Industry Alert: Screen Australia and Sydney Film Festival announce special industry workshop event

Screen Australia and the 61st Sydney Film Festival are pleased to present Think Big at the Festival, an industry workshop day with Academy Award winning director Ross Kauffman and visual artists and filmmakers Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard on Friday 6 June at the Festival Hub, Lower Town Hall.

Ross Kauffman, co-director of E-Team (SFF 2014) will discuss his approach to documentary filmmaking including funding, marketing and driving his films to the best possible audience and the fundamentals on his approach to character. E-Team worldwide rights have recently been acquired by the streaming video service Netflix.

I want to tell a great story with great characters, said Kauffman. Its all about connecting with people. Whether its children in the brothels of India, or human rights investigators on the front lines of history. For me, the key is forming a connection. Once we can relate to our characters, anything is possible.

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, directors of 20,000 Days on Earth, will discuss weaving fact and fiction to create a cinematic portrait. 20,000 Days on Earth is an innovative film about cultural icon Nick Cave (SFF 2014 Opening Night film, also in Official Competition).

We all had a lack of interest and a lack of trust in the fly-on-the-wall style music documentary the sort of film that suggests it somehow gets behind the mask' of the rock star. Our background is in art rather than filmmaking, and in our own work for many years we've explored our belief that artifice can be used as a device to reveal a greater truth, said Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard.

This special event workshop is for documentary directors and producers, and associated industry colleagues only. Entry is free, but you are required to register for the event. Once registered, you will be able to access a special concession rate for the E-Team screening on Thursday 5 June 6:00pm.

For tickets, schedule and info visit www.sff.org.au/public/think-big-at-the-festival/ or call 1300 733 733.

The 61st Sydney Film Festival runs 4 15 June 2014 and brings a packed program of screenings and special events to even more venues across Sydney. For tickets and full up-to-date program information please visit sff.org.au

Screen Australia's Think Big' initiatives aim to stimulate documentary makers to do just that: think big to push the scope and vision of their projects so that the narrative generates bigger ideas and becomes more than the sum of its parts. This is the second Think Big workshop to be held in conjunction with SFF.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Ross Kauffman is the director, producer, cinematographer and co-editor of Born into Brothels, winner of the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Born into Brothels was shown in over 50 film festivals worldwide and has since received a multitude of awards, including the 2005 Emmy Award for Best Documentary, National Board of Review Best Documentary 2004, LA Film Critics Best Documentary 2004, and the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. In 2009, Ross served as Executive Producer on the documentary feature In a Dream (director Jeremiah Zagar), shortlisted for the Academy Awards and nominated for an Emmy . From the slums of Nairobi to the front lines of Kashmir, Ross has filmed around the world. He was part of the lensing team on Half the Sky, a landmark transmedia project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's best-selling book of the same name, and filmed Project Kashmir, a documentary that takes viewers into the war-zone of Kashmir and examines the conflict from emotional and social viewpoints. Currently, Ross is directing a variety of projects including: Wait for Me, a documentary chronicling the story of a mother's spiritual and emotional search for her son who went missing 27 years ago; and Boy Boy Girl Girl, a comedic narrative feature film about a gay couple trying to adopt a newborn baby from a drug-addicted pregnant woman and her abusive girlfriend. Ross filmed a number of the E-Team missions, filming with them in Syria and Libya and travelled with them to Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Geneva and beyond.

Iain Forsyth was born in Manchester, UK, in 1973 and Jane Pollard in Newcastle, UK, in 1972. Having both studied at Goldsmiths College in London from 1992 to 1995, they have been working together ever since. Their live performance A Rock 'n' Roll Suicide', which was based on David Bowie's legendary Ziggy Stardust performance, pioneered the now-canonical use of re-enactment in contemporary art, in which highly charged cultural moments are re-created and put in an entirely new context.

ABOUT SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

Sydney Film Festival screens feature films, documentaries, short films and animated films across the city at the State Theatre, Event Cinemas George Street, Dendy Opera Quays, the Art Gallery of NSW, Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace Cremorne, the Apple Store, SFFTV at Martin Place, Skyline Drive-In Blacktown, and the Festival Hub at Town Hall.

The Festival is a major event on the New South Wales cultural calendar and is one of the world's longest-running film festivals. For more information visit www.sff.org.au

Sydney Film Festival also presents 12 films that vie for the Official Competition, a highly respected international honour that awards a $60,000 cash prize based on the decision of a jury of international and Australian filmmakers and industry professionals. Previous Sydney Film Prize winners include: Only God Forgives (2013), Alps (2012), A Separation (2011) which went on to win an Academy Award, Heartbeats (2010), Bronson (2009) and Hunger (2008).

The 61st Sydney Film Festival is supported by the NSW Government through Screen NSW, the Federal Government through Screen Australia, and the City of Sydney. The Festival's Strategic partner is the NSW Government through Destination N

LINK:	http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2014/ia_140523_Think...
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