South by Southwest makes it first visit to Sydney next month, and in anticipation they’ve announced the films featuring in their Shorts Program. SXSW says:
These short films aim to ignite the city through visual storytelling and provide a platform for voices in the APAC region.
As a part of the larger SXSW Sydney Screen Festival, the 33 shorts highlight Asian, Australian, First Nations and LGBTQIA+ voices, with four major themes; Future Present Perfectly Wrong, Crazy Fun, Tell Me a Story, and Short Nightmares.
In the announcement, the works of two Media Arts and Production graduates are featured, the directorial efforts of Catherine Kelleher (IMOAN) and Alana Hicks (Pasifika Drift).
IMOAN
IMOAN is a queer horror short, written and directed by Kelleher, about what happens when an “artist finds a love doll washed up on a beach and becomes entranced by her…perhaps too entranced.”
Image courtesy of the IMOAN Film website.
Catherine, who also has a career recording music under the name Catcall, served as writer, director and executive producer on the film. She also made the short Big Bad World which screened at the Brooklyn Film Festival and the St Kilda Festival. She worked in script development for Lingo Pictures, with her work featured in the shows Lambs of God, The Secrets She Keeps and Upright), and currently works as a development executive for SBS.
Pasifika Drift
Pasifika Drift is a thriller short about Pasifika culture and heritage, following a “young man disconnected from his Papuan New Guinean heritage, as he learns to embrace his culture.”
Image Courtesy of Charles Olsen's website.
Alana, who also has a background in writing and performance, directed the short film with a script by Natasha Henry. Coming off the back of AACTA-nominated short Chicken, which won her the Best Direction in an Australian Short Film at the 2020 Flickerfest International Short Film Festival. Alana has also directed episodes of PM’s Daughter and Frayed. Her writing and slam poetry work has also been praised, with her work featured and read at the Sydney Festival, National Young Writers’ Festival, National Playwriting Conference and Sydney Writers’ Festival.
SXSW Sydney runs from the 15th to 22nd of October and UTS is proud to be education partner. Click here for full details on the SXSW Sydney Screen Festival and how to attend.
If you're a FASS grad and have work featuring in SXSW or an upcoming festival, let us know, we'd love to know about it and share with our community.