Ruth Morris

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Continental Drift is a 15 minute short film which will be shot on Super 16 in late 2011 by Writer/Director Anna Helme and Producer Ruth Morris. Anna and Ruth are both students at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.  

Short Synopsis

Adele is a young Australian woman struggling to find herself after a break-up. She travels in Croatia in 1999, amid echoes of war as the former-Yugoslavia is torn apart. Staying in an abandoned building by the sea, she meets Antonija and Luka, whose stories of love and loss reveal some of the painful fractures these conflicts have created within families and communities. Contrasts between cultures and experiences mean that Adele becomes a catalysing force, creating change in the lives of people she has these intense, yet brief, encounters with. This moody, romantic drama, set amongst beautiful landscapes and the rich culture and passionate people of the region, explores the idiosyncrasies of private moments traveling alone. As Adele stumbles into these people’s lives, she experiences the uncanny intimacy that can develop between strangers and the bittersweet poignancy of ephemeral romance.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

One of the most difficult challenges of this project is creating Croatia in Victoria. Any money we raise through Pozible will be invaluable in helping us to buy props, costumes and secure locations in order to realize the world of the film in the most authentic and believable way possible.

Through your kindness, help and support we hope to raise $1600 to be put towards the art department and locations budget. Any money we can possibly save in this area will be put directly back into the catering budget in order to feed our wonderful volunteer cast and crew.
 

About the Director

Anna Helme is a filmmaker, media activist, and video artist. She has written and directed short films including M.C. G.F.C. (2009, 4mins) screening on opening night at the 2010 Melbourne Underground Film Festival and the Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Art in 2009, and (with the artist Arlene Textaqueen) "SNAP!" for the ACMI/SBS co-production ARTV, screening on SBS TV in 2005 (and featured in the Australian Culture Now exhibition at ACMI and the NGV). She was trained in Film & TV at North Sydney TAFE while working at SBS TV in 1996/97, and is now completing a Bachelor of Film & TV at the VCA, for which she received the Lionel Gell Scholarship for 2011. Her work as an editor has featured in "Mostar Trek" produced with music producers Coldcut and and AV artists Headspace for Addictive TV's Mixmasters audiovisual program on ITV in the UK in 2002. ‘Continental Drift’ was inspired by experiences and people she met whilst traveling around the former-Yugoslavia for two months in 2001, which “Mostar Trek” documents, performing with a group of audiovisual artists, VJs and DJs at over a dozen venues in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.

Anna’s media activist work includes co-founding EngageMedia, a not-for-profit online video project focusing on social-justice and environmental issues in the Asia-Pacific. As a video artist her work includes “Electric Dreams” a hybrid audiovisual theatre show commissioned by Nextwave in 2005, and an artist placement with Coldcut at the Sonic Process exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2002, supported by the Australia Council.

http://annahelme.com

About the Producer

Ruth Morris is a film producer, and photographer. While currently completing postgraduate studies in Film and Television (Producing) at the Victorian College of the Arts, Ruth continues to freelance as a photographer and exhibit her photographic and video works.

She has previously written for Junior (http://lifeatthebottom.com) and received a scholarship to study abroad at Copenhagen University where her studies included her dissertation 'Quality Television and the Aesthetics of TV Authorship'. The changing visual language and dynamics of television is of constant interest to her and she has continued her research into the aesthetics of Quality Television and its ties to historical and contemporary narrative photography.

Ruth is currently producing two short films and developing a photographic exhibition and monograph exploring the sublime experience of Emerging Adulthood in the Victorian landscape. Continental Drift will be the second VCA film she has produced this year.

http://ruth-morris.com

About the Director of Photography

Michael Williams brings a fine art photographic training and sensibility to his cinematography. Known for his atmospheric location interpretations he cut his teeth in the vibrant Melbourne film clip scene in the mid 1980’s directing and shooting his own projects. The strong visual language of these works led to offers from other directors to shoot their projects, the work varied from music clips, short films, documentaries and television commercials. In recent years Michael has also collaborated with aclaimed media artists Philip Brophy, David Pledger and Lynette Walworth on various multi media and digital projects for ACMI , Melbourne Festival and Melbourne Immigration Museum.

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