Phone Flick Secures Trip To Toronto

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday June 24, 2008

with Amy Edwards and Anita Beaumont

CENTRAL Coast filmmaker and former Newcastle Shoot Out winner Jason van Genderen has won the Sydney Film Festival's MobileMovies award.

Van Genderen scooped the pool with a 60-second movie, filmed entirely on a mobile phone and based around Gosford CBD.

It revealed a story of desperation as the city's business district struggles to keep retailers from fleeing to the bigger shopping complexes, but also conveyed a message of hope by inviting people back into Gosford's heart.

My Town is Broken received a rousing applause at its screening in front of a packed house at Sydney's State Theatre on Saturday night.

"To be honest I really expected a comedy to win," van Genderen said yesterday.

The three-time Shoot Out Film Festival winner certainly isn't resting on his laurels. After directing last year's political documentary Lockout (based on the Rothbury mine riots in 1929), van Genderen has already commenced production of a documentary on the struggles of the Tasmanian devil.

His film festival prize included a trip to the Toronto Film Festival.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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