Kiwis Get Creative In Lockdown

Everyone from first time film makers to seasoned pros have embraced ingenuity in lockdown, submitting their short films to virtual film festival, Isofest.

Founded by the crew at local film production company Eight, Isofest was created pre lockdown to keep Eight’s stable of directors inspired and the admin team motivated. Since launching on April 11th Isofest has quickly grown into an international short film festival with over 70 entries from Australia, New Zealand, UK, USA, Mexico, Canada, India, The Philippines, Ireland, Wales, France, Sweden and Lithuania.

A celebration of the great indoors, Isofest is a place for people to share their stories, shot at home, using whatever they have on hand. Entries under 2 minutes have come in from kids as young as ten, spanning all genres from animation and drama to horror and musical comedy. As you’d expect, with everyone being just a little off-kilter right now, the carefully curated films tend to be slightly off the wall.

Some of the quirkiest submissions include a musical tribute to Hugh Jackman, a how to shave your head instructional video and a Nordic-looking family driven to nudity and drug taking.

Eight’s Managing Director, Katie Millington says, “The festival page has been live for three weeks and we’re surprised about the attention it’s been getting. Originally Isofest was created as an internal thing, but there’s been some really strong submissions from the general public, and especially young filmmakers. Who knows, Isofest might be the way to unearth our next new directing talent”.

There’s no doubt, we are all living a monumental piece of history, and what better way to capture that than in film. The filmmakers’ role is to document the human experience; the good, the bad, the sad, the funny. Young, old, professional or amateur, every one has an equally important voice.

Katie Millington says, “We’re hoping this will be a short, short film festival, but we will keep it running for as long as we’re home bound.”

“I’m sure when we look back on all of this in a few years time we’ll see Isofest as a really interesting social documentation of what human animals got up to in captivity”.

We’re keen to hear from anyone who might be interested in trying their hand at armchair directing. Anything goes, as long as it’s shot in isolation and less than two minutes duration.

There’s never been a better time to make a film, so put the vacuum cleaner down and show us what you’ve got.

Contact page: https://www.facebook.com/IsofestOfficial/
Email film entries to isofest@eight.com.au

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