West Australian Filmmakers seem thin on the ground if you don’t know where their natural habitats are. For the last few years, you could make a reasonable case that Broome is this state’s equivalent of Hollywood with features like Bran Nue Dae and television series like The Circuit and Trapped being made there. If you’re in the southern half of W.A. then filmmakers tend to gravitate to the capital city Perth. According to some observers, Mount Lawley is the natural habitat for Perth filmmakers.
AccessReel.com being a West Australian website has decided it’s time we did our best to track down and interview the up and coming talent that our fair state has to offer. We begin by speaking with Kane George Jason of Contempovison Films. Jason has been involved in making numerous shorts and has written and directed approximately a dozen. Two of these will be shown in support of feature films on the 18th and 19th of January as part of the St George Bank Movies at Stirling screenings.
As Jason explained, Movies at Stirling is a sister screening to the popular Movies By Burswood. Jason has had previous screenings of his work at Movies By Burswood. He liked the idea of his films playing in a new venue. St George Bank Movies at Sirling are at the Civic Gardens on Cedric Street, Stirling, from December until March. However Kane’s films are available on two nights only in January.
On Tuesday 18th January, the film CRTICAL KILLING was screened in support of MACHETE. The synopsis: George, a sexually inexperienced young man, and Jason, the level headed alpha male are two of the most unlikely of friends that put their lives on hold to make a documentary. But upon its screening, it gets completely annihilated by a movie critic (Anne) so they decide to take immediate action
On Wednesday 19th January, the film DANCING WITH THE PROS 2 will screen in support of THE SOCIAL NETWORK. The synopsis: Professional dancer Yuri Ka was thrust into worldwide popularity with his 2005 instructional video ‘Dancing With The Pros’. Trying to capitalise on this success, his new management team unleashed ‘Fighting With The Pros’ a year later which was met with far less enthusiasm and Yuri was vanished from the celebrity realm. The next five years saw Yuri knee deep in personal struggles.
Both shorts run at about 13 minutes. Jason says, “I like to think the work is showing a progression.” He admits that both films are very different. A CRITICAL KILLING was made with a large crew and DANCING WITH THE PROS 2 was made – more or less – with Jason and the actors. The first film was conceived as a comedy. Although the second film has its comedic moments, Jason has applied more serious thinking to what DANCING WITH THE PROS 2 is saying. It has a message about image and media shipped in with its absurdities. “It’s about the pressure that society puts on us to look a certain way,” Jason says.
These films are privately funded. This means they are products of his work and imagination and not subject to outside artistic pressure. Jason describes the films a s transitional. A CRITICAL KILLING changed the way he thought about films. It helped him move from being a film fan to deciding this was the work he wanted to do. DANCING WITH THE PROS 2 is his stepping stone film towards his feature.
Jason is currently working flat out on that feature, entitled CRUEL ACTS OF KINDNESS. Casting begins in a week . One of his missions in to create a story that doesn’t provide all the answers. He calls it an arthouse thriller . As jason says, “In mainstream film we tend to be given all the answers. Too many films say, here are these two people and they get together and that’s what life is. I don’t think life is ever that easy to unravel.”
