Content area
Full Text
Friends are key factors in the path to cinema success for Film Fiesta organiser Daley Pearson, writes Lucy Brook
ESTABLISHED independent filmmaker and 22-year-old rarely feature in the same sentence unless you're a member of the Coppola clan.
Or Daley Pearson.
Norman Park in Brisbane's east may be worlds away from Hollywood, but Pearson has been hard at work making short films since he was a child.
"Film has always been a passion of mine," Pearson says.
"I began making my own films using my father's digital camera with the most notable being a 15-minute adventure using my vast collection of Ninja Turtle toys, a techno-drome play set and a turtle van," Pearson says.
"This confronting and surprising moving project was interrupted by my mother's vacuuming and my dog's hyper-activeness. I was 11 years old."
Pearson, who studied film at Griffith Film School, has come a long way since his moving ninja days.
With half a dozen critically acclaimed short films under his belt -- including Happenin' Town, which won first place and People's Choice at the 2005 48 Hour Film Festival, and Well, winner of third place and People's choice at the 2006 48 Hour Film Festival -- he is also an organiser of Film Fiesta, an annual film festival created to showcase his independent work and raise funds for his debut feature film.
Since its inception in 2003, Fiesta has allowed Pearson and his filmmaker friends...