Freshly Squeezed Shorts 2

Sunday 24th March, 11:30am
90 mins, Cinema 2, ACMI

This session is Unclassified 15+.

The Melbourne Women in Film Festival is proud to showcase the work of women and gender diverse filmmakers and storytellers. This means that we sometimes include films or panel topics that may explore difficult subjects and be confronting for some audiences. Our aim is to ensure our audience has a safe and enjoyable experience when coming along to our festival and so we have included content warnings, classification and cultural information throughout the program.

Please take the time to read the film synopses below to determine whether the session is suitable for you.

From stories of connection, strength and resistance, to a chance sighting of Savage Garden's Darren Hayes, Freshly Squeezed Shorts 2 showcases the latest and best short films from our region's women and gender diverse filmmakers.

  • A surprised looking woman with blonde hair, wearing a pink dress and jacket is standing in a graffitied alley way. A man with brown hair, a navy suit suit and tan jumper, in a wheelchair is behind her looking stunned.

    Head Over Wheels

    Elle and Luke meet each other on the way to their respective blind dates - their chance encounter unexpectedly turns their evening upside down.

    Starring Australian of Year (2022) paralympian and advocate Dylan Allcott AM.

    Australia, 2023, 8 minutes
    English
    Director: Genevieve Clay Smith
    Writer: Genevieve Clay Smith
    Producer: Dianna La Grassa

  • A woman dressed in a 1920s style white shirt, dark pants, and olive coloured cap is holding up and looking at a celluloid film strip. She is in a cluttered room with a lamp and fabric in the background. In front of her are two empty metal film reels.

    I want to make a film about women

    ‘I want to make a film about women’ is a queer, speculative, documentary love letter to Russian constructivist women. It asks what the revolutionary women artists of the 1920s said, what they did, and what they might have created had it not been for Stalin's suppression.

    Australia, 2020, 12 minutes
    English, Russian
    Director: Karen Pearlman
    Writer: Karen Pearlman
    Producers: Richard James Allen, Karen Pearlman

  • Pink-tinted negative photo of two naked pregnant bellies

    Call Me Mommy

    A pedantic mother-to-be hires a stranger to role-play as her unborn daughter..

    Australia, 2023, 13 minutes
    English
    Directors: Haley Alea Erickson, Taylor Washington
    Writer: Haley Alea Erickson
    Producers: Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty, David Tenczar, Brittany Reeber

  • A young woman with brown hair is lying on her back on a pink patterned blanket. She is wearing green headphones, heart-shaped white rimmed sunglasses, and a white t-shirt with black horizontal strips. Surrounding her is a pink camera and a muffin.

    Snapshot

    Snapshot follows the relationship between two sisters, Sophie (18) and Alex (15), at a family BBQ one summer afternoon. When a video of Sophie is posted online without her consent, Alex is the only one who jumps to her sister’s aid. Snapshot examines the psychological effects of victim blaming and image-based abuse, as well as the undeniable power of sisterhood

    Australia, 2022, 14 minutes
    English
    Director: Becki Bouchier
    Writer: Becki Bouchier
    Associate Producers: Sally Brown, Luda Smelyanskaya

  • An image of a young man from the waist up. He has brown hair and is wearing a dark hoodie and blue jeans. There are four posters of men on the walls behind him.

    Transpiration

    Young Australian Aiden Blyton revisits his experience of growing up as a gay, transgender boy at an all girls’ high school. He reveals the impact of the pressures to stay silent about his pain, even around his closest friends. Through his conversations with long-term friend and filmmaker, Maggie Brittingham, the two realise the importance of their support and friendship.

    “Just because you feel alone, it doesn’t mean that you are alone” - Aiden Blyton

    Australia, 2019, 11 minutes
    English
    Director: Maggie Brittingham
    Writer: Maggie Brittingham
    Producer: Holly Volkmer

  • Two women with dark hair are sitting at a cafe table. One woman has turned around and they are both looking in the same direction out of the image frame.

    So fresh: the hits of high school

    When a chance Darren Hayes sighting sends two estranged friends on an impulsive pursuit of their 90s pop idol, simmering tensions boil over as rose-coloured nostalgia confronts difficult truths about the past.

    Australia, 2023, 13 minutes
    English
    Director: Hayley Beveridge
    Writer: Serah Nathan
    Producer: Claudia Sheperd

  • A close up image of two Māori girls. One girl is standing above the other with her hands on either side of the second girls' head. The second girl has her eyes shut.

    E Rangi Rā

    In the midst of inter-tribal warfare, a young girl is separated from her mother. In her journey to safety, she befriends a young man who has also been separated from his whānau.

    E Rangi Rā is set in the early 1800s following Ngāpuhi’s attack on Te Whānau a Hinerupe. Armed with European muskets this attack had a devastating long-lasting impact on Te Whānau a Hinerupe and their descendants.

    Aotearoa NZ, 2022, 12 minutes
    Māori
    Director: Tioreore Ngatai Melbourne
    Writer: Tioreore Ngatai Melbourne
    Producers: Matilda Poasa, Libby Hakaraia, Madeleine Hakaraia de Young

  • Patterns of the Afternoon

    Two women, at contrasting moments in their lives, cross paths one afternoon as they move into and out of an apartment block.

    Australia, 2022, 10 minutes
    English
    Director: Maddelin McKenna
    Writer: Maddelin McKenna
    Producer: Claudia Nankervis