Nowra’s Olivia Clifton has gained international attention for her short film ‘Peculiar Tides’.
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The Nowra Christian School student’s work has been chosen to feature at the Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival in Washington.
The film is one of only 20 clips to be included at the festival in April.
Olivia, 16, created the film as part of her Stage 5 Visual Arts elective, and filmed it at Callala Bay. Armed with a video camera and some editing software, the year 11 student put her creativity to the test.
“I thought ‘I can’t really draw so I may as well do a video’,” she said.
“I filmed one evening at sunset and another at 5am which was pretty hard because I’m not really a morning person.”
Olivia used a mirror filter to create the dream-like film and followed the assignment’s brief of ‘nature’.
The early start and hours of editing paid off when she received an email from the organisers of the film festival.
“I’d submitted it online and then sort of forgot about it until I got the email asking if I wanted to come to Bellingham, WA and I thought, yeah, for sure’,” Olivia said.
“I’d never heard of Bellingham so I assumed it must be in Western Australia.
“I was pretty shocked when I saw it was in Washington, America.”
Olivia is now brushing off the passport and plans to attend the festival with her father. She has also been invited to speak at an artists’ talk whilst there.
She has started a gofundme fundraising account and has been overwhelmed by the support she’s received.
“I needed $1000 for my ticket and I’ve already got over $800 which is just amazing,” she said.
“Mum and dad said I’d probably only get about $50 and I thought that’s about all I’d get too so I’m very grateful.”
‘Peculiar Tides’ will screen on April 22, with the film festival running from April 20 to April 23.
The CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival is a multi-day annual curated film festival celebrating exceptional films directed by women from around the world.
The festival will span all film genres from documentary and live action to animation and narrative.