By Simon de Bruyn
The conference for the next generation of screen practitioners, SPAA Fringe, launched last night in the sparkling new foyer of the Australian Film Television and Radio School at Moore Park, Sydney.
Conference guests and speakers milled with AFTRS staff and students and a handful of delegates at the welcome drinks, and later crowded into a theatre for a screening of the 2007 DigiSPAA winning feature film Men’s Group.
Run by the Screen Producers Association of Australia, SPAA Fringe is a two day intensive event aimed at emerging filmmakers. SPAA Fringe curator Gaylee Butler said she had tried to organise speakers that the delegates could relate to.
“A lot of the speakers might have produced their first major project and by putting them on stage and getting them to talk to their peers the delegates can relate to them and [their success] doesn’t seem that far off,” she said.
SPAA Fringe runs October 24-25 at the Paddington Town Hall, Chauvel Cinema & Metro Screen, in Sydney.