suburbs spawn existentialism

BTS with AWOL MONK: talking to heremaia rudkin about the "what if girl"

extract from #KSZ 02 [sydney kino zine]

ironically this month's behind the scenes featured filmmaker whose amazing almost bus stop romance originally captured my imagination at newtown flicks is featured in #KSZ02. the zine was released last night on the night of kino#37 where steven kastrissios who featured last month in BTS with AWOL MONK for issue 01 had an equally enigmatic almost bus stop romance short film screen as his first ever KINO film. stop the zeitgeist bus! the trick is whether there's a trifecta... tune in next month & see.

heremaia rudkin despite being disarmingly handsome is a quintessentially bashful kiwi boy made good. although he’d never admit it.  

we shared some locally brewed beers last wknd on an erskineville pavement under the sun & talked about the recent success of his no/lo-budget film WHAT IF GIRL which was awarded the panavision industry prize at the recent cool kid on the festival block, newtown flicks as well as playing in the shortlisted “audience bites back” finale night which featured the most popular film from each previous sesh. 

upon seeing the film i made a direct beeline. he oozes a polished yet casual KINO sensibility asking big questions in small format. his film is, dare i say, like him likeable. extremely identifiable. in a savvy understated eastern suburbs kinda way. despite being an inner west fest, the dilemma universal.

a graduate of NZ film school, heremaia dabbles in video production by day to pay bills but his passion for story telling takes him into the wonderful world of film at night. and yes his nan helped finance his short. hello australian film industry.

newtown flicks is the test fest for the film & it’s an undeniably great result & infinitely valuable springboard. newtown flicks provides a respected forum & veritable hotbed of talent lurking beneath the cinematic radar while gallantly competing this year with the competitive film calendar by going head to head with the 57th sydney film festival. a scheduling nightmare but still viable due to the scope of the programme. closing night was near full with all bums accounted for on seats.

encouraged heremaia now looks to his new town to provide the stimulus & setting for many more films with an avant garde music video in the works & a very different story. We talk 7D. canon has really hit the indie filmmaker sweet spot — there’s an observable trend. every other indie filmmaker is ditching their large format HDV cameras & downsizing/upgrading to the canon DSLR with HD video range.

his challenge [a problem common to many emerging financially-strapped filmmakers] however is to build a tribe to work with.

like the born-again pimp i am, i tell him about the new cine religion at fraser studios one monday a month & he promises to come. one thing there is no shortage of in sydney is a film subculture coupled with a community which supports & nurtures fresh talent. whether or not he does come, there is no “what if” about heremaia's promising screen future.

NB. images used are copyright the filmmaker [heremaia rudkin]. thanks to heremaia for use of pics]

BTS with AWOL MONK is a regular behind the scenes segment which can be found in every issue of kino sydney's zine produced by punk monks clare devlin-mahoney, alexander papasavvas & kate taylor with contributions from other kino lovers. [#ksz]