Hinterland film-makers and their film titles from left: Leanne Farmiloe ‘The Clearing’, Jacquie Megaw, ‘It’s a Bear Thing’, Jill Morris, ‘A Peace of Green’, Jessie Begun, ‘Reconstructing Peter’ and Katie Lindsay, ‘God Send’
With a mixture of pride and anticipation, five local filmmakers will showcase their films at the Maleny Australia Film Festival in January.
The aim of the Maleny Film Society has been to bring together local writers, producers, directors, camera, sound and lighting operators to work co-operatively in making their movies, having them screened, and continue to build a local film-making culture in Maleny.
The current Hinterland film-makers are Leanne Farmiloe ‘The Clearing’, Jacquie Megaw, ‘It’s a Bear Thing’, Jill Morris, ‘A Peace of Green’, Jessie Begun, ‘Reconstructing Peter’ and Katie Lindsay, ‘God Send’ .
Jessie and Jill’s films are documentaries that are supported by grants from Q150 (the 150th celebration of Queensland in 2009), RADF and the Bank of Queensland.
Katie is making a comedy feature film which stars many locals from the Hinterland. Leanne’s movie is a historical dramatisation (to celebrate Q150) and Jacquie is making an animation on the subject of the bullying of children.
Some of the film-makers are using camera, sound and editing equipment funded from the $30,000 Queensland Government’s Community Benefit Fund received by the Maleny Film Society.
All of these films will be screened at the 2009 Maleny Australian Film Festival which has received $10,000 from the federal Festivals Australia fund. This money was spent earlier in the year to bring screenwriter Scott Roberts from Script Central in Sydney to Maleny for a month.
Jill Morris filming at Peace of Green
Most of the film scripts were developed during Scott’s intensive workshop, provided free to local residents and supported by The Maleny Film Society and the Maleny Library.
The Hinterland has a habit of germinating new cultural activities, and film-making is no exception. The former manager of the Maleny Film Society, Susanne Haydon has stimulated most of the recent activities in local film.
Susanne generated new interest in the fortnightly society screenings as manager of the Maleny Film Society for four years, and she launched the Maleny Film Commission and the Maleny Film Archive Project.
“What these film-makers have done is work together and help each other. This has included developing working relationships with, and sharing the skills of a pool of local film technicians. The film-makers have recommended these people to each other with the intention that they will become the core group to work with the community on future film projects.
Former Manager of Maleny Film Society, Susanne Haydon
It is most important that the skills of all those involved are recognised, and that they are paid for their work”, says Susanne.
“The big payoff for the film-makers is to have their films screened locally and to be able to enter them in national and international film festivals”, says Susanne. “Hopefully the current films will spawn new film projects and enthuse other talented locals to get involved. Film-making requires lots of people with diverse creative, administrative and management skills. So we hope to be able to run more workshops and apply for more government funding to make this happen”.
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