WIFT member Leanne Pooley's new film "25 APRIL" is having its Australian premiere at a special Armistice Day Screening at the Canberra Film Festival on�Armistice Day, November 11th.
The film will be introduced by Leanne and producer Matthew Metcalfe who are also doing a Q & A after the screening. We wish Leanne all the best for this event - if you happen to be in Canberra on November 11, try and attend this screening.
The film will screen here in April 2016. This innovative documentary brings the story of the ANZAC experience at Gallipoli to life for a new generation of viewers. Inspired by graphic novels, the filmmakers use animation to go beyond the limitations of the usual black-and-white archive images of the war.
Weaving together animated "interviews" based on diaries, letters and memoirs of six people who were actually there, the film tells its story in the words of those who experienced it.
Matthew Metcalfe, a former Canberran, came up with the idea to re-tell the Gallipoli story using modern animation techniques. He says, "Over time, the story has become legend steeped in myth - so much so that very few can now recount what really happened. I saw Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir and I was really moved by what he achieved, and I began to think we could animate a documentary about Gallipoli."
A combination of animation crafts were used to build this very immediate depiction of war including traditional animation, hand-drawn backgrounds, digital 2D integrated with 3D modelling and CGI for the characters and the motion capture for the interviews.
The result is a film that will refresh the Gallipoli story, and CIFF is pleased to be presenting the film's Australian premiere.