Film director Jub Clerc's much-hyped debut is set to sweep Australian screens but first, she's returning to the Kimberley for the sweetest of homecomings.
Sweet As, the tale of an Indigenous girl named Murra who is sent on a traveling photo safari for at-risk teens against a stunning West Australian backdrop, has attracted awards and acclaim since premiering in August.
It was crowned the best Asian film at September's prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, an honour never previously bestowed on an Australian feature.
Roadshow Films has snapped up the distribution rights ahead of its 2023 release in cinemas across Australia and New Zealand.
Bringing it home
But it's a Saturday night in November that Clerc has circled on her calendar, with the film to screen in her hometown for the inaugural CinefestOZ Broome festival.
"It's what I've been waiting for," she told AAP during an interview in Broome.
"I just can't wait for mob to see it. I wrote it with countrymen in mind and young Indigenous kids as well, teens and young adults.
"To have it shown in my hometown ... that'll mean so much to me."
Jub Clerc, director of Sweet As poses for a photograph overlooking Roebuck Bay in Broome, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Source: AAP / RICHARD WAINWRIGHT/AAPIMAGE
The a Nyul Nyul and Yawuru woman grew up living between Port Hedland and Broome and went on a National Geographic photo safari herself before becoming involved in the arts through her family.
Her uncle, Jimmy Chi, wrote the musical Bran Nue Dae and she spent her teenage years performing in the traveling stage production, which later became a hit film.
"With us mob, the arts are in our blood. We didn't have a written language, so everything was sung and danced and painted," she said.
After graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1997, she continued down the path of theatre acting.
'That is actually, actually me'
But she found herself drawn backstage after becoming frustrated by a lack of Indigenous voices in local productions.
"I spent so much time in rehearsals rewriting scripts that weren't written by Indigenous people but were about us," she said.
"I got a bit tired of that after a while. You know, something's not right here. Because I'd go to the opening night and everyone would be patting the writer on the back and I'm like 'but we wrote that'."
An opportunity emerged when ScreenWest's newly-appointed Indigenous film co-ordinator visited the Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company in Perth seeking new content.
Clerc put her hand up and collaborated with her mother to create her first short film, the supernatural thriller Storytime.
"They gave me 75 grand to do it which is like, they just don't do it anymore! I had no experience. I just had an idea," she says.
"It was amazing. I got given a chance and the rest is history."
Elevating Indigenous voices has remained front of mind for Clerc while writing and directing for film, stage and television.
She recalls watching the short film Two Cars, One Night by Maori filmmaker Taika Waititi and being absorbed and inspired by its authenticity.
"It was the first time I saw something where I went 'that is actually, actually me'," she said.
It's an experience Clerc hopes viewers can also take from Sweet As, which features a cast led by rising Indigenous star Shantae Barnes-Cowan.
"You can only imagine what our young Indigenous kids are going through, especially because the Kimberley has the highest rate of youth suicides in Australia," she said.
"I always hope that there's something there that resonates with them, that might just help change their life trajectory."
Staff and crew members of Sweet As pose for a photo during the premiere of Sweet As at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) in August. Source: AAP / DIEGO FEDELE/AAPIMAGE
Indigenous story-telling centred
That extends behind the lens, with CinefestOZ Broome set to feature community days when kids will be invited to learn from local filmmakers, a makeup artist and a stunt person.
The festival's organisers decided early that all featured productions had to be written and directed by Indigenous filmmakers.
"That's something we've been really passionate about," CinefestOZ Indigenous film co-ordinator and Goolarri Media chief executive Jodie Bell said.
"It can be the most beautiful Indigenous story but if it's told through a non-Indigenous lens ... then that doesn't make it an Indigenous story for us.
"We want to be able to tell our story through our lens, and this is the time when we can do it."
The festival will start small, running across four days with screenings at the century-old Sun Pictures outdoor theatre.
But there are grand plans for it to become an annual fixture which will drive tourism in the period before the wet season.
"It's a first step of showing a different side of the Indigenous community that people don't always necessarily see or want to recognise," Bell said.
"And our films tell a wide range of stories. Ivan Sen's film Loveland is a sci-fi romance set in Hong Kong. In that sense, it's a completely different story ... but it's through an Indigenous lens."
Jub Clerc (left) director of Sweet As and Jodie Bell, CinefestOZ Indigenous Film Coordinator and CEO of Goolarri Media pose for a photograph outside Sun Pictures cinema in Broome. Source: AAP / RICHARD WAINWRIGHT/AAPIMAGE
Hope for the homemade
For Clerc, 2023 looms as a big year with hopes Sweet As will be picked up by other major film festivals before hitting Australian screens.
Not that she's letting her imminent fame get to her.
While developing the film, she contacted a photographer who had been on the safari she went on as a teenager.
At the time, she had "the biggest crush on him in the universe" - an experience mirrored by Murra in Sweet As.
"The great thing was I had to reach out and say that I was doing this film and that he might see it and recognise the trip," she laughs.
"And he went, 'I'm sorry, I don't know who this is'."
While it's very much a personal story, Clerc hopes Sweet As and its tale of personal discovery will find a big audience.
"We've had three or four screenings at each festival and they've all been to full houses, and people from every demographic have come up to me and said something that they loved about it," she said.
"I hope it resonates with the community and my hometown and everybody that watches it."
The CinefestOZ Broome festival runs from November 3-6.
This AAP article was made possible by support from the Meta Australian News Fund and The Walkley Foundation.
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