FILM maker Tanya Modini’s has developed an award-winning short film inspired by her work in the prevention of violence against women sector.
And social workers from Logan’s YFS R4Respect program are the stars.
Ms Modini has worked at the program for more than three years, and has cast her colleagues in her film, The Moths Will Eat Them Up.
“The best possible protection women have against men’s violence in our community is other women, because other women are out there working the services, providing the support, doing all of that sort of thing,” Ms Modini said.
“And so the women featured in the film apart from the lead actor, are women who work in those violence against women services.
“Three of the women on the train work for R4Respect in Logan.
“I wanted to give them a nod because they get overlooked all the time.”
The Moths Will Eat Them Up recently won the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Australian Short Film and the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director at Sydney Film Festival 2022.
This accompanies their recent nomination for an AACTA Award for Best Short Film (2022) and an AWGIE Award for outstanding writing achievements.
The film will be screening in Queensland at the Heart Of Gold Short Film Festival in late October and is currently touring as part of the Sydney Travelling Film Festival.
Inspired by true-life events, Ms Modini’s personal experience on a train ride home one night led her to write and co-direct the film which has garnered international praise via film festivals around the world.
Co-directed by filmmaker Luisa Martiri, the psychological thriller explores the deep-seated fears women live with every day and how some men choose to be bystanders – ignoring other men’s violence as ‘none of their business’.
What should have been a simple train ride home at night for a woman turns into a terrifying game of cat and mouse until an unforeseen force is summoned.
“It’s actually based on something that happened to me on a train,” Ms Modini said.
“We took that idea and we wanted to make the film as entertaining as we possibly could so we could cast a wider net to get people in to look at this issue who may usually shut down when they see issues about violence against women or intimidation against women.”
Ms Modini said the goal is to not only entertain, but to have the viewer experience what it feels like to be a woman travelling alone at night in contemporary society.
“We went in to make the best possible film that we could about this subject, that’s why it’s in a thriller style, to hopefully keep everybody engaged.”
“I’ve had several men come up to me after screenings and say, ‘Is that really how women feel? Are women actually doing these constant risk assessments?’ and we are at night, and sometimes we don’t even know we’re doing it.
“I hope people who have never thought about that perspective, it actually goes ding in their head.
“And I hope some men, the next time they’re walking behind a woman without any intent, realise that maybe they should pull back a little bit, because maybe she’s doing a risk assessment in her head and is looking over her shoulder thinking, am I being followed at this point?
“And to use art, to get the message out to a wider audience is really what I would like to do with it.”
