SAFC: Film Lab teams announced

Film LabTeam Bios
Team 1
Closer Productions
Sophie Hyde – Director
Sophie Hyde is co-director of Closer Productions. She makes drama and documentary films, as
well as working as a video artist for dance and text based performance. Her documentaries
include the upcoming Bittersweet Freedom for SBS, Ok, Let’s Talk About Me (nominated for an
ATOM award 2005), Beyond Beliefs (which screened in federal parliament in 2008) and Risking It
All: Initial D (part of a series for SBS). Her short film My Last Ten Hours With You continues to
screen at festivals internationally and has won numerous awards including the Sydney Mardi
Gras Best Short Film and the Melbourne Queer Film Festival’s Emerging Filmmaker Award and
audience choice award as well as Best Direction, Best Drama and Best Film awards at the SA
Short Screen Awards. Sophie recently directed Necessary Games, three short dance films with
Restless Dance Theatre, that premiered, at the Adelaide Film Festival 2009 and won Best Short
Film at the SA Screen Awards.
Matthew Cormack – Writer
Matthew Cormack works with Closer Productions across many of its projects. With a background
in performance and self-devised theatre, Matthew’s first film script resulted in Closer’s awardwinning
short drama My Last Ten Hours With You. As part of his collaboration with Closer,
Matthew is developing a number of feature film scripts. Matt has recently begun work on a stage
play with Brink Productions as part of their Gorge ’09 project later this year. Matt is an active
committee member of the AWG SA Branch.
Bryan Mason –Producer/Cinematographer/Editor
Bryan Mason is co-director of screen media company Closer Productions. Bryan began his
career making skateboarding videos and has made four acclaimed skate films. He has won
various awards for his short film, documentary and music video work, including a host of Gold
awards from the Australian Cinematographers Society (SA/WA).
Bryan produced, shot and edited Closer Production’s most recent project Necessary Games, a
triptych of short dance films which won best film and best editing at the 2009 SASA awards.
Bryan shot and edited the short drama My Last Ten Hours With You which has won numerous
awards and travelled the world on the festival circuit. Bryan has produced and directed two, one
hour documentaries for Channel 9 about trekking the Kokoda track and journeying to Mount
Everest base camp. He has also recently completed editing the feature film, My Tehran for Sale
which premiered at the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival.
Team 2
Matthew Bate – Writer/Director
Matthew Bate co-owns and operates Plexus Films based in Kensington. Beginning his career in
drama Matt made a number of short drama films notably Turbulence and Eternity Now. In 2005
Matt changed his focus to documentary, making 42 short documentary films on Australian cultural
icons for ABC Asia Pacific’s Nexus series. His 2006 film, What The Future Sounded Like is a
visually experimental exploration into the genesis of electronic music that spans Dr Who to Pink
Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The film has screened at numerous film and music festivals
around the world. In 2008 Matt completed the first documentary co-production between SBS and
Al Jazeera on the film The Mayor, The Artist, The Farmer And His Wife, and has previously
directed episodes of the hit 2007 SBS series Risking It All. Matt has recently completed
production on Connected By Light, a film about world-renowned new media artist Lynette
Wallworth.
Julie Ryan – Producer
Producer, Julie Ryan recently formed production company, Cyan Films, with fellow producer,
Kate Croser. In 2008 Julie produced two feature films: My Tehran For Sale, shot entirely on
location in Tehran; and Broken Hill, a musical drama set in the Australian outback and produced
with Napoleon Dynamite producer Chris “Doc” Wyatt.
Prior to setting up Cyan, Julie produced five feature films and two documentaries with Rolf de
Heer at Vertigo Productions including Ten Canoes which was awarded the Special Jury Prize in
Un Certain Regard at the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival; the silent comedy Dr Plonk
(2007); the claustrophobic thriller Alexandra’s Project (2003); The Tracker (2002) which was shot
in the Flinders Ranges; and The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (2000) shot in South America
and starring Richard Dreyfuss. Julie has been nominated for a Best Film AFI Award four times
and won for Ten Canoes.
