Kill Off at St Kilda!

Hi, my name is Christine Blanch and I am a student at Bus Stop Films.

In May I had the opportunity to attend the St Kilda Film Festival as a representative of Bus Stop Films. Out of thousands of entries, our film Kill Off was chosen by the Festival as one of the Top 100 Australian films for 2017. Woo hoo!

Christine Blanch representing Bus Stop Films at the St Kilda Film Festival.

The first night was the Opening Night and I went to VIP event which was held before the official opening. I felt very special and honoured to be there. It was really nice to share the excitement with Genevieve who had come to attend the festival in order to deliver a filmmaking workshop to local people with a disability!

Genevieve delivering a master class on mise-en-scene to local people with an intellectual disability as part of the St Kilda Film Festival

Genevieve teaches locals about how to understand film beyond the story.

After the VIP event we went to the official Opening Night at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda next to Luna Park. This beautiful theatre is amazing. It is being restored and will look even more spectacular when it is finished. I was blown away by it. It was all lit up with spotlights and lots of colour for the night and there was a huge crowd outside.

Genevieve and I walked along the red carpet and had our photos taken by photographers. It was great fun. We were dressed up for the occasion and I felt like a superstar with too much hairspray in my hair!

Christine and Genevieve sharing the red carpet!

St Kilda Red Carpet 2017 JIM LEE PHOTO

The opening night was awesome and we saw some very interesting short films. They were all really inspiring and different.

After this we went to the after party. It was a very enjoyable experience being in amongst all the other filmmakers. It was great and everyone was there celebrating their achievements and we were celebrating our movie and achievements. We had a toast to everyone that worked on Kill Off and made it such a great film.

The next night was the night that Kill Off was being screened. We caught a tram to the St Kilda Town Hall where the screening was happening. After sitting in the festival lounge for a while we went into the hall and saw several great short films including Kill Off which was definitely the best one!

I had a fantastic time at the festival, it was a wonderful experience and I felt very lucky to have had the opportunity to go and represent my class.

It is so awesome that the stories of people with disabilities and also refugees could be represented at the festival through our film Kill Off being shown, I loved being there as a filmmaker and being proud of the team I was a part of and the film we made together.

If you’re keen to get a taste, check out the Kill Off trailer!

Next stop for Kill Off is Japan where it will be screening at Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia this month in June and is nominated for a diversity award! Look out world, inclusive filmmaking is taking over!

By Christine Blanch