• Director Jennifer ‘JP’ Piper, Vincent mayor Emma Cole, and filmmakers Leslie Hornung, Carter Kirklan (front), Tim Fitzgerald (back), Susie Conte, Alicia Keenan, Dawn Farnham and Zoe Baxter.

FOUR new short docos delving into local stories are in the works as the City of Vincent Film Project reprises its sixth year. 

Usually three film ideas are chosen every year for the festival, a collaboration between the council and Revelation Film Festival, but 2023’s bounty of quality entries has seen a fourth commissioned. 

This year’s films which won $7000 funding and mentorship from a seasoned producer are:

• Care to Dance, by Matthew Adams and Mason Fleming, following a group of local seniors rediscovering the joys of dancing;

• What we do for Family, by Lesley Hornung and Jennifer ‘JP’ Piper, a hybrid performative/observational documentary about the lengths queer people go to to create a nuclear family;

• Home not a House, from Alicia Keenan and Carter Kirkland, investigating the housing crisis and the impact on local young people trying to survive.

• The Private Life of a War Memorial by Susie Conte, Dawn Farnham and Jenny Crab is 

the special fourth commission. It tells the story of the local landmark Anzac Cottage and three generations of women who were its guardians over the years, including Voice regular Anne Chapple from Friends of Anzac Cottage. 

Vincent mayor Emma Cole said the project had been a success over the years, with films such as Pacing the Pool and The Throwback (about the last days of Mt Hawthorn’s holdout video rental store) winning international awards.

“It provides a great opportunity for emerging filmmakers to get their projects off-the-ground and make their mark in the screen industry,” Ms Cole said. 

“Every year, we see absolute gems about life in Vincent.”

Revelation Film Festival director Richard Sowada said the 2023 project “has yielded another fantastic year for WA filmmakers with the selection of these excellent concepts”.

At 18 short documentaries and counting, he says “this trove of contemporary work not only lives on the international film festival scene but in the City of Vincent collection and it’s incredibly rewarding to be a part of it”.

The docos are scheduled for screening during the RPIFF running July 12 to 16.