New Arts films for ABC1

Three Arts films will screen on ABC1 after their world premieres at the 2013 Adelaide Film Festival, through the $670,000 Hive Production Fund.

The Fund was launched with $600,000 earlier this year to create one-off, ambitious arts films under an ABC TV, Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) and the Australia Council for the Arts initiative. The AFF has also committed a further $70,000 to support these projects through its Film Investment Fund.

Amanda Duthie, Head of ABC TV Arts & Entertainment says, “Hive has allowed significant Australian artists to shapeshift their work for new audiences and platforms and creative partnerships.”

Tender (60min documentary)
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.
Director: Lynette Wallworth (visual artist); Producer: Kath Shelper (Samson and Delilah)

I Want to Dance Better at Parties (30min docu/drama)
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.
Creative Director: Gideon Obazarnek (ex Chunky Move Artistic Director);
Director: Matthew Bate (Shut Up Little Man)
Producer: Rebecca Summerton (Closer Productions)

The Boy Castaways (rock musical dramatic feature film)
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 (pictured) 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.
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)