Young film-makers receive FTO grants
By Alexa Moses
September 24, 2001
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Australian actor and film-maker Rachel Ward felt a shock of recognition watching the terrorist attacks on television. She couldn't help remembering scenes from On the Beach, the post-apocalyptic mini-series in which she starred with husband Bryan Brown. "The paper fluttering everywhere, the silence, the way people didn't speak, the state of shock. It was very chilling then, and to now see it in real life ..."
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Rachel Ward and funding recipient Andrew Arbuthnot.
Photo: Peter Rae
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| Ward, who came to writing and directing after acting for 20 years, said she admired the courage of the aspiring film-makers. "I can't imagine at the age you are ... having the courage to take the helm of a film." Her latest short film, The Big House, has been selected for the Sundance, Edinburgh and Clermont-Ferrand film festivals. Surprisingly, Ward thought the film festival circuit was more effort than it was worth. "I wouldn't get too hung up on it," she told the film-makers. "We should be concentrating on writing more and trying to get more funding. I think it's a bit of a waste of time, but I'm happy to be contradicted on that." Hannah Hilliard, who received $25,000 for her project about a 15-year-old girl searching for her father, was happy to contradict. "My previous short film, Blame, was made in one month. I chucked it together, total creative chaos . . . and it went to the Dendy Awards and the AFI awards. When you get into festivals, people just take you seriously." Andrew Arbuthnot, who received $25,000 for the short drama Contact, preferred not to comment on the festival circuit, but said his previous short Patsy's Party won a prize at the Queensland New Filmmaker's Awards. Also funded were Sascha Ettinger and Renata Schuman (Painting with Light in a Dark World), Gregory Godhard (Museum of Dreams) and Brenna Hobson and Rebecca O'Brien (The Great Dark). While applauding funding opportunities in Australia, Ward criticised the tendency for festivals to choose "showy" films, saying that storytelling is being undervalued. She also spoke about the importance of telling relevant stories. "When we were over in America publicising On the Beach, a lot of people asked if it was relevant post-Cold War . . . I think there was a lot of relevance then and, of course, there is now. You can see how fragile the whole world is."
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