News

Doc Society and the Australian International Documentary Conference (Aidc) have revealed the six projects that will take part in a year-long creative mentorship and impact strategy fellowship starting this month.

The four feature documentaries and two VR concepts selected for the Art & Impact Fellowship consist of Jaydn Ray Gosselin and Elahe Zivardar’s Searching for Aramsayesh Gah; Josie Hess’ Life After Coal; Genevieve Grieves and Ryan Andrew Lee’s Dreaming Country; Taryne Laffar’s Sacred Sites; Maya Newell’s The Quickening; and Matthew Bate’s Untitled Hakeem Project.

The filmmaking teams will benefit from three training labs, attendance at two industry forums – IDFA (the Netherlands) and Aidc – and a day-long pitch summit event.

The fellowship, which is supported through Screen Australia’s Enterprise Funding Program, was announced in August as a way for practitioners to build strategies for using an independent documentary project as a tool for change, focusing on the development of storytelling,...

Three documentary projects that participated in 2020’s New Perspectives Pitch Lab, hosted by Aftrs, Doc Society, Aidc and Screen Nsw, will receive philanthropic development and production grants via the MaiTri Foundation’s Story Program.

They include films Norita and The Valley and podcast Gay Graves, each to receive a $10,000 grant via the UK-based foundation. The story program aims to help the projects build support and further their development ready for the Australian and international marketplace.

Doc Society’s global director of Good Pitch, Malinda Wink said: “Doc Society is proud to be working in partnership with MaiTri Foundation’s Story Program to support new voices in Australian documentary and podcast storytelling. We are grateful for their generosity, and extend our congratulations to each of the recipients.”

Jayson McNamara’s Norita, which won the 2020 pitch, is set in Argentina, and tracks the transformation of Nora Cortiñas, following the kidnapping of her...

Aftrs, Doc Society, Aidc and Screen Nsw have announced the social impact projects selected for the inaugural New Perspectives Pitch Lab.

The program consists of five coaching and development sessions and an online pitch event with mentors, including Malinda Wink, global director of Doc Society’s Good Pitch and Screen Nsw investment manager Andrea Ulbrick. The sessions begin this week.

The focus on the pitch training is to support participants to develop strategies and pathways for non-traditional access to audience and finance for projects that have potential for an impact campaign.

The initiative was open to projects from across the non-fiction landscape, and encouraged “projects that offered a rare insight into the under-represented and overlooked; stories from those who see more than what’s shown in the common zeitgeist; stories that break barriers and explore nuance over polarity.”

One team will go on to be selected for pitching opportunities at...

A story exploring what might have taken places between two saints on the isle of Iona in the 6th Century, Jim Batt's atmospheric short (co-produced by Josie Hess) is based on the poem In Relig Odhrain by Neil Gaiman, who provides the narration. It's a real treat for Gaiman fans and a potent little film in its own right.

The story concerns the arrival on the island of saints Oran and Columba, who are determined to build a chapel in a prominent spot - a spot where the Atlantic winds repeatedly tear it down. When Columba has a vision of the sacrifice required to keep the chapel standing, Oran finds himself in peril - but there are stranger things yet to come in this version of a legend that has inspired many a horror writer over the years. It's a tale that reflects the frequent tension between the Christianisation of the.

‘Morgana’.

Boutique distributor and sales agent Juno Films has acquired the worldwide rights (excluding Anz) to Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard’s feature documentary Morgana.

The deal follows the film’s North American launch at Fantasia Film Festival.

The 71-minute indie doco follows Morgana Muses, who in her late 40s was an unhappy housewife in Albury. By 50, she had moved from Australia to Berlin and become a feminist pornography icon.

Produced by House of Gary’s Karina Astrup, the film – shot over five years – combines interview and verite footage with Morgana, handmade miniature elements, animation, archival footage, and Morgana’s own erotica films.

Astrup negotiated the deal with Juno CEO and co-founder Elizabeth Sheldon, with release plans to be announced at a later date.

Sheldon said: “Morgana is the rare portrait of a middle-aged woman confronting and rejecting expectations (of heteronormativity) through sex and art. Filmmakers Isabel Peppard and Josie...

Release plans to be announced at later date.

Juno Films has picked up worldwide rights excluding Australia and New Zealand to Fantasia documentary Morgana.

Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard directed the film about the eponymous woman who, after 20 years as a dutiful housewife in a loveless marriage, books a male escort for one last hurrah before ending it all.

Her final night takes an unexpected turn when her relationship with the escort opens up a new world of personal and sexual freedom.

Instead of killing herself, Morgana makes an award-winning porn film about their date, moves from suburban Australia to Berlin,...

Morgana was in her late forties when she got divorced. The people she had thought of as friends immediately began to shun her. All that her upbringing had focused on was teaching her to be a good wife and mother. She felt as if her role was over, her existence now pointless, and made serious plans to end her life. There was just one thing she wanted to do first - to experience a night of pleasure with an escort, sex on her own terms. It was an experience that turned her life around. By the time she turned 50 she was an award-winning porn star with a thriving social life. Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard's documentary looks at how it happened - and at what came next.

