Australia’s premiere short film festival the St Kilda Film Festival returns to Melbourne this weekend and HEAVY Mag has had the opportunity to sit down and take a look at some of the films screening at the festival and also chat to some of the filmmakers behind the films.
One of the shorts that music lovers might want to check out is The Story directed by local filmmaker Steve J Tandy. The film, a black comedy, looks at the theme of males not letting out their emotions and talking through issues and stars none other than Aussie music royalty Tim Rogers.
Tandy laughs when I ask him to talk about the film without giving away the films huge twist. “I’ve been struggling to do that without giving away the climax,” he says. “But basically it started with me wanting to write and monologue and tap into some experiences that I had when I was a child and an adult and turn it into a sharp little monologue. I also knew that I had to write a short film that would ahve a pretty good chance of getting into film festivals so I started writing really economically and started writing a whole bunch of short films that were about 3-4 minutes long as opposed to my films that had not been accepted into festivals that were about 20 minutes long so I knew that I had to go for short and sharp and that’s how it all began.”
One of the things that stands out about The Story is the amazing acting performance by Tim Rogers and Tandy is only too happy to tell us how he landed his leading man. “He was an absolute dream to work with… I couldn’t of got luckier,” says Tandy. “Basically he got involved because I got drunk and sent a Facebook message to him… I knew him through a mutual friend. I have always been of the belief that the worst thing that anybody can say is no so it is always best to just go for it. IF they say then really you are just back at square one so it doesn’t matter. I realised that he was much bigger than me and much more famous than me and there was a good chance he would say no but I guess there was something about the script and he is a bit of weird character from what I realised and something about the role must have just spoken to him.
The Story is screening at the St Kilda Film Festival this weekend and you can get more information from www.stkildafilmfestival.com.au
