Eddy Bell

'Ghost Bull' tells the story of Martin, a South Sudanese refugee from the Dinka heartlands who happens upon a bull he believes is his spiritual totem. Rescuing it from the abattoir where he works, Martin brings the bull home but very quickly the new arrival starts to jeopardise his family's chances at truly settling themselves in their new community. Martin is soon torn between the past and the future, he must choose between his ancient cultural identity and the new lives being established by his family. Martin's story forces us to question what we ask people to leave at the door when they come to this country. How does Martin maintain a sense of self in a new place, when everything that he has built his masculinity around is no longer relevant?


WHO

The Dinka tribe, legendary herders from South Sudan, honour and revere the cattle that they live amongst and that form the base of their livelihoods. When a boy becomes a man he takes on a bull that becomes his namesake. The bull and the young man then become inseparable, the bull becoming the ultimate 'wing man' as a strong, beautiful bull not only garners respect, but also attracts the girls. In our research we have heard multiple stories of men going back to war torn South Sudan because they can't be parted from their bull.



The men in Dinka culture often write songs for their bulls. Our non-professional actor, Mayik Deng, will be recording his own traditional song for the bull to be used as the sound track for our film. It is an incredibly striking and beautiful song about how attractive his bull's face is and how all the girls in the village love him because of the impressive bull. The sparse soundscape and single male vocal will create an incredible atmosphere for our story to exist in, highlighting the loneliness often experienced when crossing cultures.


WHY

This is an important story that needs to be told. It's not only about the experiences of the South Sudanese diaspora, displaced by war, but about the wider experience of migrants - how do newcomers to this country negotiate their identities in the face of so much that is new? Trapped between multiple identities and traditions, the experience of characters such as Martin resonates with people across Australia, and with migrants across the world.


HOW

We've made a solid start. Our script has already received awards from the Victorian College of the Arts and the Orloff Trust, giving recognition to the importance of our story and the months of work that have already gone into making this story a reality - we hope that this is only the beginning.


-- Introducing our wonderful cast; Ayuen, Lilia, Mayik, Achol, Akuein --

We are incredibly lucky to be surrounded by a dedicated professional crew that are giving us their time, expertise and equipment for next to nothing, not to mention our amazing cast who are investing so much of themselves in this project. However, being the ambitious team that we are, with such an important story to tell, we need your help to bring this film to completion. With the majority of our $30k budget self funded already, we need the help of all of you out there to really make this happen.

Taking a cast and crew out to rural Victoria for this size of project, and training and keeping our bulls is no mean feat - bad weather and harvests in northern Victoria have already forced some of our costs up by over 50% - but with such a dedicated team, wonderful cast and the support of donations from Pozible, we know we can make this happen.

We have the support of the local town, the council and the South Sudanese community, and now we just need you! This is an ambitious project with production values well over 10 times our budget, that we know we can achieve with both your support and our wonderful cast and crew, due to start shooting in just two weeks!

We're asking our nearest and dearest to spread the word and contribute a little or a lot to help us make our film!


ABOUT US


Our lead Mayik, Producer Khoby and Director Ed getting to know our other star.

Eddy Bell (Director): With over 10 years of film experience behind him, across a wide range of areas, including ads and shorts, Eddy is a soon to be graduate of the Victoria College of the Arts. Making his mark in the advertising world, and currently at Mr Smith, Eddy has established himself as a director to watch. Aside from his lauded direction, Edward is also an award-winning writer, having received two awards already for the script of Ghost Bull.

Khoby Rowe (Producer): Khoby Rowe is a producer with many years experience behind her. During her career so far, Khoby has spent a number of years abroad, establishing her own independent production house in China. There she worked across both film and television, producing successful documentaries, ads and shorts, including Shanghai's first online short film festival.

Callan Green (Director of Photography): Cal Green is a prolific award-winning DOP of commercials, music videos and drama, having won gold for 8 consecutive years at the NSW ASC awards. A man of the world, Callan has shot across Europe, Asia, the USA as well as a 3 year stint with Lord of the Rings in New Zealand.

Kiera Archer (Production Manager): Having cut her teeth in locations on some major productions. From Bollywood features to MTV reality series, Kiera has worked a wide range of productions including commercials for established clients such as Audi, Mountain Dew, Suntori and Toyota.

Chantel Covey (Production Designer): Chantel brings a well trained eye to our design department, having spent years as both a production designer across film and television, and as a producer of some of Sydney's most sought after events.

Pete Davies (Art Director): Highly sought after, Pete Davies is an art director with over 25 years experience across commercials, music video's, film, theatre and events. Taking time out from his busy schedule, Pete is bringing his expert knowledge and invaluable experience to Ghost Bull.

This script is incredibly ambitious, but we have all the right people in the right places. There is no way we can fail with the people we have around us! Perhaps our biggest challenge is keeping our bulls in check, but with the amazing trainers that have been working with the bulls for weeks, we are sure we've got all the bases covered.