There's a lot of fascinating subject matter here, collected over a period of five years. It's presented in an appropriately inventive way,...

The bored and lonely housewife embarking on a life of erotic pleasure has been a porn-movie trope since at least the days of the 8mm-stag film. But the Belle de Jour-style protagonist is never an unhappy Australian mom who goes from planning suicide, to radically reclaiming agency by hiring a male escort, to soaring to international fame as an award-winning feminist pornographer. Until now. Meet Morgana Muses, the unlikely star of Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard’s Fantasia Film Festival-premiering documentary Morgana. Hess, a filmmaker and pornographer, and her co-director Peppard, who is also an animator and visual artist, began collaborating […]...

The bored and lonely housewife embarking on a life of erotic pleasure has been a porn-movie trope since at least the days of the 8mm-stag film. But the Belle de Jour-style protagonist is never an unhappy Australian mom who goes from planning suicide, to radically reclaiming agency by hiring a male escort, to soaring to international fame as an award-winning feminist pornographer. Until now. Meet Morgana Muses, the unlikely star of Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard’s Fantasia Film Festival-premiering documentary Morgana. Hess, a filmmaker and pornographer, and her co-director Peppard, who is also an animator and visual artist, began collaborating […]...

Playing at Fantasia 2020, Morgana is one of the most interesting docs I've seen at this festival --- or ever, due to its sheer humanity and empathy. You can read the full review here. ScreenAnarchy was able to speak to the directors of this thought-provoking, tear-inducing doc --- Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard --- who told us about how Morgana came to be, normalizing the sexuality of mature women, and more. If you're in Canada, you can watch Morgana on demand via Fantasia during the run of the festival, from August 20 - September 2. Check out the trailer below. ScreenAnarchy: How did you come to meet Morgana Muses, and what sparked the idea to follow her for a documentary? Isabel Peppard: I first met...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Josie Hess sets up a scene for Morgana

Morgana Muses was in her late forties when she got divorced. With no friends and no support, she thought that everything was over for her, and made serious plans to end her life. Within a couple of years, however, she was an international porn star winning acclaim in feminist circles and surrounded by friends and admirers. Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard’s documentary about her – which also covers what happened when she realised she still had other battles to fight – is one of the more unusual offerings at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival. Despite the challenges posed by the time difference between Scotland and Australia, where the two directors are based, we managed to connect, and they told me how their film came to be.

Morgana on her 50th birthday

“Josie already knew Morgana,” says Isabel. “I ended up meeting her...

Features: Morgana Muses | Directed by Isabel Peppard, Josie Hess

Give me something new in the guise of a strange premise-based documentary any day of the week and I’m going to be pleased. Documentary films can be incredibly powerful, intriguing and hugely entertaining, and when I read the synopsis for Morgana, from Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard, I was curious and somewhat bewildered. It doesn’t really sound like a documentary, but rather a dark thriller or something like that. The tale of a desperate housewife whose life isn’t going anywhere close to how she wants, makes the decision to end it all, but finds herself saved by an unexpected detour that involves sexual reawakening and a reinvention of self.

Using interviews from a variety of relevant people as well as some delightfully designed animated elements, Morgana tells the tale of this woman, Morgana Muses, who, for many years...

Every now and then, a film comes along to remind us that women are indeed fully fleshed out human beings with their own hopes, dreams, fears, anxieties, and doubts. One of the documentaries playing at this year's Fantasia International Film Festival is Morgana, and this film belongs to the rarified group of deeply humane works focused on women. Directed by the Austrailian duo Isabel Peppard and Josie Hess, Morgana follows human phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes feminist pornographer Morgana Muses, a 53-year-old woman who's finally living her own life on her own terms. Previously, Morgana had been trapped in a loveless marriage devoid of intimacy with two children. Even before that, she spent part of her young life literally living underground in Outback caves with parents that seemed consistently urged her to...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"There's a very personal quality to it... that isn't the norm." House of Gary has released an official trailer for an indie documentary called Morgana, profiling the life of an Australian housewife-turned-pornstar now known as Morgana Muses. This premiered at the Melbourne Film Festival last year, and is next playing at the Fantasia Film Festival (online) this summer. Morgana is a nuanced character portrait of a conventional suburban housewife who reinvents herself as a feminist erotic film auteur and star at the age of 50. Through its fascinating protagonist "Morgana Muses", we explore diverse themes such as ageing and sexuality, the importance of community and belonging, and the power of social and personal narratives to both define and confine us. This looks like a very honest, sensitive and understanding film about sexuality in modern times. Here's the official US trailer (+ poster) for Josie Hess & Isabel Peppard's doc Morgana, direct from...

The Canadian virtual festival will include more than 100 features and 200 shorts.

Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival has announced a third and final wave of feature films, as well as details of its panels, talks, tributes and special events.

This year’s virtual edition of the Montreal-based festival, running from August 20 to September 2, will include more than 100 features and more than 200 shorts.

Among the latest titles added to the line-up are Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, getting its world premiere, Jorge Michel Grau’s Perdida, getting its international premiere, and Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’A, which will be the closing night film.

