By Simon de Bruyn
The director of upcoming Australian feature Van Diemen’s Land said his feature would not have been made if not for the timely encouragement of acclaimed director Paul Cox.
Speaking on the phone from the Edinburgh Film Festival, where the film is has played two packed sessions in the past week, director Jonathan Auf Der Heide told INSIDEFILM he spoke to Cox while he was converting his VCA short film Hell’s Gates into the feature, Van Diemen’s Land.
“I think the defining moment was showing the short film to my friend Paul Cox, who I had worked in the editing department with on his last feature Salvation, along with Aden Young,” he says.
“Paul gave me the confidence to go out on my own. When I showed him the short film he said there was no reason I couldn’t go out and just make the feature myself rather than wait for a funding body to come along. So he was quite an inspiration for me, and if I didn’t have that conversation with him I would probably be sitting around to this day with the script.”
Cox also was responsible for introducing Auf Der Heide to his producer Maggie Miles, who worked on both the original VCA short film and the eventual feature.
“Maggie had also acted in Salvation and Paul nudged her towards me and said she should produce my film. When I was looking for producers at the VCA, she was the only who had respect for the fact I’d been working on this film for years and had already cast it and had chosen locations, and a lot of the work had already been done,” he said.
“Without her coming in a couple of months before we shot it would be been a completely different film. She’s done a fantastic job and after working on the short with her I knew she’d be great for the feature as well. She’s certainly the one that we thank for making a film that looks like a $10 million dollar film for nowhere near that.”
While Madman Entertainment will release Van Diemen’s Land in cinemas on September 24, the film has already had a charmed run. After playing at the film festivals in Adelaide, Sydney and Edinburgh, the film will play at Revelation Perth next week.
Check out the website for the film here: http://vandiemensland-themovie.com