This year’s Screenwave International Film Festival brings to the Coffs community and travelling festivalgoers a centrepiece that is a first of its kind for regional NSW.
SWIFF Light Box is a public projection art installation which will be lighting up four sites in the town’s popular coastal Jetty strip, bringing cultural drawcard to the summer holiday destination famous for its mountains-meet-the-sea beauty.
Designed to be experienced as a progressive narrative, with the public encouraged to walk from site to site to experience the cinematic moving image artworks, it will see buildings and walls drenched in light, symbols and animations.
The project brings together four local artists: street artist Ash Johnston, sand painter John Thiering and painters Brentyn Lugnan and Alison Williams. They are collaborating with Illuminart – the projection art wizards who have carved a path nationally in the medium, having performed at headline capital city festivals, as well as on regional installations across Australia.
Cindi Drennan, founder of Illuminart and SWIFF Light Box creative director, hopes that the project will give the Coffs Coast community the opportunity to participate in a unique style of storytelling.
Large-scale artworks will be projected on the cliff face at South Coffs Island’s quarry site. They will be seen from across the harbour, painting Coffs’ trademark oceanside vista in projected animation and lightscapes.
Light Box is running alongside Screenwave International Film Festival’s most comprehensive films program yet. It will run from 10 to 25 January 2018, screening more than 70 feature films across locations in Coffs Harbour and Bellingen.
Special guests, who will meet the audience for Q&As, include homegrown Hollywood star David Wenham, Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison, Sydney Film Prize winner Sascha Ettinger-Epstein, and veteran surf journo Phil Jarrett among a line-up of 20 filmmaker guests.
Screenwave has also added an Industry Connect program, which offers the opportunity for film creatives at all stages of their careers to meet and network, and attend workshops by Arts Mid North Coast and Australian Film Television and Radio School.
Screenwave is a Coffs Coast film festival and screen culture collective that produces Screenwave International Film Festival, REC Ya Shorts Youth Film Festival, Cinematinee, and the new Film Outreach Australia initiative.
SWIFF Light Box is on 19 to 25 January, projections from 8.30pm till late. Free and suitable for all ages. Screenwave International Film Festival runs from 10 to 25 January. For more information see swiff.com.au.
