Three Flinders University creative arts students will showcase their short films at this year’s OzAsia Festival.
Created during their time on a New Colombo Plan-funded screen and media Hong Kong trip, Alumna Emma Hough Hobbs, and current students Jack Davis and Siena Hackett were inspired by their experiences on the visit.
Screen and media lecturer Dr Nicholas Godfrey says the New Colombo Plan trips are an annual event designed to inspire future film-makers to cultivate new ideas, by immersing them in another culture.
“The New Colombo Plan trip runs in March each year, and we take a group of students to the Hong Kong International Film Festival for an immersive experience with East Asian media industries,” Dr Godfrey says.
“Along with attending new Asian films at the festival, students walk the market floor at FILMART, Asia’s largest film distribution market.
“They also attend guest lectures and workshops with industry practitioners, festival curators, film historians, and meet and share their work with Hong Kong-based media students. We had 13 fully funded places on the 2018 trip and have 15 places available in 2019.”
Emma Hough Hobbs’ Umi is an experimental animation about self-discovery.
Jack Davis’ The Pastel City is a rhythmic showcase of Hong Kong’s distinctive architecture.
Siena Hackett’s Interconnected is a dreamy, impressionistic portrait of Hong Kong and its people.
Since graduating, Ms Hough Hobbs has achieved much success in the film industry, both overseas and nationally, which she credits to connections made during her time at Flinders.
“I’ve won the Young Inspirational Film Maker award for my short film ‘Purpose‘ at the Fleurieu Film Festival and Umi was nominated for a South Australian Screen Award,” she says.
She designed a short film that premiered during the Adelaide Film Festival (10 – 21 October 2018) called ‘They Sleep Inside your Head‘, which was written and directed by another talented Flinders graduate, Tamara Hardman.
“I’ve also worked at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) as a programming guest, and at Australia’s largest animation festival in Melbourne.”
Ms Hough Hobbs’ first article is being published in the October Issue of Metro Magazine, an essay on Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s new film Foreboding that she saw at the HKIFF.
“This connection was established with the help and guidance of Nicholas Godfrey, one of my previous lecturers at Flinders,” she says.
The New Colombo Plan is an initiative of the Australian Government to deepen Australia’s knowledge of the Indo-Pacific and strengthen partnerships with the region through study and internship/mentorship undertaken by grant recipients.
The films will screen at the OzAsia Festival on the following dates, with tickets available to purchase online.
Umi (Emma Hough Hobbs, BCA DM graduate) screens with:
Shalom Bollywood
5pm 8 November
The Pastel City (Jack Davis, BCA Screen) screens with:
Nervous Translation
6pm 10 November
Interconnected (Siena Hackett, BCA Screen) screens with:
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
4pm 10 November
10:45am 13 November