Burning away beneath the very real concerns expressed throughout the two-day conference that the funding model for Australian films was not working, there were some interesting sessions that actually dealt with directing: sometimes in circumstances as different from a Screen Australia office as it’s possible to imagine.
A session on 3D (Discovering the Fourth Dimension) provided a brief interlude from the politics. Alister Grierson had directed Sanctum for James Cameron; Kimble Rendall had made Bait – he said “Sharks in a flooded supermarket” was enough of a tagline to get him in; and Chris Nelius had directed the documentary Stormsurfer 3D, following two surfers in search of huge storm-driven waves.
