Category: Making it Handmade

On the Radio!

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This morning I had the pleasure of for the second time being on Jon Faine’s Conversation Hour on 774 ABC, promoting the screening of “Making it Handmade” at MIFF.

I thought I was going to be running late, for those of you not living in Melbourne, a power line went down and hence my baby sitter, Nanna Jean was stuck at Flinders street station without a train in sight! So my wonderful partner came to the rescue and I jumped into a cab. Halfway there will applying my makeup I realised the cab was swerving a bit and looked into the rear view mirror to see the cabbies eyes slowly closing!! Promptly I began asking him questions in rapid succession and we managed to get to the ABC studios without incident!

Jon’s co-host today was actor Adam Zwar from one of my favourite Australian TV shows “Wilfred” and the other guest was John Wood of Blue Heelers fame! What a star studded line up! However, once the subject of my new wave erotic film and sex came up then all of a sudden it was like being in the studio with three giggling school boys!!

It was lots of fun but I was wondering if we would actually end up talking about “Making it Handmade!”. However I’m glad I can finally gett my dirty little secret of loving craft out into the open!!!

You can listen to the interview here.

“Making it HANDMADE” to premiere at MIFF

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Photo by Rayna Fahey

Yes finally it can be announced!!

I’ve had to sit on this one for quite a few months….which for me is hard, especially as I was soooooo excited to have it premiering in my home town!

Sorry its taken so long for me to post about this but I’ve been making other things too while I’m been finishing this movie, and finally on early Sunday June 20th after nearly three days of intense labour I pushed out a beautiful baby boy called Royce! One of the hardest projects I’ve ever had to do! Oh well I can now say I’m giving birth to two children in two months, the other of course being a film baby!

Here is the MIFF website if you want to find out more and I’d love to see you all there on Sunday August 1st. Hang around afterwards so you can pick the brains of Pip, Casey, Rayna, Gemma and myself!

Also if you haven’t checked it out there is a wonderful article written by Megan Spencer ( who will be chairing the Q and A after the screen of the film) in Frankie Magazine. I’ve always called this mag the “cool kids mag” so I’ve been joking with friends that I’m now one of the cool kids!!! hee hee what a joke, I’m really a bit of dag….and thought I was too much of weirdo to be considered even slightly cool! The above picture I stole from the lovely Gemma Jones’s blog as I haven’t been able to get into my office and scan the article yet!

Hope to see you all at the screening!

The Band nominated for Feminist Porn Awards

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I’m so thrilled! The Band has been nominated for a Feminist Porn Award! Very exciting. I would love to make the journey to Toronto for the awards but I’m back teaching this week so I’m guessing I’ll have to miss this one. Such a bummer, that is one of the dramas of living on an island at the bottom of the world! But still very excited to be in such good company!

Other good news is that my doco “Making it Handmade!” has a few paragraphs written about it in the most recent addition of IF
(Inside Film) magazine! Does this mean I’m moving from Smut maker to legitimate filmmaker??? Hee hee Like I would care either way!

Also two festivals has asked to have a look at “Making it Handmade!” so I need to return to editing. I’m nearly done, but I need to go and shot some more footage on Thursday. Nothing very exciting, just computer screens and the like, but its getting closer to being a complete rough cut so that is exciting. Next I need to get some fresh eyes to have a look and give me some feedback!

Australia’s sexploitation and erotic filmmaking history!

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Last week wasn’t as productive as I hoped. The intense and ongoing heat, knocked me out and made it impossible to sleep, but the rough cut for “Making it Handmade!” is still chugging along. I’m finding it interesting to see how over the year or so that I shot this documentary, not only did my interviewing technique improve but also my shooting skills. Yet again making another film has been a massive learning curve for me! I guess that is something that sucks me in…everytime you make another film you learn something new!

Any of you reading this are probably thinking, but what does that have to do with Australia’s sexploitation and erotic filmmaking history….to be honest not much, accept I was working on the film when I spoke with legendary Australian Erotic filmmaker John D Lamond. Like most Australian genre filmmakers you may not know his work but if you’ve seen that great documentary about ozploitation, “Not quite hollywood!” you would probably know who he is. Just to refresh your memory, he is the one being interviewed with a pole dancer in the background or you may have seen some of his film “the ABC of love and sex: Australian Style” and “Felicity”, just to name a few.

I was interested to talk with him but also a little weary as I have found male film makers of that generation to be …..how does one put this…pigs! However, John was anything but! He was lovely, humorous and extremely personable. We talked about the trials and tribulations of making erotic films in Australia, from dealing with censorship issues to trying to find cast who can act and don’t have a problem taking off their clothes. He was as wealth of information and shared so many stories about his filmmaking adventures not only here but overseas. One story that suck in my mind was how he challenged the censorship board in regards to masturbation scenes in “the ABC of love and sex: Australian Style”, inspirational and sad that still as a society that is so inundated with sexual images in our daily lives from advertising to music video clips on TV, we still are more threatened by sex than we are by violence….. It was truly an honour to speak with him and fingers crossed I get to work with him in the future.

I have always felt like I was working in a bubble here, until I went to Berlin last year and meet so many amazing women making films, so it was nice to connect with a fellow erotic filmmaker here in Australia who strives to make good erotic films with high production design, good scripts and acting. I no longer feel so alone!!! hee hee

Must return to the edit suite as I have a strict deadline to have the rough cut finished by the end of Feb. As my dad would say its time to put your head down and your bum up!

Rough Cutting “Making it Handmade!”

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Knickers Making Day from a Kaotic Kraft Kuties Gathering.

Last week, after an extremely unproductive and frustrating week, I have decided to take a rest from writing “Talk to Me”. It was driving me nuts and I kept trying to do everything else to avoid writing. As one of my music teachers said when I was a child “procrastination is the robber of time and thief of opportunity!” So rather than continue the torture I have put the script aside until I’m once again ready to face it and make a more concerted and positive go of it!

In the meantime, my hands have not been still and I have begun rough cutting “Making it Handmade!” This is bringing me considerable joy and after three days I’m nearly half way through it! Why is making films so much more fun than writing them!!!??

“Making it Handmade!” is the first real documentary I have attempted. I’ve been shooting it for about a year now and the editing skills I learnt while working as an editing assistant under the brilliant Tony Stevens last year has been invaluable. Thanks Tony you rock!

I’m hoping to have a rough cut finished by the end of Feburary, so I must return to FCP and continue.

No doubt I will write again before the end of march….but if not keep an out for an article I wrote on the Berlin Porn Film Festival in Metro Magazine.