'When The Dust Settles' - Short Film (AUT)

'When The Dust Settles' - Short Film (AUT)

Project 2020-07-28 12:01:24 +1200

‘When The Dust Settles’ is a short dramatic film that is currently in the pre-production stage as part of our year three final project. The film ‘When The Dust Settles’ is about family and domestic violence and tells the story of a mother and son trying to heal from the trauma of abuse. Alistair McFarland has watched his father abuse his mother since before he can remember, and one day he decides enough is enough. The film takes place after the dust settles when he and his mother have to learn to live free. Alistair watches as his mother’s life untangles - she loses her love, her financial stability, and any respect from neighbours, family, and friends. It is up to a 17-year-old boy to put his mother's life back together again like gluing together a broken vase. Everyday life gets easier for her, and one day she will get out of bed by herself, and that’s the only thing that keeps Alistair going. 

‘When The Dust Settles’ was written by director Shae Harrison and will be produced by Alice Burley. We are third-year students at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), studying a Bachelor of Communication Studies, majoring in Television and Screen Production. This short dramatic film will be part of our final assignment for our Creative Screen Project paper and we hope to enter the finished project into various film competitions with the hope of spreading awareness of domestic and family violence in New Zealand.

Domestic violence is something that goes on all too often in our little country. This film, these characters, this story is for everyone that has been affected by domestic or family violence, and for those that haven't had a voice. This story is important and needs to be told and we need your help to bring this story to life. Here are just some of the reasons why we need your support:

- The New Zealand Violence Against Women Study found that 87% of women who had experienced physical and/or sexual violence from a partner had not reported the violence to Police (Fanslow and Robinson, 2010).

- 1 in 3 women experience physical and/or sexual violence from a partner in their lifetime (areyouok, n.d)

- 14% of young people report being physically harmed or hit on purpose by an adult at home in the last 12 months. (Clark et al., 2013)

- “In 2010, 70% of child abuse cases attended by Police were family violence related.” (areyouok, n.d.)

- Between 2009 and 2012, an average of 13 women, 10 men, and 9 children were killed each year as a result of family violence (Family Violence Death Review Committee, 2014)

- There were 85,000 reports of concern, relating to 61,300 children and young people made to Oranga Tamariki - Ministry of Children in the 12 months to December 2019 (Oranga Tamariki, 2020).

To get this project going and bring our story to life, we need your help. We have set a fundraising goal of $900. The money raised will be put towards petrol/transport costs for our amazing and dedicated cast and crew, catering costs during our shoots, costumes/props, and other production costs that we are struggling to fund ourselves at the moment. Whether it's $5 or $50, any donation is a huge help and will go a long way.

To give back to our generous donors, we will give each person a postcard of our film poster with a thank you note and some of you may also be mentioned in our film’s credits! It’s only little but we hope that this shows our appreciation to every single person who contributes to getting this project off the ground. We have also decided that any remaining money raised that goes unused will be donated to charities in New Zealand that works to support victims of domestic violence.

We are so grateful and thankful to all the support that has been shown for ‘When The Dust Settles’ so far! We really appreciate anyone who is able to donate and help us to create our film and bring awareness to such an important issue in our society.

Comments