‘Blame The Ovens’, a short film by Indian-origin film maker, Ali Sayed, has been nominated for five awards at the ‘Made in the West’ Film Festival in Sydney. It is a nominee in Best Director, Best Lead Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Design and Best Original Score categories.
‘Blame The Ovens’ is a movie on anti-racism with the term used as a metaphor according to the makers of the film.
They say that the debate on inclusivity, diversity and acceptance of colour, gender and race has never been more pronounced.
“The topic of racial equality and inclusivity has always been critical for the world’s developed countries, where the migrant population has become an integral part of a nation’s social and economic fabric”.
“With Australia as case in point, 7.5M Australians were born overseas. That’s 30% of all Australians. Add to this the 2M non-citizens who live in Australia. As the first and second generation kids of those 7.5M Australians (plus non-citizens) grow up in Australia, the very common challenges of identity and acceptance become even more critical. Especially for Indian, Chinese, and South-East Asian Australians, the differing systems of language and culture constantly brings up the country vs ethnicity challenge”.
“Critical to being ready and bringing through the change is the concept of equality. Equality is structured around conscious efforts and deliberate actions to provide equitable opportunities for all people on an individual and systemic level”.
“Blame the Ovens, uses the power of subtle filmmaking to bring out elements of equality & offers a unique perspective to address issues of inclusivity, diversity and acceptance. It brings up the need to deal with unconscious biases with a constructive tact”.
“An approach underpinned by empathy and mateship could go a long way”, say the people behind this movie.
The movie is about a kind-hearted man, who, when confronted by two ruffians at a lonely place unaware of his real identity, accords to their demand and changes their perception towards society.
The film is directed by Ali Sayed, produced by Sunny Shah and Aniket Deshkar and is written by Jayant Sharma. Screenplay of the film is by Jayant Sharma, Ali Sayed and Aniket Deshkar while Music is by Rajdeep Joshi and Sound Mixing by Anish Poduval.
Ali Sayed is an Indian born, Australia based filmmaker. His passion for movies started from childhood as his father Sayed Sultan was a famous script writer in 1980s and 1990s in Indian film industry – Bollywood having written movies such as Naseeb and Mr Natwarlal.
Ali co-founded 24SixFilms production after moving to Australia and has directed seven short films in different genres in the last four years.
The cast includes Pranam Janney, Lachlan Crosweller, Adam Dean, Aseem Parab and Racquel Gatt.
Made in the West Film Festival brings the glamour of a red carpet industry awards night to Sydney filmmakers.
Hosted by Still Searchin’ Productions, the festival shines a spotlight on Western Sydney’s emerging film scene, connecting independent and student filmmakers with established industry experts for one spectacular event showcasing locally produced films.