It’s the kind of thing you could only ever expect to find in a movie: the story of a desperate housewife who, disappointed with the trajectory of her life, considers ending it all, only to find salvation in the most unexpected of places. Such is the story of “Morgana,” which takes that idea to wild (and ultimately quite satisfying) new ends, with a twist or two along the way.

Per its official synopsis, the film follows Morgana Muses who, “after 20 years as a dutiful housewife stuck in a loveless, sexless marriage … has had enough of her dreary life. Desperately lonely and starved of intimacy, she books a male escort for one last hurrah before ending it all. Her final night takes an unexpected turn when her relationship with the escort opens up a new world of personal and sexual freedom. Instead of killing herself, Morgana makes an award-winning porn film about their date,...

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs August 20-September 2 and is being held digitally this year due to the pandemic, has unveiled its final lineup.

The fest has also announced that revered genre filmmaker John Carpenter will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award and will host an online masterclass as part of its virtual events.

New pics selected include Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’a, which closes the fest, the world premiere of Persepolis co-director Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream, and Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut short Night Shifts.

Further events will include talks with Mike Flanagan and Mick Garris, Simon Barrett, and Dennison Ramalho with José Mojica Marins aka Coffin Joe.

As reported previously, this year’s fest will open with Neil Marshall’s horror The Reckoning. The online screenings, which will run via Festival Scope and Shift72’s virtual screening platform,...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with Program Director and author Jack Sargeant about the Revelation Perth Film Festival, which takes place July 9th – 19th 2020.

It’s a virtual festival with all films available across Australia and a handful of films available to watch anywhere in the world. Tickets and details are here. Revelation already provide a streaming service called Rev On Demand. So, if you want to check out their unique brand of eclectic and unusual cinema you can tune in here at any time right here: www.revelationfilmfest.org/film-rev-on-demand

Highlighted films discussed on the podcast are:

Francis Ferguson (2019) Written and directed by Bob Byongton Experimental Programs 2019/20 Morgana (2019) Written and directed by Josie Hess & Isabel Peppard Siberia (2020) Written by Abel Ferrera and Christ Zois; Directed by Abel Ferrera An Ideal Host (2020) Written by Tyler Jones; Directed by Robert Woods...

‘The Skin of Others’.

In moving elements of the Sydney Film Festival online, director Nashen Moodley was particularly keen to focus on Australian cinema and support the local industry.

The festival unveiled its virtual line-up today, consisting of four strands: The Documentary Australia Foundation (Daf) Award for Best Australian Documentary, including eight world premieres; The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films; Europe! Voices of Women in Film, and Screenability, featuring three shorts from practitioners with disability.

Running from June 10 – 21, the full program consists of 33 films from 12 countries including 16 world premieres, with seven feature films, 13 documentaries, and 13 shorts. Every feature-length film will be presented with a Q&a from the filmmaker, and series of industry talks and panels will be announced in the coming weeks.

When the Sydney Film Festival was cancelled due to Covid-19 concerns in March – a move Moodley which describes as “extremely difficult” but necessary – around 50 per cent...

The Screen Industry Gala Awards.

Despite the event itself being cancelled, Gold Coast Film Festival soldiered on with its annual Screen Industry Gala Awards last night – albeit online.

Winner of the Best Australian Film was director Kriv Stenders’ documentary on Slim Dusty’s wife Joy McKean, Slim & I. Produced by Chris Brown and Aline Jacques, the film sees McKean tell the story of her career, marriage, and her determination to be recognised as a performer and songwriter in her own right.

Indie doco Morgana, co-directed by Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard, took home the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Independent Film Award, winning a Blackmagic Pocket Camera 6K. The film follows Morgana Muses, who in her 40s was an unhappy housewife in Albury. By 50, she was a feminist pornography icon.

Post-production house The Post Lounge won the inaugural Queensland Screen Business of the Year Award and special FX makeup and prosthetics...

Margot Robbie in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood’.

The 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival is being touted as the largest yet, with some 259 features, 123 shorts and 16 Vr experiences, including Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood.

The 1969-set film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, will screen on the opening weekend in the Astor Theatre on 35mm. An elegy to the Golden Age of Hollywood, it also features Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate and Damon Herriman as Charles Manson, as well as Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Damien Lewis and Luke Perry.

Of his first program, which includes 44 films straight from Cannes, Miff artistic director Al Cossar said: “I am absolutely thrilled to share my first festival with Melbourne in 2019. Rich in its diversity, this program is a true celebration of cinema: promising countless adventures into the kinds of places and people,...

Some of our readers might be familiar with Australian filmmaker Isabel Peppard. She specializes in stop-motion animation and horror, and her stunning work has won multiple awards and played at festivals around the world (you can take a peek at her film Butterflies here). Now, she is embarking on a new film adventure, and needs your help to complete it! Peppard and co-director Josie Hess (herself also an award-winning filmmaker) are making a documentary about Morgana, a woman who, only a few years ago, they learned had been a housewife in suburban Australia. Since then, she has transformed herself into a sex-positive pornographer, erotic film star, and artist. Peppard and Hess are working hard to bring her journey, from rural Victoria to the Bdsm clubs of...

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