Synopsis 

Ostrich is a short film about Helena, a mother, whose eyes are opened to the entrenched sexism within her family when she discovers a horrible truth about her son. 

Ostrich is an original concept created by the Director Gemma in response to her growing concern over the way in which entrenched sexism remains unchallenged by society. She believes that the difficult conversations need to start at home, and that traditional gender roles should be challenged in all aspects of life, including the family.

 The Cast 

Maria Elisabet Nordenberg plays Helena. Helena is 48 years old, she is intelligent and caring. While touring university campuses with her son Noah, she picked up a pamphlet for creative writing. Despite her fear that her husband will think the pursuit is trivial, she has slowly become more concrete in her decision to attend University. 

Ronan Mummery plays Noah. He is 17, charming, intelligent, and athletic, well-liked by both teachers and students at school. Noah is very used to getting what he wants and is unaware of how easy his life has been due to the inherent privileges afforded to him. 

Andrew Blackman plays Joseph. Joseph is 62 and a senior partner at a prestigious law firm in Melbourne. Incredibly successful, Joseph subscribes to traditional gender roles and holds conservative views both politically and socially. Despite the whirlwind nature of their romance, he does genuinely care for his wife Helena but also holds to the traditional views that wives are caretakers rather than true partners. 

Emma Choy plays the Principal. An intelligent woman with real dreams of changing her private schools' backwards culture. Though, she soon learned that her goal may have been harder to achieve than initially realised with an army of conservative fathers heading up the board.

Cast backgrounds including previous credits can be found on our Facebook page. 

🎬 The Crew 🎬

From left to right:

Producer: Rachel Chen

Director, Writer: Gemma Carfi

Cinematographer: Greg Kazantcev

Production Designer: Esther Myles

Sound Designer and 1st Assistant Director: Julian Pitrone

Stills Photographer and Assembly Editor: Camille Chapman

Editor: Blair Stellato

Full credits list including special thanks will be released with the trailer and final cut at the end of the year. Heads of Department bios can be found on the "Ostrich Short Film" Facebook page. 

💡 Director's Statement 💡

Ostrich is an original idea by Gemma Carfi.

It is a film about relationships. We follow our protagonist, Helena, as she struggles to connect with her son and her husband and as she grapples with her relationship with herself and her identity. The progression of the film hinges on the unsaid, the construction of each character, and their seemingly everyday interactions with one another that covers something much more sinister bubbling below the surface.

We believe that the themes of the film are representative of conversations about sexism that should be ongoing and critical, now more than ever. 

Budget Overview

The Ostrich project is getting to the exciting part of post-production. Where the edit meets colour grading, where the sound design is added and composers begin to create and experiment with emotional tracks to truly complete the audience's connection with the story's characters.

As filmmakers, we believe that this story has an impact and the ability to touch the hearts of mothers, partners, parents, sons, daughters, and children from all around the world. It speaks about the choices we make, the consequences we face because of our actions, and the voice we all have within ourselves to stand up for what is right - even if it feels like an impossible task. It only takes one person on your side, to make your goals, and dreams a reality. 

So we are asking you, to help support the post-production part of our project and help bring Ostrich - A Short Film to screens across the world.

Every donation and sharing of our Pozible campaign will be deeply appreciated by the Ostrich team.

Thank you!