By Mikayla van Loon
Three talented young filmmakers from the Dandenong Ranges were presented with awards at this year’s Lantern and Light Children’s International Film Festival (LLCIFF).
At the online awards ceremony on Sunday 24 October, the student jury had selected the best films produced by their fellow peers, from both overseas and locally.
Sherbrooke Community School student, Jazz Toland, 15, who studies film, dance, and drama at Ranges Academy of Performing Arts, took home The Next Wave Best Film for 12–18 year-olds for their film Repression.
“It’s an experimental exploration of the unconscious mind and how it deals with aspects of the personality that the conscious mind deems unacceptable or unwanted.
“I wanted to highlight how the mind can become an unsafe place and the anguish experienced in the mind of those with anxiety,” Jazz said.
The judges described Jazz’s film as “a brave, cutting-edge film”, that was thought provoking and confronting.
The talent didn’t stop there either. Ayisha Salem-Towner won the LLCIFF Best Performance Award for her film Harley Quinn’s Lost Childhood that was inspired by old footage of herself as a child and a haunting painful song she sang about her lost teddy which she could never get back.
Sarah Elizabeth was awarded the Camel Hump and Crow Screenplay award for her film entitled The Great Wesley Blue, alongside Ayisha Salem-Towner for her film Apple and Beatle.
LLCIFF director Rainsford Towner said it’s incredible to witness what young people want to say when given the opportunity to do so behind a camera.
“When you give young people equity to tell us what they’re thinking, instead of us saying ‘this is what you should think, this is what you should do’. This festival asks them to tell us what you’re feeling, tell us what you’re thinking,” he said.
Although films were submitted from Canada, the United States, South Korea, Japan, Germany, France, Iran and Egypt, Rainsford said the talent from the Dandenong Ranges is astounding.
“Sometime in the future people will look at the Hills area, and go, ‘why are there so many filmmakers coming out of this region?’ Because that’s what I’m seeing.
“So this opportunity to focus on your film going onto a big screen, as against ‘I’m going to make a little video and put it on YouTube’, they don’t regard that the same way, we still regard the idea of putting on a film on the big screen as the one you want to do you want to see your film like that.
“When you give them that, when you give young people an opportunity, they embrace it in a different way.”
Next Wave Best Film Honourable Mention – Liam by Gabriel Robb-Wardlaw
Bendigo Bank Film in Schools Award – Cancer Dancer by Macclesfield Primary School
Best animation- Lonley Wood by Alexander coleman from Canada
New Wave Best film (8-12 years)-The Very Book by The Russian Film collective from Russia
Joby Documentary Winner – Dememtia by Bella Merlino from NSW
Golden Flame Ward winner – Snow Queen by Britt Dunse from Germany
Golden Flame honorable mention- Scarecrow by Rajesh Prasad Khatri from Nepal
Golden Flame honorable mention- Bird House by Max Vampire from USA
