By Brendan Swift
Five new projects have been selected to take part in the NSW Government’s Aurora feature film script workshop next month.
The projects include writer-director Tony Krawitz's feature debut, Amnesia, which is about a white Jewish family living in South Africa and their moral struggles. Tony Krawitz directed the short film Jewboy and the film will be produced by Liz Watts (Animal Kingdom, Home Song Stories).
Meanwhile, director Tony Ayres (Home Song Stories) and producer Helen Bowden (Lou) have partnered with new screenwriter Emily Ballou to adapt Sophie Cunningham’s best-selling novel Geography. The film is a contemporary love story about young Australian Catherine and older LA-based ex-pat Michael.
The third project, Sentido, is the feature debut of writer-director Andrew Lawrence and producer Monique de Groot. When a mother takes a new lover, a young Australian follows his estranged father’s culture into the world of Mexican bullfighting to re-instate his position as the man of his mother’s house.
The Comet is written by Louis Nowra, directed by Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae, First Australians) and produced by Darren Dale (First Australians). It is a love story set in Sydney in 1788, based on true events, between British marine William Dawes and young Aboriginal woman Patyegarang.
The final project, Dance for Me, is written by Roger Monk (Walking on Water), and produced by documentary filmmaker Cathy Henkel and Trish Lake (Subdivision).
It tells the story of white South African woman Judith, who is brutally attacked in her Johannesburg home, prompting her estranged daughter, Miriam, to return from Australia. Miriam is prepared to go to any lengths to seek justice for her mother but she must choose between revenge and justice when she entraps the predator.
Aurora is led by a team of international advisors including screenwriter Syd Field; independent US producer Christine Vachon; script editor Meg LeFauve; and Sydney-based script editor and writer Joan Sauers.
Minister for the Arts Virginia Judge said Aurora had a track record of success that included previous films such as Animal Kingdom, Somersault and Little Fish, while this year’s film projects also have international appeal.
“Four of the five have stories are partly set overseas and their development will further cement our reputation as the creative capital of NSW,” she said in a statement.