.
Last year, Angela and her class co-wrote a short sci-fi thriller called ‘The Society Experiment’. Shot on the iPhone 13 Pro Max and directed by Angela with cinematography by Rah Sharma.
A famous Cliqtuber, in a bid to get more likes and followers, decides to spend the night in an abandoned building and live stream throughout the night. Unbeknownst to him, the building is not abandoned but is a secret undercover government rehabilitation facility; detaining people with intellectual, emotional and physical disabilities and ‘normalising them’ for release back into society. The Cliquber is arrested and thrown in a cell and must band together with the other inmates to escape.
Director’s Statement
The Society Experiment was collectively written by myself and my online Bus Stop Films class, which is a fact I am deeply proud of. I am the Online teacher for Bus Stop Films and am a huge advocate for inclusive filmmaking and this film is the perfect showcase of inclusivity in creativity, action and purpose and the magic of Bus Stop Films.
I held weekly writer’s roundtables in my class; plotting, devising and writing The Society Experiment. The original idea is a mesh of two separate ideas from class members, Nicholas and Jacob. I combined their ideas into the one film and we ran with it. The class was very passionate about being able to display some of the things from their lives and disabilities onscreen. Each student based one character on their life and was in charge of leading the writing for that character and the issues they face. In many ways The Society Experiment is a kind of autobiographical film for my class and right from the start it was extremely important for me that each student be deeply involved in every aspect of the film, especially with the story and characters.
The big idea of our film is that there is no normal. No matter how hard a government or society tries to homogenise humans, they cannot; we are all unique and wonderful. Just look what we created together!
About Bus Stop Films
Bus Stop makes films with, for and about people from diverse backgrounds and abilities.
Our programs are taught by passionate filmmakers and industry experts to give our students a holistic filmmaking learning experience and offer students increased, social, literacy and work ready skills.
Students who participate in our programs benefit from exclusive workshops, excursions, workplace opportunities, mentoring with industry professionals and the opportunity to work collaboratively on a film project.
DRUM ROLL PLEASE…………………………….We are absolutely thrilled to announce the winner of our SF3 People’s Choice Award for our 2021 Season…and the winner is Nico Piro for ‘Today I Will Live’. We couldn’t ask for a better film to win, we love this documentary about the forgotten victims of a forgotten war, as Nico describes the war in Afghanistan himself. Congrats Nico and may you stay safe and continue to share these incredible stories with the world.
When we die where do we go? Does it matter when we view what we will miss? What inspired the film? Where do we go has been a concept I’ve been developing into a narrative since my father’s suicide in 2012. The film seeks to answer the questions I had when thinking about my father’s passing. The main purpose of the film is to teach folks who are in a dark place and what they are missing out on if they choose to end their life. I understand that suicide and mental health are complex issues that cannot be solved in a three-minute 360-degree film, but as a filmmaker, this story is one of the few ways I know of to help others in the way that I was unable to help my father.
How the film was made? An Insta one x was used to film and edit the shots of people and exterior sceneries. The majority of the footage is actually a collection of images captured when I was with my family and friends. I tried to capture my happiest memories on film. The POV perspective that places the spectator in a coffin was the most dramatic scene and the most difficult to film. The scene was made by a coffin-shaped box lined with a tissue box cover and adjusted to fit the Insta one x inside.
Director’s Biography My name is Rein Turley. I spent the first four years of my career working in television, including four years as a news director for ABC News 24. My father committed suicide in 2012 and my perspective on death has shifted dramatically since then. Since leaving television, I’ve worked in community development with a focus on educating and facilitating the use of new and emerging technology. I love telling stories through 360 filmmaking because I believe that there is no greater empathy device then seeing through the eyes of another in virtual reality.
Check out our 2nd SF360 Finalist, Steel City by Max Schleser from Melbourne, Australia.
Industrial past colliding with artistic futures
Where the river Rhein and Ruhr intersect in Germany, you will find Duisburg. This former industrial city is known for bad football, mafia shootings and the Love Parade disaster. While the heavy industry, which brought prosperity to the port town in the 50s and 60s, has demised with the Strukturwandel in the 1980s, steel is still shaping its landscape.
This Cinematic VR experience portrays the city’s public art, the Rhine Orange, Landschaftspark, Love Parade memorial and Tiger Turtle – Magic Mountain through audio-visual abstraction. As a kaleidoscope brings new perspectives into interaction through reflection, Steel City aims to change the stereotypical representation of this post-industrial region. By means of using an accelerometer microphone, the sound of these steel sculptures was recorded and provided inspiration for the visual treatment of the video artwork.
Kaleidoscope translates from ancient Greek for observation in beautiful form. Max Schleser captured these public artworks with an omnidirectional video camera and Simon Longo/Dithernoise’s original soundscape for this audio-visual experience is based on the field recordings. The Cinematic VR experience as much as the public artworks, display the dialectic of change and stagnation.
Spatial audio encoding by Darius Kedros at Sonic State Design in the Garden Studio Melbourne. Please enjoy with headphones. Available as Third Order Ambisonics on request.
Have you seen our SF360 Finalists yet? To kick off our Festival week we have CROSS by Juan Pablo Urgilés Becerra of Imán Transmedia from Pichincha , Ecuador.
CROSS is an immersive and transmedia experience that uses documentary, 360 video, virtual reality, investigative journalism, and participation to raise society’s awareness of human mobility and the flow of Venezuelan migrants and refugees. It tells the story of Agny, a Venezuelan woman who crosses Ecuador to reunite with her cousin to work with him and get the money she needs to regroup her children.
