WHAT‘S HAPPENING

News & Events

SAFC announces filmmakers selected for Pirrku Kuu Hub Residency

12 April 2017

The South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) today announced the four filmmakers selected for writing residency in the Pirrku Kuu Hub, a dedicated story room for Aboriginal screen makers within the Adelaide Studios’ screen industry creative and business hub. 

Pirrku Kuu, a Kaurna term meaning ‘Story Room’, is a key initiative of the SAFC’s Aboriginal Screen Strategy 2015-2020. This strategy has already made significant investment in the State’s emerging and established Aboriginal filmmakers with five writers receiving Aboriginal Project Development Funds and a further five projects funded through the Aboriginal Short Drama Fund.  Linked to that, SAFC facilitated an Aboriginal Short Drama Workshop in 2016 led by  Beck Cole and Warwick Thornton for the selected short drama filmmakers. 

SAFC’s Crew Attachment Scheme which aims to provide on-set development opportunities for emerging South Australian screen practitioners saw two early-career indigenous screen makers on set of Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country, as Director’s Attachment and Gaffer’s Attachment. 

Now, the Pirrku Kuu Hub sees four emerging practitioners supported with dedicated story creation space within the Studios’ creative hub alongside award-winning production companies, animators, game developers and a casting director. The Pirrku Kuu residents will also have access to attend and participate in the SAFC’s varied professional development seminars and opportunities.

The four filmmakers selected to use the space in its inaugural year are:
•    Edoardo Crismani whose 50 minute documentary The Panther Within premiered on NITV in March. Crismani was also selected for SAFC’s Aboriginal Short Film funding initiative in 2016 to direct his short drama 440.

•    Joel Brown, a recent graduate from Flinders University Media Studies, was the Screen Australia Goalpost Pictures 1st Assistant Director Attachment on the second series of ABC TV’s Cleverman. Brown has directed two micro-documentaries with NITV and also worked as an actor, choreographer and animator.

•    Kiara Milera, about to commence early pre-production on her short film No Ears as part of the SAFC’s Aboriginal Short Film funding initiative and most recently was the Director’s Attachment to Warwick Thornton on his feature film Sweet Country. Milera was supported by the SAFC to attend Australian Film, Television and Radio School’s (AFTRS) Short Screen Writing Course in Sydney and has written for the successful ABC series, Black Comedy.  

•    Michael Crismani who wrote, directed and produced the short film I Kept the Beat for the NITV/SAFC Microdocs Initiative with the MRC which aired in 2016 on NITV and SBS on demand. Crismani has also worked as a production coordinator on Barbara’s World and appeared in a number of documentaries, short films and web series. 

Read the full media release here.

Featured image: Director Edoardo Crismani