Curious about film making, and how to get your film into a festival?

As part of Melbourne Women in Film Festival, ATOM’s Fast Forward series is delighted to present an opportunity for students to meet filmmakers and film festival programmers.

Participants will gain exclusive access to different short films across two different sessions with an in depth panel discussion between filmmakers and festival programmers. Following the discussions, there will also be a live student Q & A session with the panelists.

This is a marvellous opportunity to link with VCE Media Unit 1 and Unit 3, and Media Arts curriculum linking to representation, and institutional context.

The selected short films will be announced at the start of Term 1.

• Two session times are available, aimed at different year levels. This session starts at 12 noon and is aimed at Middle Years.
• Students are welcome to attend both sessions, however please book separately for each event.
• If you are a teacher booking on behalf of your class group, please ensure you select the number of student tickets in your class.

Mother Tongue (dir. Jesslica Li)

17-year-old Jane begins to embrace her background and rekindle her relationship with her mother when she becomes immersed in Chinese culture at her younger sister’s new language school.

For the Q & A, we will be joined by

Jessica Li - Writer & Director

Jessica Li is a Melbourne-based Writer and Director. She also specialises in casting, assistant directing and portrays Ingrid in the online series Flunk.

Samantha Kwan - Producer & Editor

Samantha Kwan is a versatile editor/producer currently based in Melbourne. With an eye for visually-compelling imagery and a do-it-yourself mentality, she seeks to help others communicate their stories across borders and languages.

Heshi Wijerathna - Producer

Heshi is a young Melbourne-based producer committed to telling diverse and impactful stories through all formats. She is excited for what this future industry of diverse inclusive storytelling could look like and is excited to continue contributing to it.

Scarlette Do - Programmer

Passionate about social justice, Scarlette works with multiple feminist organisations like MWFF to advocate for gender equity. When she is not centering decolonisation through non-profit work, she researches Vietnamese cinema as a PhD student at the Australian National University

About MWFF

Melbourne Women in Film Festival is a not-for-profit festival aimed at celebrating and supporting the work of women filmmakers and creatives – from directors, writers and producers to cinematographers, sound designers and editors.

Sian Mitchell is a lecturer in screen at Deakin University and Festival Director at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival where she loves finding and sharing incredible stories made for the screen with others. Sian's research has been published in areas of Australian and women’s screen practice have been published in journals and industry blogs, including Camera Obscura, Peephole Journal, NFSA, and the AFI Research Collection.

Melanie Ashe is a teaching associate at RMT University and the Education Co-ordinator at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival, where she has facilitated school screenings and run filmmaking workshops for young and aspiring filmmakers.

The 2021 festival will take place from February 17 to 21. Visit the MWFF website for more information: https://mwff.org.au/

About ATOM’s Fast Forward Program:

The FAST FORWARD program is offered as part of the Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series. Events run as part of the program are designed to support our ATOM community to:

• Give students additional media activities
• Provide opportunities to extend their thinking
• Encourage and inspire students in future media industry careers!

Please Note:

• This event will be held online via Zoom Webinar. Attendees will receive access to the films and login information for the session via email in the lead up to the event.
• ATOM's FAST FORWARD program is supported by DET through the Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series.