By Simon de Bruyn
An Australian documentary about acclaimed South African satirist and AIDS activist Pieter-Dirk Uys has been accepted to screen at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival – a further accolade for young director Julian Shaw who took home the IF Independent Spirit Award earlier this month.
Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story, which Shaw started working on when he was 15 and still in high school, will screen at the Berlin festival in February next year.
‘I sent it to them and they loved the film. It keeps on building and percolating and gaining momentum and it’s fantastic to have a great international launching pad like Berlin, which I think will be a great gateway to the rest of the world,’ he said.
Shaw, who is now 21, told Inside Film that the documentary has also secured distribution in Australia and New Zealand through Umbrella Entertainment, which will include DVD and possibly a short theatrical run in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne.
Shaw also confirmed he is currently in post production on a new documentary, which he says will be his last before he turns his hand to feature films.
‘I just finished shooting a doco in New Zealand called Cup of Dreams, which examines the psyche of New Zealanders after they lost the Rugby World Cup earlier this year. It’s a real character study, and I’ll finish editing it over the summer,’ he said.