Ali Clarke: SA's film industry finds new voices
Film & TV
Beyond the red carpets and glittering stars, South Australia’s film industry is doing something equally magical for local storytelling. Ali Clarke explains.
To the uninitiated, you could be forgiven for thinking the recent Adelaide Film Festival was all about our Cate.
If it wasn’t her regal gaze looking out at you from an Instagrammed red carpet, then it was stories about how the incredible Cate Blanchett couldn’t get a mani and pedi down the Bay way.
I knew she was here for some sort of movie and clearly, there was a premiere of something, but other than that, I honestly couldn’t say.
It’s now I need to declare an unsophisticated film palette and even though I can almost hear the sneering from here, I’m more Hollywood blockbuster than Australian arthouse.
Of course, I’m embarrassed to admit I might be the only person who really cares about what happened to Yahoo Serious, but in my defence, I think I’m more a victim of circumstance than choice.
By the time I’ve paid for tickets, a babysitter and the food at the box office (you try saying no when you’ve smelt that buttery popcorn), I’m after a guaranteed good time, and there’s no doubt the marketing of a blockbuster sucks me in.
I know, it’s completely ridiculous and there have been countless times I’ve been incredibly moved and challenged by an unheralded film but, if I’m honest, I’ve always been a little intimidated of people who can effortlessly drop the names of the latest directors at Sundance, Cannes or Tropfest.
This lack of sophistication is completely on me, so after seeing Cate I set out to find out more about the Adelaide Film Festival and to say I was blown away is like saying Scott Hicks is pretty good at this movie stuff.
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In short, this festival, this industry, does a huge amount… and not just for the usual suspects.
The South Australian Film Corporation is in its 50th year and when I rang the CEO Kate Croser her first words to me were, “it’s such a privilege to lead such an iconic institution and I know first-hand the type of difference it can make to South Australian business and screen practitioners”.
Already I’m turning away from Spielberg and Cameron and focusing on what’s to come…
Just one way they are doing that is courtesy of perhaps the first sequel that has actually made life better (with apologies to The Godfather II), with the return of The Film Lab: New Voices.
Majority-funded by the SAFC in partnership with the Adelaide Film Festival, it offers budding writers, directors and producers the chance of their first feature film credit and, as there are no commercial considerations, it allows these talented people the opportunity to show the world their particular voice and vision.
Elsewhere people work decades for an opportunity like this but here in South Australia, groups can pitch their ideas and be mentored through the writing process. One of the three successful teams will be able to bring their film to the screen.
This year, that movie was Monolith with one InReview reviewer calling it “a world-class sci-fi thriller”.
So tick, tick, tick, for the writer, director and producer, but it also gave eight South Aussie heads of department their first feature film credit too and that, my movie-going friends, is crucial to their career advancement.
With the entire project turned around in 18 months – something I’m told is almost unheard of in the industry – it’s an exceptional effort.
Right now, the second round of Film Lab: New Voices is in development and, with one of the entry provisos being diversity, we will soon be treated with stories from some of our most underrepresented filmmakers.
Think women, First Nations people, and filmmakers with a disability; people from our regions and the remote parts of our great state.
Already I’m turning away from Spielberg and Cameron and focusing on what’s to come, and let’s face it, if Monolith is the yardstick, then it will only be a matter of time before we add more South Australian names to the likes of Peter Weir, Baz Luhrmann and Bruce Beresford.
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So after all of this, I know now how deep my apologies have to run to this incredible homegrown industry.
While it’s great to have Cate, the real excitement isn’t about bringing the stars, it’s helping others reach for them.
Ali Clarke presents the breakfast show on Mix 102.3. She is a regular columnist for InDaily.
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