Airdate: Opening Shot

Five emerging filmmakers will have their work showcased on ABC2’s Opening Shot, an initiative between Screen Australia and ABC Television.

Five filmmaking teams, all with a Director under 35 years, have been given the opportunity to create a prime-time half hour film that not only develops their long form filmmaking skills, but also fires an (opening) shot into the national conversation about Australia today.

The first film is Dating the H *Bomb.

From living and loving with the herpes virus (brought to you by puppets!), to the moral minefield thrown up by modern reproductive science, to online hacktivism, to forging new collaborations with Indigenous communities, to slaughtering your Sunday night roast, these films share the voice of a generation tackling the issues that are important to them, and that have consequences for all of us.

What they collectively demonstrate is that while today’s younger generations may be disengaged with traditional party politics they are not disengaged with the issues that matter.

DATING THE H*BOMB

If using a condom is tricky to bring up when your date gets hot and heavy, try dropping the ‘H-Bomb’ – admitting you have genital herpes. In Dating The H*Bomb, Heidi, Hector and Michael candidly share intimate stories about life with the incurable and taboo herpes virus, from the shock of diagnosis to the search for true love. Re-enacted with puppets, these everyday Australians reveal what it’s like to negotiate love, sex and human relationships in the shadow of a disease that affects one in eight Australians.

Director: Jay Court. Producer: Andrew Arbuthnot, Writer: Wendy Hanna.

Dating the H*Bomb is a LaLa Pictures production and was made through the assistance of the Metro Screen Jumpstart Program. Developed and produced in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and financed with the assistance of Screen Australia.

Sunday 4 November 9.30pm ABC2