The 2021 Festival was to have been a hybrid in-person and online festival, however a COVID lockdown a week before the event in Merimbula NSW meant that, for the second year in a row, the festival went 100% online. Films were made available as video-on-demand from 20-31 August 2022, with live-streamed and recorded Zoom events for filmmaker Q&As and the Awards Ceremony. Our estimated viewing audience was 2000+ people around Australia.
Films screened at the 2021 Far South Film Festival including award winners were as follows…
See video interviews with the winning film makers below
50 Year Storm
DOCUMENTARY 08:00
dir Carlo Lowden
Jan Juc, Victoria
Unclassified 15+ – Restricted to persons aged 15 and over unless accompanied by an adult. Mental health/suicide references.
The 50 Year Storm Bells Beach was established to advance health and promote the prevention or control of mental illness particularly by destigmatising mental illness and suicide, and working to prevent providing a platform for communication and awareness raising about mental ill health and suicide with a focus on regional and coastal communities and those most at risk of dyingng by suicide. The 50 Year Storm event is an annual big wave surfing event at Bells Beach in honour of Surf Brooks, a surfer from Torquay on Victoria’s west coast and died by suicide. The organisation aim to raise money for mental health charities and to provide an opportunity for the community to come together with a sense of community and support where mental illness is discussed openly.
Bagan, Barra Barra, Mirriwarr
Land Sea Sky
Winner of the Cathy Griff for Philip Hearnshaw /
Far South Film Awards for
MUSIC VIDEO 10:19
dir Andrew Robinson (Film) &
Cheryl Davison (Creative)
South Pambula & Tilba Tilba NSW
Unclassified – No age restrictions.
Warning: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this film may contain images and voices of people who have died
A suite of three music videos in the Dhurga language, composed and sung by members of Djinima Yilaga indigenous women’s choir based at Four Winds, Bermagui.
Bama
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 5:25
dir Jahvis Loveday
Ocean Shores NSW
Unclassified – No age restrictions.
Warning: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this film may contain images and voices of people who have died
After the first day of private school in the city, a young aboriginal boy reflects on his fear of losing the magic of family and community after being so far away from them. This film uses all real captured footage of my little brother with my family over the past four years. It is a reflection and a way of processing my own emotions and how I felt when I moved to the city.
Becoming Emma Braintree
THRILLER 13:00
dir Joshua Koske
Googong NSW
Unclassified 15+ Restricted to persons aged 15 and over unless accompanied by an adult. Mental health themes, some scenes may frighten young children.
Kaylee Desmond is losing her identity. She refuses to acknowledge her family history of trauma. Her current partner is never happy with who she is. And then there’s her job. Kaylee is a frontline therapist who performs a unique form of treatment – she dresses as the lost loved one of her clients, so that they can say goodbye. On what she believes to be a routine visit, Kaylee meets Bernadette and Richard Braintree. They are everything she could have ever wanted from parents. While debriefing with her work appointed Psychologist, Kaylee requests a second visit. Strangely, the Psychologist agrees…
Changing Paradigms
Winner of the Author JD Shaw Award for
DOCUMENTARY 23:13
dir Henry Smith
Tumut NSW
Unclassified – No age restrictions.
Changing Paradigms explores the potential issues with conventional or mechanical farming methods in regards to both ecological and financial sustainability. It also looks at the issues that are apparent with modern foods, while offering an insight into old methods that are being used today that regenerate the landscape’s ecology while sustaining a resource for future generation farmers and consumers. Two ordinary farmers from NSW have converted to regenerative practises to benefit both the ecology of their land and the future of their children on the land. This film hopes to document the reasons why these people transitioned their farms and show how these practises can address some of the biggest issues of our time by drawing carbon out of the atmosphere, cooling the earth, and regenerating our most valuable resource on the planet; Our soil.
Clockumentary
Winner of the StageFlight Award for
MOCKUMENTARY
dir Ursula Woods
Glaziers Bay TAS
Unclassified 15+ Restricted to persons aged 15 and over unless accompanied by an adult. Moderate language.
A mockumentary about Brian ‘Toggs’ Toggle who is a seasoned drummer and self-proclaimed timekeeper from the town of Ulver- stone, Tasmania. Toggs talks to filmmaker Ursula Woods about dimensions of drumming and how the significant town clock influenced his rhythmic thinking as a child. Is time the most important element in the music we like to listen to? Clockumentary takes a look at life through a drummer’s lens. Playing with young art-pop group ‘Sunset Thrills’, Toggs encounters artistic differences with the band.
