The Castlemaine Documentary Festival is teaming up with the Castlemaine Fringe Festival and the Theatre Royal tonight to present the premiere screening of Walking The Fish.
Celebrating 30 years of the Castlemaine Fringe Festival, this film by Michael Harkin commemorates how it all began.
This premiere will also be accompanied by a stand-out selection of your audience favourites from Castlemaine Documentary Festival’s LOCALS 2022 short film entries.
This evening is a chance to learn more about how the beloved Fringe began and immerse yourself in local stories told by talented local voices through the medium of film.
C-Doc director Claire Jager said they were thrilled to be partnering with Castlemaine Fringe and Theatre Royal on this special occasion.
“And it’s great for some of those brave LOCALS to have their work screened live again – there’s nothing quite like being among a live audience to make you feel it was all worth it!” Jager said.
“There’s so many inspiring people in our town, with an abundance of great stories to tell. It’s a never-ending supply – not only of the contemporary, but also parts of our broad community history,” she said.
“It’s all worth celebrating, and fortunately for us plenty of people want to use the varied forms of documentary to shine the light of these stories back into our orbit.
“And of course the grand finale of the night is Michael Harkin’s Walking The Fish taking us back to the first Fringe 30 years ago,” she said.
Michael Harkin, one of the original Fringe organisers, said he was honoured to be asked to create something to mark the organisation’s 30th anniversary.
With interviews of the original participants, footage of the festival and tales of scandal and intrigue, this film invites appreciation for the rich history of community arts that we all enjoy.
“We’ve been really fortunate in obtaining rare archival footage of the very first festival in 1992,” Harkin said, “and those who were involved at the time have generously shared their memories, contributing to an important historical document about the arts in our community.”
The event begins at 7pm. For tickets visit www.eventbrite.com.au
The Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival will return June 16-19 kicking off with LOCALS 2.0.
After the roaring success of LOCALS at the 2022 event, this year the festival is again calling for aspiring and established local filmmakers to create some brand new short documentaries that tell the inside story of Castlemaine and surrounds.
To kick things along they have recently held a development workshop and masterclass, followed by an hands-on editing workshop run by Bergen O’Brien to support new work for 2023.
C-Doc is looking for short documentaries on the people and places that define our wonderful part of the world.
They could be profiles of inspiring locals, captivating historical tales, or contemporary stories about issues that are important to our neighbourhood, the brief is incredibly broad and is up to you! Visit cdocff.com.au/locals-2023 for details on how to get involved.
