With Mallacoota being one of the venues for the St Kilda Film Festival 2019 Tour, a large crowd had the choice of attending one of two sessions on Saturday, August 17, to see 12 short films.

The selection of films varied in length from three to 15 minutes with diverse genre and landscapes from around Australia.

The animation, Ghostbear, directed by comedian/actor, Paul McDermott, was popular and brought a unique perspective. Some thought this touching tale was about climate change, with melting ice and a polar bear cub searching for his place in the world and his birthplace in the stars.

The subject matter on this tour seemed quite “dark”, according to some of the Mallacoota audience members. The emotion-filled Judas Collar had no dialogue, just close-ups of the lead camel’s face and a cello soundtrack. Filmed in the outback, a feral camel is fitted with a tracking device known as a Judas collar. The collar-fitted camel joined groups of camels, unknowingly leading a helicopter with hunters to the groups, which were then slaughtered. The collar-fitted camel would join another group and the slaughter would be repeated.

This is the way the wild camels are controlled in the outback. Camels are declared pests in Western Australia because of the large amount of damage they can cause to pastoral infrastructure.

Mallacoota Arts Council presented this selection of Australia’s top short films, which was greatly appreciated.