Category: News

The Jinja Assassin, a short film by Fireteller in collaboration with Signet, has been selected as one of sixteen finalists for Tropfest, the inaugural Australian short film competition. Tropfest is the largest short film festival in the world.

Directed by Will Faulkner (WA), Nathan Keene (WA) and Matt Henry (QLD), the film was created with the intent in landing a coveted spot in the festival. Films have to be made especially for Tropfest, and include a unique “TSI” or Tropfest Signature Item to prove they were made especially for the festival. The TSI this year was “candle” which Fireteller carefully curated with the use of a Chuck Norris candle-lit shrine in the film.

The comedy documentary film follows high school teacher Alex Roberts, aka The Jinja Assassin, who placed second at the 2018 Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu, Finland. The Tropfest film picks up after his success in 2018 and follows him on his journey to world domination at the 2019 World Air Guitar Championships.

Fireteller were originally commissioned by Signet Australia to film a small corporate video, but the project ballooned into an epic year long trek across Australia and the globe. Fireteller filmmakers Will Faulkner and Nathan Keene followed Signet and The Jinja Assassin on the adventure into the air guitar world.

“We had no idea this crazy world of air guitar existed before starting this project,” recalled Will Faulkner.

Alex Roberts said he had become more famous for playing air guitar than real guitar. “I played real guitar for nine years but got nowhere, now I’m on the world stage playing air”. Alex, the star of film, talks candidly on camera about his struggles with PTSD and how teaching drama to kids and air-guitar silliness helped him on his road to recovery. The film discusses a need for silliness, creativity and playfulness in every day life.

“The film is about more than just air guitar, it’s about how we can use silliness and ridiculousness to overcome personal tragedy and trauma,” Nathan Keene said.

The Jinja Assassin along with 15 other film finalists will be screened at Tropfest in Parramatta on February 9th.

Fireteller’s epic short film Little Boy Blue was nominated for six awards and took home two at the prestigious St Kilda Film Festival, an Academy Award qualifying festival. This comes off the back of winning the Audience Award at the Mardi Gras Film Festival in February.

The 30-minute short film follows a young girl, Eva, who discovers a boy held captive in a barn on a farm and helps him escape. The film discusses the moral dilemma that often exists between belonging and self-worth. It explores a middle ground where protagonist Eva must find belonging within herself before finding a true place in her world. The film was directed by Nathan Keene and written by Will Faulkner and Keene. Cinematography was by Ashley Baron, ACS and Sound Design by Justin Spasevski. Composer Darren Lim composed a touching but twisted score for the film. 

The film was shot in the rural outskirts of Tamworth in New South Wales. The production saw a large crew take to the country to film at numerous locations including a large American-style barn that was originally constructed as the set of Hollywood film Superman Returns. The film has a number of controversial scenes involving child actors and Fireteller worked closely with the Department of Child Protection to ensure all child actors were protected and safe at all times. It is a age-old saying that film crews should never work with children, animals, on location or at sunset. Fireteller did all of these simultaneously and although the shoot was gruelling and challenging, the end product is demonstrative of the commitment of the cast and crew.

The film won the Craft Award and Best Visual Effects and was nominated for Best Director, Best Young Actor, Best Original Score and Best Achievement in Sound Post Production. 

Little Boy Blue has since gone on the appear in over 33 international film festivals. Fireteller are currently working on the feature film version of the story. 

In 2009 Fireteller produced the LGBT short film Disarm. Shot in under 3 days, the film is a performance piece set largely in one hotel room in real time. The film went on to feature in 16 international film festivals including the Iris Prize, St Kilda Film Festival, Toronto InsideOut and the Boston LGBT Film Festival. The film also scooped up the coveted My Queer Career award at the Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival. Recently the film has managed to rack up an impressive 1.5 million views across Youtube making it one of the most viewed LGBT short films on Youtube.

Disarm follows a young gay man who meets up with an older man for what seems to be a straight-forward hookup. But when initial passion turns to violence, the conflict turns to understanding, and an unexpected connection. The film discusses the complexity of masculinity, with a particular focus on male macho performativity in gay and straight men. The film also explores the conflict between the older and younger generation within the gay community.

The 17-minute short film was created by filmmakers Will Faulkner and Nathan Keene. It stars Taris Tyler and David Ryan Kinsman and was shot by Steve McCallum of 1% fame.  Taris Tyler has much acclaim for his work with Hugh Jackman as his body double in films such as Australia, Wolverine and Les Miserables. 

Fireteller wanted to try something different with this film. Rather than focus on filming in multiple locations and using sweeping cinematography to tell a story- Will Faulkner and Nathan Keene wanted to get to the nuts and bolts of storytelling and performance. Disarm provided the perfect opportunity to keep the shoot simple with only a two-shot setup. Filming this way enable them to hone in on articulating the emotional journeys of the characters and to map the value changes through focussed performance.

Within a year of being hosted online the film had amassed over 1 million views and in the years that followed it grew to a solid 1.5 million. You can view the film on this page.