After screening in nineteen countries and winning accolades at home and abroad, the locally (South Australian) produced experimental documentary film ‘A Shift in Perception’ has pushed filmmakers Dan Monceaux and Emma Sterling into the international spotlight. Currently screening at the Burnside Library as part of the exhibition ‘Watch This Space’ until May 4^th, the film has shared the stories of three vision impaired women from the Port Adelaide Enfield area with audiences the world over.

“Since the film premiered at IDFA in the Netherlands last November (like the Cannes of documentary), it’s continued to surprise us. The film’s now screened as far a field as Uruguay and Croatia, and has won several awards at festivals in the USA and Canada. It won first prize at the Black Maria Film & Video Festival in New Jersey, and is currently in their touring program, with over seventy scheduled screenings in cinemas, art galleries, libraries and universities. Locally we’ve screened at Adelaide International Film Festival, and Sydney International Film Festival has it programmed for their prestigious event in June. The audience it’s reaching is enormous.”

For the dedicated young couple, the thrills keep coming with FreeSpeechTV, an American cable and satellite network buying a license to broadcast the work to a potential audience of 130 million viewers. The Danimations team has also been selling the film through their website to people internationally, and are currently producing a version for the education market to be distributed in Australia by Ronin Films.

“The reward of reaching such a wide audience is wonderful,” says Monceaux. “The film aimed to provide its viewers with insight into the blind person’s world, and clearly it’s a concept that appeals to regardless of culture or verbal language. The film puts you inside the heads of its subjects- Leander, Rhonda and Edna- and does so in an often abstract way. The result is a conversational narrative from the women illustrated experimentally- a far cry from traditional documentary.”

The exhibition currently screening the work at Burnside Library is a showcase of emerging artists’ artwork with a focus on animation and short film- a perfect match for ‘A Shift in Perception’.  Incorporating techniques of time lapse, animation and soft-focus, the work premiered locally at Higher Ground, Adelaide during the South Australian living Artists’ Festival last year. The film is also available for sale at the Royal Society for the Blind’s Low Vision Centre, 230 Pirie St, with part proceeds going to the organisation.

 

Visit the film’s website for more details: http://www.danimations.com.au/perception