We are delighted to announce our winners for the AFTRS/Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas (SCCI) ‘Accessing Architecture’ short film competition: first year Masters students Kate Vinen, Petra Leslie and Jayden Rathsam Hüa for their pitch The Caretakers.
As part of the competition, AFTRS second and third year BA students, Masters students and 2018 graduates were invited to pitch in groups for production funding of $6,000 for a short film on the topic ‘Accessing Architecture’. Each contending team pitched a short film proposal which was judged by a panel led by Emile Sherman, MD of See-Saw Films, Oscar-winning producer (The King’s Speech, Lion, Shame, Top of the Lake), Georgie McLean, Acting CEO at AFTRS, and Dr Gene Sherman, AM, founder and director of SCCI.
The Caretakers is a 5 minute documentary that explores everyday devotion to spiritual architectural spaces through the prism of three caretakers from an Islamic mosque, Jewish synagogue and Buddhist temple. Inspired by the SCCI brief, ‘Access to Architecture’, the film aims to give intimate, personal access to the locations these people care for, by inviting viewers to experience spaces they may otherwise never think to set foot inside. Celebrating architecture as a phenomenal medium for cultural expression, this film seeks to challenge the notion that sacrosanct spaces are exclusionary and aims to bridge the chasm between curiosity and prejudice to further cross-cultural understanding.
“I’ve always had a love of the awe-inspiring architecture of spiritual spaces, and after the recent attack against the Muslim community at Christchurch, was further inspired to use documentary as a method of healing with its ability to share knowledge and create understanding. Sydney is a vastly multicultural city but many people don’t have the time or opportunity to step outside their own world and into another person’s. With the Caretakers, I ask a caretaker from a spiritual space to guide the viewer into their world, from their perspective, and share what they are compelled to share with the viewer.” – Kate Vinen (director)
In addition to receiving funding and use of AFTRS production facilities and equipment, once completed, the short now has the chance to be screened at an SCCI 2019 ‘Accessing Architecture’ Hub event at AFTRS in October.
The Caretakers credits:
Director: Kate Vinen
Producer: Jayden Rathsam Hüa
DOP: Petra Leslie
Composer: Daniel O’Brien
Editor: Liam Clark