Acting
A teenage girl, who feels left out and ignored by her peers, is inspired to do something audacious in order to get noticed. When her plan backfires she learns that being popular isn’t as important as including those who are left out.
Thomas Howell gets more than he bargained for at his interview with a prestigious law firm; an insult about his tie, a rendition of Harry Potter and the chance to change the lives of father and son.
High school guidance counselor Jeff and his platonic friend and co-worker Anne are responsible, well intentioned, kind… and boring. They frustratingly watch on as their peers find love and companionship, while they continue to fail in spectacular fashion when it comes to romance. As they reach their loneliness breaking point, they make a pact to forgo their familiar, vanilla personas in exchange for their unexplored, confident alter egos. They wave goodbye to Jeff’s awkward all-male book club and Anne’s flailing attempts to catch the eye of Jeff’s sexy neighbor Max, and say hello to raucous summer nights filled with booze, dancing, and sex. Naturally things don’t exactly go according to plan.
Devised by twelve people living with an intellectual disability over a period of 10 months, Heartbreak and Beauty is an experimental short film that combines music, visual metaphor, dance and original poetry to express how we are all connected through our shared human experiences of love and loss.
Hear from six Australians challenging the intersecting barriers of disability and ethnicity.
Lena, a teenager with Downs Syndrome, is fascinated by sex and all the mystery that surrounds it - fertility, desire, and the mechanics of childbirth. When she steals a sex book from a mobile library, her mother forces her to take it back in an embarrassing family spectacle that only strengthens her daughter's rebellious and irrepressible desire.
Ben is a sprightly young man with a bright future. Living with autism is of no consequence for Ben, except when it comes to his boss, and finding love. Will Ben bloom beyond the wallflowers?
