Press release from Tanya Marchese
Award winning, young Australian film director, Peter Ireland has arrived back in Australia after escaping all odds when flights were cancelled all around him on transit from Brsibane via Dubai. Peter was heading to the 25th Torino GLBT Film Festival Short Film Competition in Italy where his film Spokes was competing against other high calibre filmakers such as James Franco.
While in Dubai, when airtravel across Europe went into chaos and thousands were stranded after ash from the volcanic eruption in Iceland intesified. Concerned his connecting flight would be canceled and he wouldn’t make the awards event, Peter learnt that literally all flights but his had been cancelled. After some time, in fact 65 hours after leaving Brisbane airport, Peter eventually made it to the Torino Film Festival where he was treated like a star.
“The films that I was up against were amazing. Some really big budgets, big stars and beautiful stories. And then there was little old Spokes, a film shot in second year university for $800. I felt so honoured to be part of this festival. The awards were the last thing on my mind, to be part of such a wonderful festival is the best award I could ask for”, said Peter
The Torino Festival is the oldest GLBT Festival in Europe, the third most popular in the world following Outfest in Los Angeles and Frameline in San Francisco. Peter was invited to screen his film ‘Spokes’ after a line of screening success at the Sydney 2009 Mardi Gras Film Festival where he won Best Independent Filmmaker, the 2009 Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Texas where he won 2nd place for Best Short Film, 2009 Melbourne Queer Film Festival, 2009 Brisbane Queer Film Festival, Tropical Fruit Film Festival, Chicago Reeling Film Festival and was nominated in the 2009 InsideFilm short film category.
The outstanding success of Spokes gained the attention of FOXTEL channel AURORA, where it screened in March. Peter has also had interest in the film from MTV America and has been invited to screen it at the Philadephia QFest and Agentina Diversa International Film Festival, the Milan Queer Film Festival as well as the Oslo and Pentedarrilo Film festivals. SPOKES has also been officially selected for the short film competition at the Barcelona film festival and the Canadian Fairy Tales Film Festival.
Spokes was completed in late 2009, at the time Peter was totally unaware of how well his film would be received. The Italian media translated the story as “A fairy tale about love initiation of a gay teenager who loves fairy tales. Thanks to a witch, who acts out her wickedness, and to a little ant, who becomes his mentor after he passes a classic test of goodness, the main character will be able to conquer his fears and enter the castle of his beloved. An ironic and tender movie, with a sophisticated use of digital animation, unusual for a gay film."
Peter’s most recent work ‘Blueberry Lane’ – a musical short film has already proved successful when Peter took out the Emerging Talent award at the 2010 Sydney Mardi Gras Film festival.
This talented young director is currently developing a Feature Film musical script with local Brisbane talent Megan Shorey, is about to direct another short for composer Anthony Garcia and is definitely a name to watch on our screens.