For several days in late October in the Upper Mountains, the hopes of one emerging Melbourne writer came to life on film.
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The Last Babushka Doll, with well known Blue Mountains actors Tiriel Mora and Joanne Samuel part of the action, directed by Angelo Salamanca, is a life and death drama filmed in the Mountains. These two local actors were aided by Anne-Louise Lambert the leading lady from the iconic Australian film, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and many others.
It followed a crowd funding campaign which saw $6,371 raised by 64 donors, with Varuna the Writers House, Bendigo Bank (auspiced by the Blue Mountains Artists Network), the Hydro, Hotel Blue and many more Mountains businesses pitching in to get it off the ground.
A spokeswoman for Bendigo Bank, Jane Canfield, said the bank was excited to be a part of the process and had “sponsored a couple of theatrical productions in the last few weeks”.
For writer Georgina Luck it was a dream come true. The 15 minute short film was based on a story she wrote which was published by Margaret River Press in 2012.
“The way the community has rallied has helped us make our artistic dream come true,” Ms Luck, who is also the film’s executive producer, said.
The film explores a paramedic’s most confronting case – with seven seconds to decide, will he follow the rules to prolong a patient’s suffering or risk his career by ending the patient’s pain?
The reference to the Babushka doll comes from the main character re-painting her doll every day to keep up the spirits of her husband.
“We raised initial funds for the film via a Pozible campaign with matching funds from Creative Partnerships Australia and were delighted that people from the Blue Mountains community donated,” Ms Luck said.
“But the support didn’t stop there. We held a scriptreading at a MTNS MADE salon organised by Kelly Heylen from the Blue Mountains Economic Enterprise, who’s been instrumental in helping us get the project up and running.”
“Actor Beth Champion helped us cast the local actors for the reading and we were also introduced to our composer Peter Long and director of photography Scott Richardson, who in turn offered us equipment sponsorship and got on board our sound recordist, gaffer and camera crew,” she said
Other talented locals making up the crew included first assistant director Julia Morris, sound recordist Paul Knight, art director Aisha Kirkby, art department assistant Andie Isalie, stills photographer/production assistant Angus Whalan and camera operator Glen Richardson.
The film was shot around locations which included the CMS Conference Centre, the Katoomba Youth Centre and parts of Medlow Bath and showcases the natural beauty of the Mountains. It is now being edited and is expected to have a gala screening in Katoomba in April.
