WATCH IT NOW (November 4 – 14, 2019) - Judas Collar
Above: Watch Writer/Director Alison James and Producer Brooke Tia Silcox’s Judas Collar. In outback Australia a wild camel is captured and fitted with a tracking device known as a Judas Collar. Based on a real life practice, Judas Collar is a scripted, non-dialogue, live action short film that explores the story of a camel used to betray her kind. Support the filmmakers’ Oscar campaign - read more below!
SUPPORT THE OSCARS CAMPAIGN
Judas Collar has now had over 100 festival screenings and has twice qualified for the Academy Awards 2020 for BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT by winning the Austin Film Festival in Texas and the St Kilda Film Festival in Melbourne. Alison and Brooke are now in Los Angeles working on the beginning stage of an Oscars campaign. They are currently having an online event release. You can watch Judas Collar online for ten days, from November 4 – 14, 2019. Comment, share - tell your friends!
There are two fundraising campaigns to help support the work needed for the Oscars 2020 campaign. One is with GoFundMe and the other is with the Australian Cultural Fund (donations to the Australian cultural fund are tax deductible). Info: judascollar@gmail.com, brooke@no-thing.co
MEET THE FILMMAKERS
ALISON JAMES is a writer/director who is represented by WME and Grandview in Los Angeles. She is an award-winning drama director and writer working between West Hollywood and Perth, Western Australia. Alison thrives on adventure and seeks to tell bold, original stories. She is currently developing two feature projects; a US action-survival film and an Australian set dramatic thriller. For her work on Judas Collar, Alison was awarded the Australian Writer’s Guild Award (AWGIE) for Best Short Film and won Best Director at St Kilda Film Festival. She also received an Australian Directors Guild Award nomination and a Special Jury Mention for Best Director at the Sydney Film Festival. Judas Collar follows up on two performance-based shorts You Have Blue Eyes and Sentence, filmed in West Australia’s only juvenile prison.
BROOKE TIA SILCOX is an award-winning drama and documentary producer who left her job as a Banking and Finance Lawyer to start the production company No Thing Productions, working to highlight humanitarian causes and the importance of the arts. Brooke has three degrees, in Fine Arts; Communication, Cultural & Performances Studies and Law, having studied in Perth, Melbourne and Oxford. Brooke won the ScreenWest Emerging Producer Prize of $100,000 in recognition of her work, was selected as one of Screen Producer’s Australia’s “Ones to Watch” and won the prestigious Brian Beaton Award. Brooke has produced two feature documentaries: Rockabul and Meal Tickets. She also produced two online series for the ABC. Brooke associate produced the feature film Jirga, which was Australia’s Academy Awards submission for Best Foreign Film in 2019 and winner of Australia’s Richest Film Prize ($100,000) at Cinefest Oz.
CONGRATULATIONS ALISON AND BROOKE!
(Below you can read an interview about Judas Collar with Writer/Director Alison James)
Judas Collar
Interview with Writer/Director Alison James
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I was researching a documentary about helicopter pilots in the Australian Outback and I came across a company that specialised in Judas Collars. I thought, what the hell is a Judas Collar? I discovered that it was a tracking device used to cull camels. I was really struck by the fact that a scientific device had been given such a biblical name. Looking into it further, I learned that a single camel is tranquillised and fitted with this collar and the camel, then known as the Judas, returns to its herd. The collar sends a signal that leads hunters to kill every single member of the herd by helicopter – except for the Judas, who is left to find a new herd. Over time, the helicopter returns again and again. Eventually, it’s believed that the camel learns it's responsible for the deaths around it and decides to walk alone for the rest of its life. It retreats to save the herd.
