Previous winner Jackie van Beek returns to the Show Me
Shorts Film Festival with a tale about a young teenager with
autism, writes Shane Gilchrist.
Brittany-Anne Romijn plays a girl with autism in short film
Go The Dogs.
Selected from hundreds of entries, the 47 films at the
sixth annual Show Me Shorts Film Festival will be divided into
seven themed sessions: Master Chef, Unlikely Bedfellows, Small
Pleasures, Unexpected Adventure, Love You to Death, Extreme
Measures and Hitting the Road.
For the first time this year, Show Me Shorts will screen
films from outside New Zealand and Australia.
The international line-up, added in response to audience
demand, includes entries from France, the United Kingdom,
Germany/South Africa, Ireland and the United States.
New Zealand highlights include international award-winner
Blue, by Stephen Kang, which screened at Cannes this
year, and Ebony Society, the first short film by Tammy
Davis (Outrageous Fortune's Munter), which featured at
this year's Sundance and Berlin festivals.
Previous winner Jackie van Beek returns to the festival with
Go The Dogs, a touching tale about a young teenager
with autism who embarks on a strange adventure.
Winner of the 2009 event with her film Just Like the
Others, van Beek shot her latest effort in Australia,
where she got her inspiration from a group of youngsters.
"When I shoot films they generally come from where I've been
working at the time or through the people I've been working
with. I'd been teaching at a school for special needs; that's
where I met Brittany-Anne Romijn, the star of the film.
"Brittany and I had always struck up conversations and a lot
of the film was written around her.
"I then asked the principal at the school whether she was
autistic or not and she said Brittany was one of the few who
wasn't; she had more general special needs.
"I worked as a teacher for a term and became quite fascinated
with the kids there and thought I should write a story for
one of them ... I tend to work like that; real life often
inspires the project.
"I was living in Melbourne for about three years and shot the
movie in March last year just before we moved back to New
Zealand. We did all the post-production in New Zealand."
Go The Dogs offers a glimpse into the world of an
autistic girl: innocently following a dog she had spied
outside her suburban home, she ends up in the countryside,
where she meets a runaway teenage boy.
"For me, it's about a girl just going on an adventure," van
Beek says.
"I did try to create a story of how her imagination might
work. It could have easily become a thriller but I wanted to
keep it quite playful.
"I wrote the script in an afternoon and the only change I
made was, originally, I had an older guy, a wino, instead of
the runaway teen. But I thought it better to have someone who
wasn't threatening."
Towards the end of Go The Dogs, there is a scene in
which the key character is asked to write down her address;
instead, she draws a detailed map of her suburb. In doing so,
she opens a door into another world, one where communication
can come in different forms.
"That story came from a teacher at the school," van Beek
says.
"He'd asked his pupils to draw a picture of their homes and
one of the students had done a draughtsman-like floor plan of
his house, complete with power points.
"I love that idea, that you can't judge a book by its cover;
people have hidden talents."
Go The Dogs, which has been nominated for two awards
at the Aotearoa Film and Television Awards (Best Short Film
and Best Performance in a Short Film), has also enjoyed
success overseas, having screened at festivals in Berlin,
Sundance and Melbourne.
Such acknowledgement is fuelling van Beek's desire to make a
feature-length film.
"There are various schools of thought on short films. Some
people think they have nothing to do with feature films, that
they are such a different form and are not a stepping stone.
But I disagree with that.
"Even though trying to capture an audience for 100 minutes is
quite different to grabbing their attention for 10 minutes,
it is a way to learn different things as well as create a
team you are comfortable working with.
"I'd love to make a feature. I have one I'm slowly
developing."
See it
The Show Me Shorts Film Festival screens at Rialto Cinemas,
Dunedin, from November 10-19. For more information,
visit www.showmeshorts.co.nz
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