THE Fairfax Youth Initiative (FYI) will present a “real tapestry” of stories at its first film festival, at the end of the month.
There will be 18 short films showcased at the festival, and will feature young people aged 13-19 from Swan Hill, Wycheproof, Sea Lake, Lalbert, Nyah, Tooleybuc, Red Cliffs and Mildura.
“They talk about everything from catching a huge fish on the Murray banks and chasing their crush around the Tooleybuc footy oval, to some quite moving pieces like what it means to just be a teenager growing up in the country today,” Artistic director of FYI Chelsea Zeller said.
FYI connects young people across the region with professional art practitioners to create opportunities to gain new skills and ideas in a creative way.
These stories were originally developed and performed as part of the FYI online storytelling mentorship program in 2021, where participants engaged in months of writing, workshops, rehearsal and open-mic nights all via Zoom.
Then in February of this year, as life began to return of some kind of normality, FYI was able to professionally produce the stories written by the participants. While some of the stories are filmed as short documentaries, most are direct-to-camera performances filmed on location.
“It is almost like a cross between live-storytelling and comedy, so it is quite different from your average film,” Ms Zellar said.
From writing and acting to composition, crew members and background extras, young people have been able to be involved in every step of the filmmaking process.
“We’re just bringing together all of the skillsets and the interests that young people have in the region and giving them a platform to be able to actually be part of a creative process,” Ms Zeller said.
One of those young people involved was 17-year-old Samantha Mullan, who wrote a short film reminiscing about her old primary school and bus driver.
“It was a long process,” Miss Mullan said.
“I wrote my story and that took maybe six months… then I had to find people to be in the film and make sure that all my old teachers wanted to be in it and that they were able to, and I had make sure my bus driver was able to and we had to go through all sorts of things with the council to get permits to film on the property of the school,” she said.
“And then it was really just the two days of filming, which two days doesn’t seem like a lot but it was heaps of time, and to make everything perfect we used it all.”
The upcoming festival will be the first in-person event FYI has been able to host since 2019.
“This is like marking the return of our in-community events again to bring people together,” Ms Zeller said.
“Going by the success of this project, we really hope that we will be able to do the film project again and have another screening and make it an annual event next year.”
Ms Zeller says the Swan Hill Town Hall will be “transformed” for the evening, with live music, local food trucks and a candy bar as well as the screening of the films.
“As soon as you step inside the Town Hall you are going to be transported into a foyer of a cinema, it will be decked out to really show the spirit and the creativity of the young people and the power of their stories and films,” Ms Zeller said.
The FYI film festival is at the Swan Hill Town Hall on May 28 from 4.30pm to 7.30pm, with the screening starting in the auditorium at 6pm. While this is a free community event, bookings are essential on the Swan Hill Town Hall website at www.swanhilltownhall.com.
