The short film that won the 2012 Bondi Short Film Festival “The Maker”.
The 12th annual Bondi Film Festival took place at Bondi Pavilion on Saturday. The brainchild of Francis Coady, It is an annual event in which documentary makers from around the country are invited to submit their works to the panel to win a prize worth more than $10,000. With more than 200 submissions, the best fourteen are picked for screening.
With a short list of conditions for entry, the Bondi Film Festival celebrates creativity and applauds those who take a shot. In fact, I came away having seen some very talented film and documentary makers weave stories out of the very diverse and multi-faceted social fabric that exists right here in this city.
The criteria for this festival calls out directly to the budding film-maker attempting to make his or her first foray into this realm. With the added excuse of “giving creative’s a deadline to work towards” as said so eloquently by Francis Coady the curator of the event.
My friend and I recently decided to make a short film, so when the offer to review the Bondi Short Film Festival came around, I thought it would be a good way to do some research and check out the work from other independent film makers in my town.
I arrived at Bondi Pavilion and was warmly greeted by the volunteers supporting the show. Francis Coady, the show’s creator who met us at the gates of the theatre directed us to our seats and advised us to “squish in” so as to fill up the theatre, with the hall filling to the brim in just a couple of minutes, I realised it was a sold out event.
After a short introduction from Kristy Best who works on ABC2 and a welcome from Francis Coady, we dived head first into the finalists.
We began with the eerily quiet “Thin Air”, a film about the nature of relationships in the disciplined world of gymnastics. Another about an amateur boxer from the Bronx. It was varied and showed a range of unique tales from film-makers around the country. Stories ranged from coming-of-age tales to those tackling topics as far out as metaphysics experiments in “The Grand Design”.
There were times during the screening that it became a bit cramped in the hall, especially when a few of the shorts utilised subtitles, the audience had to crane over each other to read the text. This was clearly evident in Pranolo’s “Push & Pull”. It felt almost communal, the way the audience was so eager to watch every short that came up on screen made it almost a non-issue, felt like a high school assembly, but not so uptight and much more intoxicated.
There was a few howlers amongst some of the films that I was surprised made it through, but then again film-making is about all the aspects of a film and how well they work together. Even the ones with a horrible plot had some other redeeming qualities, whether that be the keen attention to detail through cinematography or some other unique selling point.
One that really stuck out for me amongst the bunch was the brilliantly-animated “The Maker”, a colourful portrayal of a puppet’s quest for a companion, this short eventually won first prize, which didn’t come as much of a surprise to the audience. It was head and shoulders above it’s competition. With a fully realised thematic soundtrack, it was a claymation that distracted you with it’s quietly captivating nature and it’s heart-warming story. It left the audience absorbed and left us with a hushed silence before the applause eventually erupted. This I think is a sign of a quality short film, you’re left wanting more.
The reason I enjoyed this event was that I felt a part of it the moment I walked in. It is an event that is created in the hopes of creating a platform for budding film-makers, it allows a stage to share your work, which is a really strong incentive to completing your project.
I enjoyed the grassroots approach to this festival, it was clear that this was a project that was really supported and believed in by Francis’s team.
With the festival being in it’s twelfth year of existence, I think there is plenty more to come, and with time more and more strange and wonderful tales will be told on the screens and from a wider variety of voices too.
It is heartwarming to see individuals putting all of this effort into supporting independent filmmakers who create these short films and all the incredible Australian stories that will be continue to be translated into film.
