Directions

1st June 2009: DIRECTIONS picks up best cinematography award at St Kilda FF

Over the past year our little short film has travelled all around the world and is now back at home, last week playing at the St Kilda Film Festival in Melbourne, Australia. We were very excited to receive the award for Best Cinematography. Congratulations and thankyou to DP Adam Arkapaw for his beautiful imagery that added so much to the film.
- Chris

11th May 2009: DIRECTIONS wins Young Jury Award at Brussels Short Film Festival

DIRECTIONS continues it's festival romp by taking out the Young Jury Award at the Brussels Short Film Festival, or as they say in Flemmish, Festival du Court Métrage de Bruxelles! It's our most prestigeous award yet. Onwards and upwards!
- Chris

4th May 2009: More Festival Screenings

We're pleased to announce DIRECTIONS continues it's journey with recent invitations from:

Just For Laughs International Film Festival (Montreal)
El Ojo Cojo International (Italy)
Caravan Film Festival (Italy),
Big Sur International (US)
St Kilda Film Festival (AU)

- Kas

20 April '09: 'Senses of Cinema' Reviews Directions

Extract taken from Alison Pouliot's report on the 61st Locarno International Film Festival
http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/08/49/locarno-iff-2008.html

Of particular interest this year were the films in the short film category. The 2002 Festival focused on Australian and New Zealand short films, but it seems that all has been pretty quiet from Downunder since. Of the more than 400 films screened this year, there were only two Australian films, The Eternity Man (feature length, written and directed by Julien Temple) and the short film, Directions (written and directed by Kasimir Burgess). Burgess’s film was one of 23 films from 20 countries competing in the Leopards of Tomorrow competition.

Directions was certainly a welcome and delightfully humorous relief amongst an anthology of pretty heavy going films entrenched in themes of loss, hardship, abuse, violence, genocide, incest, tragedy and general social breakdown. As with musical or short story compilations, film anthologies are often challenging to sit through as there is often not enough time to digest and reflect on one film before being flung into the next, especially with such hard-hitting themes. Hence, Directions provided a sunny and comic escape from heavy dark old Europe with an experience that every Aussie can relate to: the darned bung shopping trolley wheel (whereas in Switzerland one gets the impression that every wheel on every trolley is regularly tested, lubricated and maintained so as to ensure faultless functioning). The central character, played by Gregory Muller, embarks on a journey with his laden shopping trolley after his mother fails to collect him from the supermarket. During his journey, which takes him throughout suburban Melbourne, under the Westgate Bridge, careering down a dirt road on the rural fringe and ultimately to an aquatic end, Muller conducts various ingenious repairs until his trolley rides perfectly.

13 October '08: Kasimir's Travels to Sapporo and Vladivostok Film Festivals

I cannot speak highly enough of the Sapporo film festival. I was lucky enough to have been invited to present a few of my shorts. The response was quite solid. Since none of the films that I screened had dialogue, there was no language barrier to contend with, so people were able to relax into the stories.

It was very odd to have people asking me to sign autograph's, Sapporo film goers really takes their shorts festival very seriously. In fact there were a few all night screenings in packed cinemas, that's dedication! With screenings, parties and outings around the clock, there was very little time to daydream.

Sapporo is famous for it's deliciously fatty yet somehow health giving ramen noodles and I was sure to have at least a bowl a day. The Sushi was so much fresher and tastier than I am used to. In just one week I must have eaten a school of large salmon and a few tuna too.

The Sento natural hot springs were a real highlight. Me and my new friends (a Canadian, a few English, an Israeli and a German), were a little a-taken back when told that we could not wear any form of bathers. The old cliche applies; scary at first but then kind of liberating. We sat up there in the misty hills feeling like the luckiest short film-makers in the world.

From Japan I flew to Vladivostok Russia, where 'Directions' was screening in competition. It was wonderful to see the friends I made in Vlad last year. There was lots of hugs and catching up, then, to my delight, we headed to the festival's annual Japanese Party.

With a full slate of functions, media presentations, parties and after parties, I did not see many films, but, as I reminded myself, who wants to sit in a dark room when your in Russia? I swam every day with my gang; Annaise from Quebec and David Michod from Sydney. What a ball we had roaming about the place together. We made friends with Anton, a Russian photographer who took us for shrimp and beer at the beach and who also took our portraits, which now hang in his gallery.

Between sapporo and Vladivostok I had my most enjoyable adventure yet; it's odd to think that a short film could create such amazing opportunities. Chris and I better make another one soon...(:

Kas.

Kasimir's Film Festival Trip

23 September '08: Festival Screenings

DIRECTIONS is still humming along on the international festival circuit with the latest invitations coming from the Stockholm Film Festival (Sweden), Raindance Film Festival (UK) and In The Bin (Australia). In other news Kasimir has just returned from his whirl-wind tour of the Sapporo and Vladivostok film festivals, from all reports he had a blast. Hopefully we'll have his story of the trip posted up here soon for you to find out all the juicy goss from the glamorous and high-flying world of the international film festival circuit...

Cheers,
- Chris

4 August '08: More Festival News...

We've just had news from Hof Film Festival in Germany that they have selected DIRECTIONS for their 2008 Festival. Very exciting stuff! And last weekend was the official premiere of the film at MIFF...things are going well!

16 July '08: Festival Screening Update

Ok, as promised here are the screening times for the next couple of months as DIRECTIONS bursts out onto the international festival circuit. The official premiere will be in a few weeks at MIFF - see below - we would love to see you there! We’re also very excited to be screening off a brand new beautiful 35mm print - the format we always intended the film to be seen in.

Cheers,
-Chris and Kasimir

22 June '08: DIRECTIONS gets into MIFF, BIFF, Sapporo and Rhode Island

It's only been a few months since we launched DIRECTIONS onto the international festival circuit, but we've already had a number of invitations from high profile international festivals. We're very pleased to announce that DIRECTIONS will have its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in late July. Then in early August there will be a screening at the Brisbane International Film Festival. Also in early August, DIRECTIONS will have it's North American premiere at the Rhode Island Film Festival.

We haven't got exact dates for all these screenings yet, we'll post the details here as soon as we know!

Cheers,
-Chris and Kasimir

6 Feb '08

Exciting times for us here in the DIRECTIONS camp, there's some real buzz building around the short film. We've just collected our final HD video master - it looks and sounds fantastic! We're looking forward to catching up with cast, crew and friends at our Cast and Crew Screening next week on Valentines day.

We're also proud to say we've already been getting some interest from some big Australian film festivals who are in the process of selecting films for their 2008 programmes. Hopefully it won't be long until we can can announce where and when our Australian premiere screening will take place - stay tuned!

Cheers,
Chris the Producer

15 Jan '08

Welcome to the brand new website for the short film DIRECTIONS. If your interested, check back here for news on Directions and it's adventures on the film festival circuit.

The film is looking and sounding great and we are in the very final stages of completion with one last sound mix to go.

For our very talented and hard working cast and crew we'll be having a screening very soon - hopefully early Feb '08 depending on how long it takes to get the film completely finished.

Cheers,
Chris the Producer