Team 3
Ashlee Page – Writer/Director
Ashlee is a writer/director based at the collective art space, HeadQuarters Studio. The Kiss is
Ashlee’s most recent short film, adapted from the acclaimed short story by Peter Goldsworthy.
The film was shot in the Adelaide Hills and is currently in post-production. Ashlee has written and
directed several short films including the comedy Layover (2004), which screened at Cork
International Film Festival, won the Melbourne Queer Film Festival Audience Award and was sold
to US cable TV channel Logo. Ashlee is the founder of eye:level screen works, a DVD content
and authoring business. Last year she was the Supervising Producer for the ‘I Can See Queerly
Now’ Initiative. Ashlee has also worked as a writer for Children’s TV with local Animation
Company Monkeystack. Currently she is a lecturer at Hamilton College’s, MAPS – Diploma in
Screen course. Continuing with their film-making collaboration, producer Sonya Humphrey and
Ashlee are at present script developing their first feature film.
Sonya Humphrey – Producer
Producer Sonya Humphrey of Sacred Cow Films is the producer of the short film, The Kiss,
directed by Ashlee Page, which is currently in post-production; and produced and co-wrote the
AFI nominated short film The 9.13. She has also worked as a production manager on Bollywood
feature Love Story 2050 and as a visual effects coordinator on the Hollywood feature Charlotte’s
Web.
Previously, Sonya was the supervising producer on the Australian Film Commission & Media
Resource Centre initiative Raw Nerve 2007 and was a judge for Raw Nerve in 2008. When not
working in drama, Sonya writes and produces a Channel 9 Lifestyle program called Feeling Good
and writes and produces many television commercials and corporate videos for Logic Films.
Team 4
The People’s Republic of Animation
Eddie White – Writer/Director
Eddie founded The People’s Republic of Animation with Hugh Nguyen and James Calvert in
2003. As the company’s Creative Director, Eddie contributes many of the visionary ideas that
inspire the studio’s work through his writing, directing and design.
Partnering with James Calvert, Eddie co-directed the short films Fritz Gets Rich (2005) and
Carnivore Reflux (2006). Both films were nominated for AFI Awards in their respective years, and
Carnivore Reflux won the trophy for Best Animation at the IF Awards in 2006.
Eddie wrote and directed the short film Sweet & Sour (2007) – Australia’s first official animated coproduction
with China – which was made in co-operation with the renowned Shanghai Animation
Film Studio. The film won Best Short Animation at the Dendy Awards and the SBS Television
Award at the St Kilda Film Festival. His most recent short film, The Cat Piano (2009), was
narrated by Nick Cave and won the 2009 Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival award for Best Short
Film. The Cat Piano has been chosen to compete in the Official Selection at this year’s
prestigious Annecy International Animation Festival.
Eddie has also written and directed TV pilots for Nickelodeon and TV commercials for Vili’s and
Mitsubishi.
Hugh Nguyen – Producer
Hugh founded The People’s Republic of Animation with Eddie White and James Calvert in 2001.
As Head of Development, Hugh oversees the development and financing of PRA’s feature film
projects, working with producers, writers and directors involved with PRA’s slate.
As PRA’s in-house producer, Hugh has produced a number of PRA’s Film and TV work including
the controversial short series, Errorrism: a comedy of terrors for TV and Mobile, The Ghastly
Gourmet Cooking Show and I was a teenage butterfly pilots for Nickeloodeon Australia, and short
films Carnivore Reflux (2006), Sweet & Sour (2007) and The Cat Piano (2009).
Hugh is also passionate about developing the local animation industry in South Australia and
helped establish a 2D animation course for the University of Adelaide, as well as the Digtopia
animation production initiative for emerging animation teams.