Press release from Eveleigh and International Railway Film Society
The original proposal for such a Film Festival was first raised in October 2009 at the International Railway Heritage Conferences held in Australia in a conference paper that dealt with the important influence that railway arts had played in Australian Railway Heritage.
Research for railway film material of a heritage nature in Australia led to an important film connection between the Eveleigh Workshop site and early Australian Film Maker JP McGowan who became known for his work in Hollywood as "The Railroad Man". Some of the JP McGowan story is being told in the recent SA Film Corporation film Stunt Love, produced by Matthew Bates, and will be shown at the Adelaide Film Festival and on the ABC on the 31st of this month. The JP McGowan story in itself points toward a significant reason for launching an International Railway Film Festival at Eveleigh and at this time in the development of Australian railways.
This month the Federal Government report on a high-speed rail service along the eastern seaboard was released by Anthony Albanese MP Leader of the House, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. To understand this proposal and its impact in Australia a lot more will have to be said about the technology involved and the social effects by Australian film makers. With this in mind a section of the program that we will present on this will contain films that deal with the subject of high-speed trains and the potential of rail use in Australian cities.
At the moment for our inaugural International Railway Film Festival we are using as a model that of the International Union of Railways (UIC) the worldwide international organisation of the railway sector that brings together films for their members from five continents to view heritage and modern Railway films. This year was their 19th CineRail International 'Trains on Film' Festival, screened in Paris. The UIC model of relevant categories for railway related films are:
* Corporate communication films (audiovisual 'business cards', presentation of large-scale rail projects etc.)
* Commercials, TV spots
* Internal communications on staff training, safety, security
* Documentaries produced for TV on railway issues
* Feature films (cinema, TV) produced with support/sponsorship of UIC member railways
The feeling of people associated with the first steps at Eveleigh establishing a broad based International Railway Film Festival in Australia is that this model provides a useful starting point for a railway film festival. However, other models are available and ideas from these will be added to the UIC model to suit Australian circumstances as we proceed to take account of the social, political, art, cultural and technological impact of rail on Australian and International communities.