Flickerfest International Short Film Festival National Tour. Palace Electric Cinemas. Thursday, April 4, 7pm. $25/$22 includes after-party. palacecinemas.com.au.
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With the way the temperatures have dropped lately, this isn't the time for shorts. Except for the kind that can been enjoyed inside - short films.
Highlights from the 29th Flickerfest short film festival - accredited with the Oscars and the BAFTAs - are coming to Canberra. And two of them have been made by Canberrans.
The 10-day competition took place in Sydney in January. Among the touring selections is comedian and former Canberran Paul McDermott's animated short Ghostbear - about a polar bear cub wandering the Arctic in search of his place in the world, and his birthplace in the stars.
McDermott was also one of the voices in the other Canberra selection, Della Mortika Carousel Of Shame. This animated film, also featuring the talents of Xavier Samuel and Noni Hazlehurst, took more than seven years to make. It won the award for best Australian animation at Flickerfest 2019.
Geraldine Martin and her daughter Marisa collaborated on the project - the former leading the writing side of the project, the latter in charge of the design and animation.
Marisa Martin says Della Mortika Carousel of Shame is about three sisters in a steampunk 1880s Melbourne who are trying to navigate their way through life, family and relationships.
The production took seven years because it was made using stop-motion paper animation and Martin had to fit it around life and work.
"A lot of work goes into it before you shoot it, you have to do a lot of planning."
Martin says she had "a lot of assistance" with dozens of high school and university students helping with the production process.
Winning the award and having her film included in the travelling festival was "awesome", she says, and she enjoyed seeing the other films in Sydney.
"The quality of the show is really high."
Martin has been making live-action and animated films in Canberra for more than 15 years. She runs the production company Enemies of Reality Films. Its TV and film work has included Pacific Rim 2 and Cleverman.
Martin has run the Lights! Canberra! Action! Filmmaking festival for 16 years and has been heavily involved in Canberra's busy filmmaking community.
She says, "I was lucky enough to get Screen Canberra funding for my next project."
Violet Daze will be a live-action film.
