What’s up #FilmFam? We’ve missed hanging out with you! It has been SUCH a busy year this year and we have so many great projects we’re working on – how about you? We’re keen to hear what you’ve been up to!
We’re so thrilled to be able to bring together filmmakers from across the entire Western Sydney region to meet online! It’s something we started doing in 2020 and have kept doing since because we just loved connecting with everyone so easily online, and in such a fun way.
There are so many interesting artists and creatives that work on films out West, from directors and DOPs, to editors and actors, musicians working on sound and score, writers, animators, foley artists, and student filmmakers – everyone’s unique and if anything, WSF ONE has taught us is that most of us are slashies!
It’s so INSPIRING to spend time with other creatives and hear how they are approaching the challenges of creative life and kicking goals in local productions.
We would usually catch up at the start of the year too, but we missed our opportunity to check in with you all in March, so here we are in September and we’re super keen to catch up and hear what you’ve all been working on!
Which projects do you have on the go right now? Are you looking for collaborators? Are you keen to hear what’s coming up for everyone (and Made in the West!) in the final months of 2023?
Join us LIVE on Zoom on Wednesday 29 September from 7pm to 8.30pm! Register for your FREE ticket now!
Great things can happen in our community when we connect and talk about our ideas and filmmaking practice. We love feeling inspired by the work everyone is doing and we know we’ll walk away with a renewed sense of determination for our own projects too.
Proudly hosted by Still Searchin’ Productions, Western Sydney Filmmakers Hangout and Made in the West Film Festival - we’re teaming up once again to get everyone together, chat about our passion projects, share skills and experience and hopefully find some new crew members in that true Westie spirit of collaboration.
And if there’s one thing we learnt from 2020 it’s that we can have the best of both worlds these days – we can catch up with friends AND stay home – because let’s face it, we LOVE attending networking events from home now.
So we’ll be Zooming into your lounge room and onto a screen near you very soon. You can access the event via your browser on desktop, tablet or mobile phone - anything goes!
This time around we will be joined by some very special guests including:
Writer and director Ronnie Riskalla from SkyCross Entertainment whose feature film Streets of Colour is currently making its way around the country. You may have seen the film screening across cinemas in Western Sydney - it’s a gritty, confronting and insightful drama shot right here in #westie heartland. Ronnie is an AFTRS and Hollywood Film School graduate and has worked in film production & distribution with his company Rising Pictures. We’re looking forward to catching up with him!
Award-winning director Chloe De Brito, who just completed her latest short film Pink Reef about a mermaid struggling with identity (starring Bernie Van Tiel, who has graced the screen multiple times at Made in the West!). Chloe’s just got back from The Creators Lab in Yucatan, Mexico (working with director Apichatpong Weerathesakul) and will be zooming to us all the way from LA for our call! If you were at Made in the West last year then you’ve likely spotted her amazing work on Only One for amazing local hip hop artist Ashli. We can’t wait to hear more about what she’s been up to!
Darcy Carroll is a student filmmaker at WSU and the director of Hello, My Name is Mother Nature which took home the Audience Choice Award last year at Made in the West. To top that off (how is that even possible, you ask??) the film was ALSO voted People’s Choice Award AND Best Comedy by our online festival audience over the summer – a record breaking effort and a first for any student EVER at Made in the West. The film has gone on to screen at Blacktown Arts and inspire other student filmmakers at WSU to tell their stories on screen. We’re keen to find out what other great projects Darcy has coming up!
And of course we’ll be chatting to award-winning filmmaker Matthew C. Vella from Vellamatt Films, everyone’s favourite networking champion at Western Sydney Filmmakers Hangout and podcast producer at Upcoming Attractions. We’re looking forward to hearing what he’s got in the pipeline for the months ahead!
In between these filmmaker spotlight interviews there will be time for everyone to meet a few other people on the call - slowly, at first - and then before long you’ll be making your way across the Zoom room faster and faster to meet a bunch of great folks and your new fave local filmmakers.
Note: Meeting people at any networking event is daunting, but online networking with #WesternSydneyFilm is totally fun! The event is a unique blend of three elements: a live TV show with guest interviews, a Zoom party with random breakout rooms for smaller group chats, and a Choose-Your-own-Adventure-style interactive game, complete with alternate endings!
From Campbelltown to Parrramatta, Bankstown to The Hills, and from Strathfield all the way out west to Penrith and the Blue Mountains - all filmmakers are welcome to join us. If you’re a filmmaker who lives outside of Western Sydney and you want to work with some of us on a project, then you can certainly join us too.
Get ready to reconnect with old filmmaker friends, network with new potential collaborators and find out what’s been happening in the #WesternSydneyFilm scene.
So put those well earned pandemic skills to work and whip yourself up an Espresso Martini, or pour some of your home-made Kombucha, or … maybe just put the kettle on and get into your comfy trackie pants.
Join the #WesternSydneyFilm community for a night of talking shop and sharing advice, and hopefully having a few laughs as we meet a bunch of other filmmaking peeps.
Register for your FREE ticket here and we’ll send you a secret link to access the online networking event for #WesternSydneyFilm
We’re looking forward to catching up!