Australian Consulate-General Guangzhou
Media Release PD 26/08 5 December 2008
Australian Documentaries at the 2008 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival
Australia was amongst the founding members of the board of GZDoc and has been a strong contributor of high-quality documentaries every year. This year three Australian films will be featured in GZDoc – two in competition and two in the screening program.
“Fairweather Man”, produced by Veronica Fury and directed by Aviva Ziegler, is an intimate portrait of the life and work of one of Australia’s greatest painters, Ian Fairweather. Of particular interest to Chinese audiences, Fairweather spent 3 years in China in the 1930s and this experience had a profound influence on his art. Fairweather Man can be seen at the Feiyang Cinema, 7/F Grandview Mall, No.228, Tianhe Rd at 13:50 on Saturday 6 December.
Part comedy, part natural history and part road movie, “Chasing Birds” (55 mn), produced by Gina Twyble, follows three dedicated bird watching teams in their passionate pursuit during an intense 24 hour competition. “Chasing Birds” an be seen at the Shi Yi Gong Cinema, No. 65, Wenming Rd. at 17:40 on Thursday 4 December and at the Qing Gong Cinema, 2/F, Youth Cultural Place, No.312, Beijing Rd at 10:30 on Saturday 6 December. “Chasing Birds” has also been entered in competition.
“The Burning Season” (90 min), directed by Cathy Henkel, is currently only in the competition. The film tells the story of a 29 year-old Chinese Australian environmental entrepreneur, Dorjee Sun, who found a way of reducing the environmental effect of burning down rainforest areas in Indonesia by selling carbon credits to big polluting companies in the west. “The Burning Season” won the Audience Choice Award at the Brisbane International Film Festival.
“Australia once again has a strong level of participation in this year’s GZDoc” Australian Consul-General in Guangzhou, Mr Sean Kelly said. “Fairweather Man, Chasing Birds and The Burning Season are three excellent Australian documentaries, and will be introduced to a Chinese audience for the first time at this festival” he added.
Australian participants in GZDoc include:
Barry Mitchell, an Executive Producer from Australia Network, the international service of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC TV);
Ned Lander, Co-productions and Special Projects, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS TV);
Cathy Henkel, producer, writer and director of “The Man Who Stole My Mother’s Face” (Best Feature Documentary, Tribeca Film Festival, New York) and “The Burning Season”;
Aviva Ziegler, Director of “Fairweather Man” and winner of two Australian Film Industry Awards for best documentary for “Quentin” and “Facing the Demons”;
Gina Twyble, producer of “Chasing Birds” (2008), “Feral Peril” (2008) and “The Long Goodbye” (currently in production); and
Georgia Wallace-Crabbe, producer of “Jabe Babe: A Heightened Life” (winner AFI Award for Best Direction in a Documentary, 2005) and “New Beijing: Reinventing a City”.
For further information, please contact Ms Willow Li, Research Assistant
(Tel: 020 3814 0186, E-mail: [email protected] )