Short doco on the silver screen

A BACCHUS Marsh filmmaker is set to have his documentary aired at a prestigious film festival, which starts next month.

Brayden Pope has been producing and editing video content for the last 13 years, starting with YouTube and social media in 2011.

Since then he has edited a range of social media pages, including TikTok channel JakeyJakeBlogs, which has more than 500,000 followers.

But it’s a documentary about his friend, singer-songwriter Gabriel Lynch, which has earned Pope the honour of a place at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in July.

Pope said the short-form documentary, Gabriel Lynch: Where I’m Going Next, had been a tricky one to produce, given it was made during the COVID-affected year of 2021.

“The film…tells the story of my friend Gabriel Lynch who has been a singer-songwriter in Melbourne since 2006,” he said.

“It follows not only his story of creating original music but also how difficult it has become to actually get any recognition in the Australian independent music industry.

“It was at the point that Gabriel actually found more success, venturing into the Southeast Asian markets that were more receptive and welcoming of emerging artists and original music.”

The idea for the documentary came about during Pope’s Bachelor of Film and Television Broadcasting studies at JMC Academy in Melbourne.

“Obviously the film was produced on zero production budget, and the COVID restrictions at the time of filming in 2021 meant I had to rely on interviewing Gabriel via a video call,” he said.

“The whole process from start to finish of filming and editing in the footage and b-roll was around three months. I cut down to a two-hour interview into a nice tight ten-minute package.

“It is of course a massive honour to be showing the film as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. It seems like a nice note for the film to be finishing its festival run here in Melbourne, and I’m super excited to be able to go in-person and view and celebrate the film with local people as well as family and friends.”

Pope has started his own production company with friends called Another Pint Productions and plans to produce a feature length version of Gabriel Lynch: Where I’m Going Next in the future.

“We are also in the writing process for another short film currently that’ll hopefully be coming to festivals next year,” he said.

The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival runs during Documentary Month, from 1 to 31 July.