The Brisbane leg of Flickerfest 2015 opened at the Judith Wright Centre on Thursday celebrating the best of Australian Shorts. The pool included four locally made films each with their own flavour of brilliance.
The Duck
The Duck is animator Simon Cottee’s delightful adaptation of a story by American short fiction writer Ben Loory. It follows a duck who falls blindly in love with a rock. The duck comes to the realisation that the rock can never love him back and with the help of his duck friends, sets his love free by throwing the rock over a cliff.
Cottee’s 2D animation and colouring style perfectly bring this cute and quaint story to life. His direction and vision conveyed themes of love, acceptance and letting go much like the ageless and universal messages in bedtime stories. The beautifully drawn backgrounds he's created take viewers into The Duck's world broadening the experience of his love story.A New You
Another locally made film is ‘A New You’ which was written and directed Dane Hansen, produced by fellow Rhiannon Steffensen and stars Kevin Spink, John Vizcay-Wilson and Ellie Popov.
Set in a local bar, the confident Jay tries to help his hopeless friend Tom by arrogantly but charmingly approaching Olivia to talk his mate up. He discovers that Olivia is even more confident than he is, as the undeniable attraction grows during their conversation. Being the cool guy that he is, he attempts to maintain his role as wingman but Olivia is much more frank with her intentions. Jay sticks to his plan by letting Tom enjoy the evening with his chosen but leaves with Olivia’s number in his pocket.The film invites viewers to become part of the private conversations happening in the bar. These conversations are no different from those that play out in bars across the globe. The stellar performances by Ellie Poppov who played Olivia, and Kevin Spink who plays Jay, convince viewers that the attraction is definitely more than a random bar chat.
One look or reaction from Kevin reveals a soul so much more than the fast-talking wingman his character Jay set out to be on that evening. ‘A New You’ captures themes of betrayal, love, lust and loyalty and leaves audiences imagining a full feature or even a series revolving around the possible scenarios that could stem from that one evening.
Other films screened on the night included ‘Breath’ visually abstract and gory story about a father who gives his lung to sick daughter and ‘Love Song Devotions’ a sweet comedy about radio Love Guru who is suddenly left by his wife.Flickerfest runs at the Judith Wright Centre until 28 February.
– written by Jann Angara
