By Benjamin Millar
Yarraville Special Developmental School is hoping to have plenty of reasons to smile when the winners of a national short film competition are announced.
The school’s documentary, My Painted Smile, is a finalist in the NOVA Employment 2019 Focus On Ability Short Film Awards.
Celebrating their 11th birthday, the awards encourage filmmakers to focus on the ability of people with disability. Last year’s festival attracted 245 entries, including 104 school entries.
Yarraville Special Developmental School teacher Greg Gozdz said the school’s short film was a collabortion between himself and student Tommy.
“Tommy has been drawing little Pokémon-inspired creatures for a long time now, but it’s been only recently that Tommy began drawing and animating them on his school iPad,” Mr Gozdz said.
“My Painted Smile is a short film capturing some of that process.”
Mr Gozdz said the story captured how Tommy used art to escape into his own fantastical world.
“The film is a result of combining Tommy’s art works and his own reflective writing,” he said.
Yarraville Special Developmental School is in the running to win a $5000 Harvey Norman voucher and DVD library package for the school with the most online votes or one of five $1000 prizes.
“Even though we’re confident that the judges will enjoy our film, if our local community gets behind us we have a great chance of winning the most online votes,” Mr Gozdz said.
Voters have a chance to win a $50 iTunes voucher. Voting closes on July 3 at focusonability.com.au
