Four Australian documentaries have been selected to screen at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA), the world’s largest international documentary film festival.
Night, written and directed by Lawrence Johnston, will have its European premiere in the Joris Ivens competition. Night will compete against 18 documentaries of at least 60 minutes in length for the VPRO Joris Ivens Award and a cash prize of ? 12,500. This screening follows the international premiere of Night at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Donkey in Lahore (d: Faramarz K-Rahber) and End of The Rainbow (d: Robert Nugent) will screen in First Appearance, a separate competition program that supports 17 young and upcoming filmmakers.
His Mother’s Voice (d: Dennis Tupicoff) will be part of Animation Docs, a curated program of 50 short and full-length documentaries made between 1916 and today that feature animation.
Running parallel to the festival is the Forum, Europe’s largest platform for pitching projects. The Forum provides an international market for co-financing of documentaries.
Three Australian documentaries have been selected to participate in the Forum in 2007. Born in Captivity (d: Violeta Ayala & Daniel Fallshaw) and Intangible Asset Number 82 (d: Emma Franz) will take part in the Central Pitches while The Boot Cake (d: Kathryn Millard) will take participate in the Round Table Pitches.
This is the highest number of Australian projects selected for the pitching event in more than seven years.
The International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam will run from 22 November to 2 December with the IDFA Forum running 26 – 28 November.
Donkey in Lahore
(117 minutes)
Writer/ Director/ Producer: Faramarz K-Rahber
Executive Producer: Mark Chapman
Line Producer & Editor: Axel Grigor
Production Company: Faraway Productions
Synopsis: Donkey in Lahore charts the 4-year-journey of Brian, an Australian Gothic and a puppeteer, as he attempts to overcome cultural obstacles and a tumultuous personal life to marry Amber, a young Muslim woman in Pakistan.
Film Finance Corporation presents a Faraway Production in association with SBS Independent. Also developed with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission.
End of The Rainbow
(83 minutes)
Writer/ Director: Robert Nugent
Writer: Rachel Sanderson
Producers: Mitzi Goldman and Jean-Pierre Gibrat
Production companies: Looking Glass Pictures and Trans Europe Film
DOP: Laurent Chevalier
Editor: David Cole
International Sales: SBS Content Sales and Distribution
Synopsis: End of the Rainbow is an elegiac portrait of the changes brought by the arrival of an industrial gold mine in a remote region of West Africa, and a testament to the universal human desire for a better life.
His Mother’s Voice
(14.5 minutes)
Wrier/ Director/ Producer: Dennis Tupicoff
Production Company: Dennis Tupicoff Animation
Cast: Laverne McDonnell
Synopsis: A mother describes how she found out that her son was dead. Using an ABC radio interview, this animated film tells its tragic story from two points of view.
Night
(90 minutes)
Writer/Director: Lawrence Johnston
Producer: Lizzette Atkins, Lawrence Johnston
Production Company: Circe Films
DOP: Laurie McInnes
Editor: Bill Murphy
Composer: Cezary Skubiszewski
International Sales: Becker International
Synopsis: Night is a cinematic feature film that explores the universal nature of night and how we experience it. Night captures the mystery, mood and magic of the night and weaves these images into a lush and dramatic symphonic score. Voices from all walks of life tell stories of their ‘affair’ with the night – the pleasure and the pain, reality and fantasy, at work and at leisure, past and present – and show how the darkness of the night affects us all.
Film Finance Corporation Australia presents a Circe Films production in association with Film Victoria, SBS Independent and Rough Trade Pictures. Also developed with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission.
[release from Avviso PR]