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Hive Production Fund announces investment in three arts films

The Hive Production Fund has announced the three films that have been selected to share in $670,000 worth of funding.

The Fund, which was launched earlier this year by ABC TV, the Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) and the Australia Council for the Arts, seeks to bring Australian artists and filmmakers together to create one-off arts films with imaginative cross-platform ideas.

The three films include a documentary, a docu/drama and a feature-length rock musical.

"The calibre of these projects and collaborators illustrate the potential for ground-breaking new work to be created for the screen when we facilitiate new conversations between diverse practitioners and offer different funding avenues to enable these cross-pollinations," said AFF director, Katrina Sedgwick in a statement.

The filmmakers involve include Robert Connolly (Romulus My Father, The Boys), producer Kath Shelper (Samson and Delilah) and director, Matthew Bates (Shut up Little Man).

The Hive Production Fund was developed as a result of The Hive Lab, an AFF initiative which brought artists and filmmakers together in a discussion about ideas and creative processes.

The three films will have their world premieres at the 2013 Adelaide Film Fesitval, before airing on ABC1.


Tender (60 min documentary)

Director: Lynette Wallworth (visual artist)
Producer: Kath Shelper (Samson and Delilah)

Two friends, three funerals and a community learning to care for its own. Jen and Lynette met as three-year-olds and made a bond for life. Lynette became an internationally renowned artist whose works have often centred around themes of loss, death and resilience. Jen has worked with similar intensity in community projects that mainly revolve around the basic issues of survival. With her artist’s eye Lynette follows Jen as she endeavours to start a community-based, not-for-profit funeral company in the Wollongong area.


I Want to Dance Better At Parties (30 min docu/drama)

Creative Director: Gideon Obazarnek (ex Chunky Move Artistic Director);
Director: Matthew Bate (Shut Up Little Man)
Producer: Rebecca Summerton (Closer Productions)

Recovering from the tragic and untimely death of his wife, Phillip Rose finds himself in middle age as a single parent and a single man. After a clumsy episode on a dance floor at a house-warming, he begins private Latin dance classes, confronting his loneliness while learning to dance the ‘Merengue’. Based on a true story this hybrid film fuses choreography, documentary and drama filmmaking to create a moving portrait of a grieving man.


The Boy Castaways (rock musical dramatic feature film)

Director: Michael Kantor (Ex Malthouse Theatre Artistic Director)
Producer: Jo Dyer (Lucky Miles and Sydney Theatre Company EP)
Producer: Stephen Armstrong (Ex Malthouse EP)
Executive Producer: Robert Connolly (Romulus My Father, The Boys)

In an abandoned theatre, with the stage itself the puppet–master, five disparate men have disappeared from their complicated adult lives to play at being forever young in ‘Neverland’. It is a magical, parallel universe game – a no-holds barred struggle to stay eternally young – or die trying. Led by a stellar creative team, and specifically created for some of Australia’s leading rock and stage performers including cabaret star Paul Capsis and ‘You am I’ front man Tim Rogers, this feature musical redraws J M Barrie’s Peter Pan to examine the loss of innocence and contemporary male narcissism, using songs from the collective pop/rock world to expose the danger of our own fantasies – be it rock star antics, sexual abandon, or death defying heroics.

“To die – what an adventure that would be!” Peter said to Wendy.