WINNERS of the Koorie Youth Flick Fest were invited to Federation Square in Melbourne for a special screening of their films last month.<\/p>\n
The Flick Fest is a short film competition for Indigenous young people in Central Victoria and part of the Victorian Indigenous Film Festival.<\/p>\n
This year the theme was Me on Country, and filmmakers were assisted by First Nations content creator Leroy Miller, facilitated by the City of Greater Bendigo, to create their movies.<\/p>\n
Along with Montana Moore, Kobe McCaig created an award winning film 2 Sides,<\/em> which he said examined different lifestyles of First Nations peoples and how they connect to country.<\/p>\n A Bendigo Secondary School student and Wemba Wemba man, McCaig said the idea behind the film was to show Indigenous people don\u2019t have to be doing \u201csomething cultural\u201d to feel connected to the land.<\/p>\n \u201cOur connection is always there no matter what,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like there is pressure on Aboriginal people to know so much about culture, but unfortunately that\u2019s not always possible with what\u2019s happened in the past for our people.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to show that it doesn\u2019t make us less Aboriginal.\u201d<\/p>\n McCaig said he believed the film did so well because of its message.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething that many people could relate to,\u201d he said, \u201cespecially when you are still learning about your culture and history.\u201d<\/p>\n La Trobe University\u2019s tech team helped create their film said McCaig.<\/p>\n Without the support of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program coordinator Sue Pickles from BSSC, McCaig said he\u2019s \u201cnot sure I would\u2019ve had a go.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe decided on the story then filmed over a couple of days, I then met with them regularly to edit and finalise it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoyed the process and creating the story. If I had the chance again, I think I\u2019d like to do more, but I\u2019m unsure of what that looks like at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Flick Fest runs annually and gives young First Nations people an opportunity to show off their talents with visual stories.<\/p>\n The two winning groups won $1000 each and had their films shown at the Central Victorian Indigenous Film Festival for Reconciliation Week and at Fed Square for NAIDOC Week.<\/p>\n Entries for next year\u2019s competition will open in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WINNERS of the Koorie Youth Flick Fest were invited to Federation Square in Melbourne for a special screening of their films last month. The Flick Fest is a short film competition for Indigenous young people in Central Victoria and part of the Victorian Indigenous Film Festival. This year the theme was Me on Country, and […]<\/p>\n