Invisible
DOCUMENTARY 7:25
dir John Martin
Merimbula NSW
Unclassified – No age restrictions.
Do you get invisible as you get older?
Six seniors from the Bega Valley share their thoughts on ageing. A short documentary from participants in the Far South Film Senior’s Filmmaking Workshop 2021.
Local Talent Global Dreams
Winner of the Torchlight Media Award for
DOCUMENTARY 11:48
dir Ryan Twemlow
Berry NSW
Unclassified – No age restrictions.
My mission is to tell the stories of talented teenagers around NSW and to get their talent out into the world.
Nanna Power
DOCUMENTARY
dir Anne Keen / Pete White
Belbora / Buhladelah NSW
Unclassified – No age restrictions.
What could cause a great grandmother to lock herself to a fence? The Gloucester Knitting Nannas formed during the regional New South Wales town’s fight against AGL, which made national headlines. When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty’ is the motivation behind four grandmothers who protest against gas and greed in Australia.
Rising Sun
MUSIC VIDEO 7:08
dir Daniel Rutter
Dubbo NSW
Unclassified 15+ Restricted to persons aged 15 and over unless accompanied by an adult. Moderate alcohol, gambling themes, mild violence.
A music video for a version of the folk song “House of the Rising Sun” about a young man’s downward spiral through drinking and gambling. Performed by Dubbo band, Indistinct Chatter.
The Cookie
COMEDY 3:13
dir Kevin Friesen
Port Kembla NSW
Unclassified – No age restrictions.
A Father will stop at nothing to buy a cookie for his daughter that he can’t afford, even if it means war!
The Girl on the Moon
Winner of the Funhouse Studio Award for
SCI FI DRAMA 5:00
dir Georgina Jenkins
Canberra ACT
Unclassified – No age restrictions.
The year is 2069. Aboriginal Australian girl Luna, the only child ever born on the Moon, yearns to travel to Earth but her weak Moonling body would never survive there. At least that’s what her mother has always told her …
Wild Legacies
DOCUMENTARY 11:25
dir David Gallan
Tathra NSW
Unclassified No age restrictions.
Two contrasting environmental campaigners work for the defence of Tasmania’s natural heritage in the face of industrial scale logging. One, a senator, donated his house and land to establish two wildlife reserves. The other, a young teacher, spent 449 days living 60 metres up a giant 400 year old tree, vowing not to come down until the promised protections were passed. The film features vulnerable species protected in the reserves.
Yuwinj Dhari-Bulwal
Yuin Stand Strong
Winner of the Screenworks Award for
DOCUMENTARY 34:20
dir Warren Ngarrae Foster & Hiromi Matsuoka
Wallaga Lake NSW
Classified PG: Mild themes.
Warning: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this film may contain images and voices of people who have died.
Explores the impact of James Cook’s voyage up the east coast of Australia 250 years ago from the perspective of the NSW Far South Coast’s First Nations people. The Yuin were among the first to sight the Endeavour as it travelled up the coast, and Yuin elders and youth tell some of the stories that have been handed down to them about those fateful days. Stories of Country, Cook Encounters and After the Boats are interwoven with dances from three South Coast indigenous dance troupes. The film also looks at the local resurgence of Yuin culture through the revival of dance, music and language. The film is the culmination of a year-long project celebrating
the Yuin indigenous community in the Eurobodalla region on the South Coast of NSW, Yuin Country Explored. The project is a collaboration between the National Museum of Australia and Eurobodalla Council through the Cultural Connections Initiative.
Painting By Numbers
ANIMATION 4:23
dir Radheya Jegatheva
Jindaloop WA
NON-COMPETITION SCREENING
Unclassified 15+ Restricted to persons aged 15 and over unless accompanied by an adult. Some scenes may frighten young children. Some viewers may find fire scene distressing.
A child’s encounter with classic masterpieces triggers a confronting epiphany. When we look at great art, do we realise it is looking back? With eyes that see more clearly than we do? In a mysterious gallery imbued with strange life, shadows of the past and unresolved futures collide when a child’s vision peels away the layers of what we call ‘reality’…join a journey through the masterpieces you thought you knew as their hidden souls are finally given a voice. As layers of contemporary ‘reality’ are stripped away, art’s unseen soul brings a challenge we can neither ignore nor escape. Or can we? Will their message be heard in time? The door is open. The masters’ works await us. Who will enter?
This film is being screened as a non-competition entry and is not part of the People’s Choice Award.