Through the lens of young local filmmakers

Photo & story Eve Jeffery

Three young Mullumbimby filmmakers have been shortlisted for the Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Award at the 2020 Byron Bay Film Festival.

This is not the first nomination for Jahvis Loveday, Joy Ben Hur and Alysse Burford’s film Home, which won the Jury Award earlier in the year at Byron All Shorts.

Loveday, who is a local Indigenous man, says he is honoured for their film to be selected among such a diverse array of films from across Australia.

‘I am proud to represent and celebrate my home, especially since this festival is held on Arakwal land’.

Home is the story of a young girl from a small town who must leave her home to forge her own path in the world. Everything she remembers that was horrible about her home, become the things she will miss the most. 

First film together

The trio collaborated to write the film, Jahvis and Joy directed and shot it, and Alysse provided the talent.

‘This was the first proper film we ever made together’, said Loveday, who is currently working on an Indigenous short film with his little brother. It’s about the fear of losing the magic of family and community when we are away from them. ‘It’s kind of like a Home 2!’

‘It feels pretty surreal to be up for the award considering we wrote and shot it in a single day and night, and yet it’s taken us so many incredible places, and now it has dropped us at this door too’. Loveday said he feels it is important that young people are given this type of recognition.

‘When you are young, this is the moment where all the drama is, the emotion, the growth, the story.

‘If we are able to see that people do love and recognise our stories, we are more likely to be open with our stories, open to change and to grow’.

‘We definitely are looking to make more short films – I think it is an amazing tool, to be able to tell a story within two minutes. It’s a beautiful art form, and it is so achievable to anyone these days with even just a smartphone and a story’.

The Byron Bay Film Festival runs from October 23 until November 1.

For more information visit www.bbff.com.au.