First Contact is a short film project by Matt Richards, a Masters student in Directing Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts. It is an exploration of loneliness, fear, and the power of human connection.

Set on the desolate salt flats of the Mallee in regional Victoria, First Contact pairs a stunning backdrop with an evocative and moving study of isolation.

In the midst of a bleak landscape, it explores the lives of a father and daughter and the arrival of a mysterious black stranger. Forced together in dramatic circumstances, First Contact asks - what will happen when these lonely individuals have to engage with one another? And how will these emotions play out in an environment resistant to change?

The script has recently received a $1500 cash grant from Digital Pictures and the VCA 'Outstanding Script Award’, so this is your chance to help take it off the page and onto the screen.

Altogether, we need to raise about $12,000 to produce First Contact - we’re asking you to help us raise an essential $3000 of this through Pozible.

We’d love you to get involved!

The plot

Set on the edge of a huge salt lake, a father and daughter eke out a frugal existence in self-imposed exile. They live in a couple of rusty old caravans and their world is grim, stifling and desperately lonely. While the father goes for supplies to the nearest town once a fortnight, the daughter’s only contact with the outside world is via the two-way radio and the School of the Air. She has learnt of her world through her father, the landscape and reading old novels; she has drawings of what she imagines the other kids to look like.

The father struggles to communicate with his daughter, and feels the distance between them growing more impenetrable as she moves further into adulthood. Both have almost forgotten what it is to feel love, warmth and connection.

However, everything changes when father and daughter discover the body of a mysterious young black man. On the verge of death, his arrival disrupts their world and throws them into conflict, stirring up fears barely buried or disguised.

Project by

Matt Richards

Matt Richards (Director) was born in Perth, Western Australia and grew up all over WA. He started putting on 50c plays in his garage at age 10. Started skateboarding, filming and going to live shows at 15. He produced his first skate video with a hi-8 camera, VCR, Tandy mixer and portable tape deck in 1990.

He completed a 3-year Advanced Diploma in Film & Television at the Western Australian School of Art and Design in 2000. This culminated in the award winning 16mm short drama 'Growing Jacobs Gold'.

He soon began a collaborative project with the SymbioticA art & science group that saw him spend a month working and exhibiting in Austria. This project was then exhibited in Germany, Russia, Spain and the USA.

After working freelance within the Perth Film industry for 3 years, including a year in post-production at Bard Films, he moved to the east coast and his own production company Trainwreck 20/20. Here he produced, directed and edited 14 music videos, completed a 4 year music document on the underground Australian rock/punk community 'The Super8 Diaries' , directed his first television commercial and self funded the short film, Hombres Hablando.

In 2010 his focus shifted further towards drama where he produced two more self-funded short films, Automata and Shackle.

In 2011 he was accepted into the prestigious Victorian College of the Arts to do his masters of directing in drama.

First Contact received a $1500 cash grant from Digital Pictures and the VCA for 'Outstanding Script'. This project will be an important step towards realising his dream of directing a feature film within the next 2 years. Help him make it happen!