Moving from youth and community work into filmmaking might sound like quite a jump.
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But former Canberran Skye Leon, a Lardil Yangkaal and Worimi woman who studied at Mount Stromlo High School and Canberra College, said there were transferrable skills, particularly in knowing how to deal with people.
Leon produced Noongar and Spinifex writer-director Tace Stevens' short documentary To Be Silent which is screening as part of Flickerfest's Canberra program at Palace Electric on Thursday, May 16.
The film, Leon said, is "a nine-minute hybrid documentary, mixed style, mixed media incorporating animation, studio interviews and reenactments ..It's all quite poetic."
"It essentially tells her story of the impact of code-switching on her life and identity and how she has been empowered to find her voice and stand up for herself."
Stevens and Leon both graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School.
Leon said Stevens felt having another Indigenous woman as producer would help her feel safe telling such a personal story about moving between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures.
"She wanted to have someone with a similar experience to be a sounding board and help her say what she wanted to say in the clearest way possible."
When she was young, Leon loved film and TV and wanted to work in the film industry. But she kept hearing it was hard to get into, and she thought that as an Indigenous woman it would be even harder.
She trained and worked in youth and community services in Australia and Britain and said she came to realise she should pursue what she wanted as she had been encouraging young people to do.
Leon said there were, as she had been told, "a lot of challenges" in the film industry especially for people from marginalised backgrounds but felt things were improving in terms of inclusivity.
Since graduating from ADRTS with a Bachelor of Screen Production she has made short films, worked in writers' rooms for screen production companies and is now writing the screenplay for a contemporary retelling of Pride and Prejudice with Indigenous characters.
In 2024, Flickerfest celebrates 33 years of curating and screening short films from Australia and around the world. With 3443 submissions and 200 selected to compete, it's impossible to send all the films everywhere.
A selection of nine Australian and European Union films from the Oscar qualifying competition at Flickerfest Bondi has been curated for Canberra. As well as To Be Silent, there are two other films with strong ACT links.
Cold Water, starring industry veteran Bruce Spence, won the best original script award. Its co-writer/director Jay Perry received a Bachelor of Screen productions from the University of Canberra. On Beautiful Things former Canberrans Ben Ling and Emily Taylor were, respectively, the cinematographer and the hair and makeup stylist. It stars whistleblower and former army lawyer David McBride in his first acting role.
Bronywn Kidd, who's been the director of Flickerfest for 27 years, said that compared to feature films which could take years to develop and produce, short films could be made and shown quickly to reflect current social and cultural issues.
Among the other films screening in Canberra is the German/Danish short A Study Of Empathy, named the Best International Short Film at Flickerfest 2024.
Kidd said the main thing Flickerfest judges sought was "a great story" that would engage audiences and reflect something of the world in which they were made.
Flickerfest 2024 - Best of Flickerfest Shorts is on at Palace Electric on Thursday, May 16, at 7pm (doors open at 6.15pm). See: flickerfest.com.au/tour/canberra.
