[Press Release by Grubstreet Media]
Grubstreet Media has delivered the last of four episodes of documentary Scene by Scene to CNN International in advance of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards to be held on Australia’s Gold Coast on November 11th 2008.
The programs focussed on the work of Asia Pacific filmmakers in a number of countries ranging across a third of the earth’s surface from the Middle East to New Zealand.
In program one, the CNN global audience of 400 million was given a tour of New Zealand’s Weta Studios that produced the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, went on location in Thailand with the royal filmmaker, Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol, and met an Australian paramedic, Ben Gilmour, who produced the first feature made in the lawless tribal areas bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In the second program, we examined the burgeoning Russian film industry through the eyes of Russian movie’s Mr Big, Alexander Rodnyansky, interviewed Jordanian Princess Rym Ali, who’s building a film industry in Jordan from scratch, and met Palestinian filmmakers trying to overcome the obstacles placed in their way by the conflict with Israel.
In program three, we visited Tollywood, the southern Indian industry that eclipses Bollywood in the number of films made and prefers male romantic leads who are middle aged and even bald. We also examined the career of Oscar nominated Indian director Ashutosh Gowariker and met the directors of two Israeli films, Lemon tree and Waltz with Bashir, that have been international hits but have been snubbed by Israelis because they’re sympathetic to the plight of their neighbours.
And in the fourth program, we featured Oscar winning director Bruce Beresford’s film version of the international best seller, Mao’s Last Dancer, the true story of Chinese ballet virtuoso, Li Cunxin, who defected to the United States. We also interviewed Australian director Baz Luhrmann, whose epic Australia premieres in late November starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. And we gave the global audience a taste of the 170 films in contention for this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
This is the second year that Grubstreet Media has produced both the CNN documentaries and the awards themselves, involving a team of around ninety personnel spearheaded by renowned Australian producer/director Peter Faiman.
APSA is a collaboration between the Queensland Government, UNESCO, CNN and the International Federation of Screen Producers Associations.
Grubstreet is owned by former Nine Network journalists Peter Hiscock and Graham Davis and employs many people who once worked on the now defunct Sunday Program, where the duo spent many years.
Related News:
Scene by Scene profiles Asia-Pacific’s best filmmakers