Australian independent musical feature, Under Streetlights, had a red-carpet gala at the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace last week. The event followed just days after debut lead actor Jacob Harvey, an Aboriginal hip-hop and R&B artist, rapper, and poet, scored his first ever AACTA nomination for best original song, Streetlights.
“Seven years ago, Jacob and I began this journey when he joined a hip hop workshop I ran with the bold vision of creating a musical feature film entirely driven by local talent from Central Australia,” director Danielle Loy said.
“While we both had big aspirations, neither of us imagined this moment would come. this nomination is a culmination of everything we’ve worked for – a testament to determination, belief, and persistence – and a profound recognition of Jacob, his song, his story and the film that weaves them all together.”
Inspired by the lives of its young cast, the film follows Ella, an Australian-American teenage girl struggling with the recent loss of her mother, and Izak who is an aspiring Indigenous hip-hop artist, trapped in the throes of cultural disadvantage. Izak and Ella find refuge in the healing power of music, their burgeoning friendship and the joy in their musical collaboration.
The film features all original songs written by the lead cast, who also played mirror roles on-screen. The soundtrack to the film takes centre stage, as the music itself becomes a central character in the story.
Harvey said: “I am feeling elated and excited about this amazing opportunity. I also feel like it was only a matter of time as we had long envisioned this kind of recognition for this film so to see it come to fruition is amazing. The only step now is to be called out and the fact that Robbie Williams and Paul Kelly are on the list as well – if I were to win it would be the cherry on top.”
The film was released on December 12 and is in cinemas now.
Tom Zubrycki retrospective
Documentary filmmaker Tom Zubrycki recently had a retrospective of his work at ACMI curated by the Melbourne Cinematheque, showing Kemira – Diary of a Strike and Homelands.
The photo on the left shows Tom with the two Robles daughters from Homelands who he reconnected with for the first time after thirty years. The film followed a refugee family living in Melbourne torn between conflicting desires for identity and a sense of belonging over 18 months.
Homelands can be seen at his website: https://www.tomzubrycki.com/films/homelands.
