Film Festival – Tasmanian Spirit on Screen

Background – GRIT – Tasmanian Spirit on Screen – Short Film Festival, 18 April 2023

Summary of the project

GRIT- Tasmanian Spirit on Screen is a series of short films made by Tasmanians for Tasmania. Inspired by the stories of grit of everyday Tasmanians, award winning filmmakers tell unique stories ranging from drama and comedy to documentary and animation. These films will inspire, move and challenge audiences.

Each film is a conversation starter – a way for the community to invite deeper discussion around some of the issues that impact Tasmanians.

GRIT is presented by Wide Angle Tasmania with the support of the Tasmanian Community Fund.

The premiere of the films will be on 29 April at 18.00 at the Stanley Burbury Theatre. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/grit-tasmanian-spirit-on-screen-short-film-festival-tickets-604150519467.

Background

The films have been made through Wide Angle Tasmania with the financial backing of the Tasmanian Community Fund. The short films were made between 2022 and 2023.

In commissioning these films Wide Angle aims to:

● Showcase the excellence of Tasmanian filmmakers

● Provide a platform for Tasmanian filmmakers to create a work that can support social change

The Tasmanian Community Fund (TCF) is the key funding partner. Their objectives include:

● Use films to ‘change hearts and minds’ of Tasmanians & support positive social change

● Support the arts sector

● Signal to the Tasmanian community that they fund projects other than infrastructure

Featured image above: Eden Alone Surpasses Thee, directed by Tom Chapman.

Long May She Rain, directed by Ben Winspear.

SYNOPSIS OF ALL FILMS

TASMANIAN SPIRIT ON SCREEN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

Grove Of Giants – Documentary

Director: Bree Sanders

In the Huon Valley, sits a Grove of Giants – the largest stand of old growth blue gum’s in the world. These towering ancient trees are at once stunning, dramatic and scheduled to be destroyed. Can a passionate team of climbers and scientists prove it’s worth as a powerful carbon sink before time runs out?

Alone Together – Documentary / Comedy

Director: Dylan Hesp

Follow Dylan Hesp, a self-proclaimed big deal television actor with plenty of friends, on a comedic quest to understand loneliness. In this insightful and hilariously awkward documentary, Dylan goes on friend dates with strangers, gets offended by expert opinions, and even tries cuddle therapy to understand the true impact of social isolation.

The Tea Leaf Reader – Drama

Director: Elli Iliades

Mia has always lived a nomadic lifestyle, never letting anyone too close. Moving around the north-west coast of Tasmania, she has become very good at avoiding her past. When her daughter starts falling behind at school, however, Mia has to face the shame she has been running away from.

Grey Power – Documentary

Director: Lara Van Raay

Sometimes the best way to fight depression, anxiety and guilt is by getting active. Or for some – it’s by getting arrested. Meet some of Tasmania’s retired professionals who are making some noise about issues close to their hearts; proving that getting older doesn’t always mean staying safe or slipping into invisibility. In fact, sometimes, it can bring with it great power.

A Harmony Of Unbroken Voices – Drama

Director: Luci Reid

A woman, buried under the weight of seeing her rural hometown fractured by new money, greed, conservatism and brutal histories captures death in a box. She listens as death sings to her of all the exquisite, unheard voices that weigh the cost of change in an unfair world.

Long May She Rain – Documentary

Director: Ben Winspear

In the post industrial landscape of Queenstown lies a river with millions of years of history. The last hundred years of gold fever, migration, poetry and acid rain have all left their traces.

Long May She Rain explores a town’s next phase of human-environment interaction, hearing from those that choose to live inside, and love, a place like nowhere else on Earth.

Eden Alone Surpasses Thee – Documentary

Director: Tom Chapman

Jarred by the loss of his closest friend, a farmer on Tasmania’s remote west coast, begins to mentor at-risk local youth. In an area renowned for its poverty, low literacy and high suicide rates, Stafford Heres is determined to provide opportunities for kids who have few. Eden Alone Surpasses Thee explores his relationship with the land, loss and the young men he takes under his wing.

Keep Your Gin Up – Documentary

Director: Rebecca Thomson

Sally is a clown, Amanda is a nurse, and they are fierce friends bound together by the most awful shared experience – both caring for a child who is very sick. For Sally and Amanda having someone else who understands what it is to reside in perpetual grief, battle against bureaucracy and having to pre-pay your child’s funeral, makes the experience a little less lonely. Realising the value of this connection Sally and Amanda decided to start a podcast where they share their beautiful friendship with the world – honest and raw conversations about the daily struggles of being a carer, plentiful gin sampling and finding a laugh in the face of darkness.

Handmade Happiness – Documentary / Animation

Director: Vivien Mason

A colourful stop motion animated documentary exploring how a passion for craft helps four makers overcome adversity. A carer finds purpose in knitting and making yarn. A health worker starts a men’s knitting circle. A new Tasmanian inspires others by teaching ceramics, and an arts worker sews old textiles to create new items and new hope for a sustainable future.

Language Of The Land – Documentary

Director: Troy Melville And Jillian Mundy

Language of the Land speaks to the power of language. lutruwita was colonised and renamed Tasmania in the 1800s; original names spoken for thousands of years were changed. In Language of the Land we travel on country with lutruwita’s First People as they talk about their personal connection to language and place. The film is about the resonance language creates, the power of speaking names on country and the connection it builds between people, land and time.

Parrot People – Documentary

Director: Matthew Newton

The story of how a small team of scientists and volunteers are working together to bring a brilliant little bird back from the brink of extinction.

Parrot People, directed by Matthew Newton.