SBS / NITV digital originals have a history of corrosive short films, but they are also being screened for broadcast and SBS on request.
This year there are three new films, the first being MoonbirdA co-production of 6 x 10 minutes between the very first Tasmanian Aboriginal screen production company, Kutikina Productions and Sheoak films.
It comes as a poetic story in Indie style on a remote Lutritwita / Tasmanian island. In essence, a story with two hands, it opens a world that I have not seen on the screen before: Muttonbirding.
‘Cracka’ Beeton (Kyle Morrison), who is approaching in more detail for 12 months, takes his alienated 13 -year -old son Sonny (Lennox Monaghan) to an isolated windy island to learn the native tradition of sheep birds. He hopes to spend time together, before Sonny is taken to Alaska by his non-native mother and partner, that it will make up for lost time and set some appreciation for his heritage.
“Our crowd needs these birds as the Chinese crowd needs rice,” cracka.
But a week on an island with little more than a few huts, a dying generator and hundreds of sheep meat bulls, is not Sonny’s idea of quality of father’s sun.
When his father shows him the practice to reach in a cave to pull out chicks to kill, Sonny’s modern sensitivities kick into effect.
“I don’t believe in killing innocent sea birds!” -Sonny.
But it seems that he doesn’t have to have to … inexplicably the caves are empty. Cracka’s vision on a perfect week fraying by the hour.
While the story unfolds, father and son will be forced to work together while a family history is discovered by Sonny.
The metaphor of the ‘Pilot Bird’ with a relentless ride to his house also underlines a sensitive story of family, indigenous culture and masculinity.
Director Nathan Maynard-Wie is also a co-maker and co-writer calls a unique sense of time and place. You can almost feel the cool wind crying over the grassy island, while Dan Maxwell’s cinematography records some magical sunsets.
The story is more dependent on visual and the relationship between his two characters than on dialogue. When Lennox Monaghan, whose talent is perfect for his younger years, unraveling his father, it is difficult not to feel for the inner pain of a boy.
But the story is also somewhat uneven and could do with more of the subtlety it finds in other places. So much is achieved by his soft cinematic qualities that a few large movements land awkwardly.
Special mention must also go to the soundtrack by composers Matthew Fargher and Catherine Joy, which contributes to the atmosphere of insulation and a lost tradition.
If the idea of SBS / NITV is digital originals to discover new talent, then Moonbird Did that exactly and I look forward to the next project of Nathan Maynard.
Moonbird screens 20:30 Thursday on NITV / SBS On Demand.
#Moonbird #tonight