RMIT Media student work showcased at St Kilda Film Festival

Graduate, staff and student work is featured in this year’s St Kilda Film Festival, which highlights the top 100 short films in Australia.

Michael
Student Michael Firus has a film selected in the St Kilda Film Festival.

The festival is now an Academy Awards qualifying event, with award-winning films from the festival eligible for consideration in the Short Film Awards and Documentary Short sections of the Oscars.

RMIT is a proud sponsor of the annual festival, providing the Under The Radar Best Youth Film award.

A number of RMIT graduates, a staff member and a current student have had films accepted in 2017.

Films by Bachelor of Communication (Media) graduates showing at this year’s festival include Happy (Stacey Kwijas), Tinseltown (Corrie Chen), Fim Creswick (Emma Haarburger, who also produced two music videos), and Reading the Wind (Adam Ricco).

Current student Michael Firus created his SKFF entry in his first year as part of the “Go out into the world and do great things” studio run by lecturer and filmmaker Kim Munro.

Firus describes his film A Prickly Affair as a short character-driven documentary focusing on the themes of environment, the vitality of age and Melbourne’s thriving artisanal culture.

He said the most valuable parts of studying at RMIT are the contacts and practical opportunities available to students.

“For example, last year, in my first year of university, I received an internship opportunity through RMIT for the advertising company CHE Proximity in South Yarra,” he said.

“It was there where I met many media professionals who offered advice on my practice.”

Firus wants to use his degree to acquire a position in video advertising with a view to transitioning to a motion picture or commercial documentary director.

Program Manager Rachel Wilson said it was important to acknowledge how unusual and special it is that a film made during a students first year is accepted into such a major festival.

“We are all extremely impressed with Michael’s motivation and dedication to exploring the many opportunities in the field,” she said.

Staff member Ashley Perry, a lecturer in the Bachelor of Communication (Professional Communication) and a graduate of the Bachelor of Communication – Media directed Police Officer TAKAGI which was also selected for the festival.

The St Kilda Film Festival runs from May 18 to 27, 2017 at the Palais Theatre and the St Kilda Town Hall.

 

BOFA Short Film Award

Congratulations to recent BComm Media graduate (2014), Michael Johnston, whose short film To be a poet won the BOFA (Breath of Fresh Air) Film Festival Short Award in November 2014.

‘Clocking in at less than 3 minutes in duration, To Be A Poet is a simple but powerful short about Abraham Nouk. Nouk came to Australia from Sudan, unable to read, write or speak a word of English. Now, he is an award-winning spoken word artist and poet.’

The film was conceived and initially produced within the BComm Media second year course, Film-TV2 in the latter part of 2013.

Michael is currently in the process of turning the film into a longer-form documentary. He tells us that the short film will be released as part of a crowdfunding campaign to get the project off the ground.

Also, To Be a Poet was the only Australian film to be selected in the Sound & Image Challenge Worldwide, which recently took place in Macau, China.
Abraham Nouk & Michael Johnston winners of BOFA Short Film Award with Martin simpson (middle, judge)
Abraham Nouk and Michael Johnston (far right) receiving the award.