Back to Back film screened at Melbourne International Film Festival

Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre has cast a shadow on this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) with their latest film.

The award-winning theatre company for actors with disabilities has created SHADOW – a short film adaptation of their stage production THE SHADOW WHOSE PREY THE HUNTER BECOMES – which had three hometown screenings at The Pivotonian cinema on Sunday.

Filmed on location in and around Geelong, including the Geelong Arts Centre and the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre in December 2020, it follows the success of the company’s debut short film ODDLANDS.

Directed by Back to Back artistic director and co-chief executive officer Bruce Gladwin, the darkly humorous 56-minute film is about a group of activists who hold a public meeting, desperate to save the world.

But as the meeting unravels, they discover the greatest threat to their future is already in the room.

SHADOW premiered at the South by South West Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March of this year, winning the Audience Award in its category. It was also nominated for the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award at MIFF.

Some of the cast and crew of SHADOW attended Sunday’s 6pm screening of the film, and took part in a Q&A session with the audience afterwards.

SHADOW producer Alice Fleming said the three film’s main cast members – Scott Price, Sarah Mainwaring and Simon Laherty – were not at the screening because they were on tour performing THE SHADOW WHOSE PREY THE HUNTER BECOMES in the Dutch city of Groningen.

The film is presented much more expansively than the original play, which has a simple set of five chairs in a row.

Gladwin said Back to Back Theatre chose THE SHADOW WHOSE PREY THE HUNTER BECOMES to be its big screen project for several reasons, including its small number of locations and small budget.

“Thinking as a director, you are kind of going ‘what are going to be good roles for people?’

“And ultimately, we went down this pathway of direct audience address. In the theatre show, the actors are lined up like this [on chairs] and they’re just talking to the audience. In the theatre show, it was a great development for the actors because we’d never made a work that was direct audience address.

“When you transition to film, the audience is different, so we had to create an audience on screen. I like the idea that we could create a series of portraits that the cinematic audience are watching as well.”

Guests at the 6pm screening included Corangamite federal member Libby Coker, Geelong MP Christine Couzens, and City of Greater Geelong councillor Jim Mason.

The City of Greater Geelong provided $20,000 in funding for the film as an Arts Industry Commission in partnership with UNESCO Creative City of Design.

Geelong deputy Mayor Trent Sullivan, who also chairs the council’s creative communities and culture portfolio, said the commissions were a direct response to the impact of COVID-19 on the arts, entertainment, creative and cultural industries.

“After the company’s international touring schedule was put on hold during the global pandemic, the film created opportunities for people with disabilities both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.”