From Cannes to Dungog
DISCOURAGED by the competitive pressure cooker of Sydney’s film industry, screenwriter/producer Allanah Zitserman retreated to the countryside to find some peace.
She settled in the quirky Hunter Valley town of Dungog, nestled at the foothills of the Barrington Tops, and finally found the space to do what she loves most – write.
And then, it hit her. “I had this crazy idea,” says the 34-year-old, best known for her early box office success with the feature film Russian Doll, which garnered her praise in Australia and abroad.
“The film festival buzz was in me, given that I was overseas a lot. I thought, why not start a film festival here?
“Film festivals need cinematic settings, and that’s exactly what Dungog has. It feels like its back in 1900 with old buildings that line the street. It also has the James Theatre. Built in 1913, it is the oldest continuously-running cinema in Australia. It had all the right ingredients.”
But Zitserman also had one other requirement for her festival: all the films had to be 100 per cent Australian.
“It was a philosophical choice. We wanted to celebrate Australian cinema. I felt we didn’t have an event [like this].”
It appears that she was right. Since the Dungog Film Festival was established in 2007, it has increased fourfold and this year’s festival, which opens on May 26, will showcase 194 feature, short and animated films.
It’s expected that as many as 10,000 people will storm into town, about 240 kilometres north of Sydney, to catch the four-day event that will also include 10 world premieres – among them, Oranges and Sunshine, starring Emily Watson, Hugh Weaving and David Wenham, and the black comedy Frank and Jerry, directed by screenwriter Nick McGee.
The program will also offer master classes with playwright-screenwriter David Williamson and composers Lisa Gerrard and Michael Yezerski.
“The growth has been phenomenal,” says Zitserman, who co-founded the festival with her director/producer partner, Stavros Kazantzidis.
“People were just very open and embraced the idea. It gives people an opportunity to actually stop, talk and collaborate. This is a celebration of our unique Australian culture.”
For Zitserman, it’s certainly been a whirlwind journey to get to this point. Born in Charkov in the former Soviet Union, she emigrated with her family as refugees to Australia in 1980.
Like most young girls, she admits, she had early dreams of becoming an actress, but those were quickly replaced when she discovered her love of writing and producing.
“I’m really a doer. I like to put things together,” she says. “My place is definitely behind the camera.”
She found early success when she created Barbarella in the late 1990s, one of Sydney’s most successful nightspots of the time, while studying a Bachelor of Business at University of Technology, Sydney.
Then at 22, she made her film debut with the romantic feature Russian Doll, which earned her an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Screenplay. She then followed this up with the black comedy Horseplay, starring Abbie Cornish in 2003.
With both films, Zitserman toured around the globe to showcase at independent film festivals. On the side, she also squeezed in some event managing at the Marrakech and Cannes film festivals, which undoubtedly helped sow the seeds for her to set up a festival of her own.
These days, riding on the success of Dungog, she has moved back to Sydney and set up her own distribution company called Australian Film Syndicate, which releases exclusively Australian films.
Recent releases include the comedy Stone Bros., about a pair of Aboriginal men who take a road trip to discover their roots, and the drama Bitter and Twisted starring Matthew Newton and Noni Hazelhurst.
Reflecting on her success, Zitserman, in part, credits her Jewish identity – and more pointedly, her chutzpah – for getting her this far.
“It has played a big part in my day-to-day life. I don’t like to take ‘no’ for an answer,” she says.
“I don’t think anyone means ‘no’, anyway. Their mouth is just moving the wrong way,” she adds with a laugh.
The Dungog Film Festival is in Dungog, about 240 kilometres north of Sydney, on May 26-29. Enquiries: www.dff.org.au.
REPORT: Chantal Abitbol
PHOTO: Allanah Zitserman, director of the Dungog Film Festival.
comments