Michael, Dave and Joanne’s film about the wild West had audiences in stitches. 87319 Picture: LAURA WAKELY
By LAURA WAKELY
A FILM about the survival skills needed to navigate the West has taken out the inaugural Sunshine Short Film Festival.
More than 150 people packed into Village Cinemas on Friday night to watch and vote for the best film among 21 shorts created by locals.
Filmmaking trio Michael Sandic, Joanne Balanon and Dave Cvetkovic won the General Category with their comedy Man vs Sunshine.
In the style of adventure-documentary Man vs Wild, the film followed character Payne Bills as he made his way through the wilderness that is Brimbank’s central suburb.
“The great thing about the western suburbs is that people can laugh about themselves,” Michael said.
It was a welcome win for the up-and-coming filmmakers, who each dream of working in satirical television comedies or feature films.
Michael is currently working on a documentary about the Australian flag, while Dave is getting more experience in comedy acting and Joanne is writing historical fiction.
“Don’t get me wrong, winning was a great part,” Michael said.
“But… that moment where it’s going from paper, from someone’s thoughts, to something’s happening and actually being recorded, that’s what I live for.”
The other big winners included Isabel Le, whose We Live in a Wonderful Time won the mobile phone category, with a moving montage capturing the lives of Sunshine residents, and the Zakanjs family, who won the audience over in the school category with a quirky stop-start claymation about a cheeky bird.
Lilly, Jessica, Mary, Holley and Thomas took up the challenge of filmmaking as part of a home-schooling project with the help of parents Robert and Rebecca.
Robert admitted the kids got a taste for the “pain of Wallace and Gromit” with late nights and long hours going into the project, which used 1886 different images to create a 2 minute and 56 second feature about a cockatoo that tricks commuters into handing over their snacks.