It was the saddest story I had ever heard and one I knew I had to tell as a drama rather than a documentary.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Judas Collar is a non-dialogue, scripted short film that uses camels instead of actors. Dunkirk with camels is the joke pitch. So it’s an incredibly unique and ambitious short film. It was shot in the West Australian desert, in the searing hot summer with a cast of eight camels and a helicopter. To make it we endured eight flat tyres, two bogged vehicles and a blown head gasket on the camel truck. In the end, almost every crew member was officially wrangling camels in addition to their film roles.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
While this is a film about a real life practice and it explores the culling of feral camels in Australia, it’s also a story that’s deeply human. To retreat from the herd, or to withdraw from society because you think the world might be better off without you, is something that’s deeply and tragically human.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I started out writing a film about a woman who was lost in the Australian outback and who comes across one of these Judas camels. But that story was never as strong as the camel’s story. Working with one of our exec producers, Aiden O’Bryan, I wrote four more drafts, but it wasn’t until I took the humans out of the narrative that it really started to work on a different level. It was a terrifying step to take on the page, because without dialogue you are forced to keep things incredibly clear and simple. I think as a filmmaker you just want your film to live up to its pitch and sometimes it’s about getting out of your own way and in that simplicity, more people have the opportunity to really deeply connect and relate.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Brooke Silcox, who was the incredible producer on this film (8 camels and a helicopter in the desert anyone??), and I have travelled to some incredible film festivals with Judas Collar, including the Sydney Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Flickerfest in Australia, Austin Film Festival in Texas and the Australian Short Film Today Screening in Los Angeles. Sometimes we’ve had grown men coming up to us in tears. It is such a tragic story and I think some audiences have been very moved.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I think generally people didn’t know that these collars were being used in Australia and find the idea of them pretty cruel and unethical. And I think some people connect with the more universal themes of loneliness and the human desire for connection – the need to be part of a community. I think we especially connect to stories about animals because we tend to project our own human emotions onto their stories - we feel it for them.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We are hoping that people that we otherwise wouldn't have known or met would stumble across our film by being passionate about wearemovingstories and to have connected with the film or be touched by it. We are hoping it helps in forwarding our film into the community.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We just need viewers to watch the film, comment on it, share it to start a conversation about the issues it raises and help our chances in getting shortlisted at the Oscars2020!
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I think Brooke and I ultimately would like people to connect with and be moved by our film. That really is the greatest achievement we could ask for and the reason we want to keep making films.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I think the film naturally lends itself to a debate about camel culling and the ethics of using these collars. And in terms of filmmaking, the conversation always eventually shifts towards – so how do you make a film that stars camels?
Would you like to add anything else?
No camels were hurt in the making of this film! They’re happily munching away on some grass right now and actually a few were recently cast in a feature film being shot in regional Western Australia!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Brooke is currently developing a feature documentary and Alison is writing a feature film (not starring camels!).
Interview: January 2019 / Updated November 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Judas Collar
In outback Australia a wild camel is captured and fitted with a tracking device known as a Judas Collar. Based on a real life practice, Judas Collar is a scripted, non-dialogue, live action short film that explores the story of a camel used to betray her kind.
Length: 15 mins
Director: Alison James
Producer: Brooke Tia Silcox
Writer: Alison James
About the writer, director and producer:
ALISON JAMES (writer) is an award-winning writer and director from Perth, Western Australia. After ten years directing documentaries, she has transitioned into scripted work.
BROOKE TIA SILCOX (producer) is an award winning producer who has worked in drama and documentary. She comes from a Fine Arts and Theatre background and practised as a Banking & Finance lawyer.
Key cast: Camels – Sonic, Buddha, Claudia, Wasim, Zara, Petra, Snowy, Ebony
Website: www.judascollar.com
Facebook: Judas Collar
Twitter: @JudasCollar
Instagram: @JudasCollar
Funders: ScreenWest & Lotterywest, City of Kalamunda, Shire of Mount Magnet
Made in association with: No Thing Productions, WBMC, Walker Films
Awards & Official Selections
WINNER Best Narrative Short Film – Academy Accredited ® Austin Film Festival, Texas, 2018
WINNER Best Drama Short Film – Academy Accredited ® St Kilda Film Festival, Melbourne, 2019
WINNER Best Direction – Academy Accredited ® St Kilda Film Festival, Melbourne, 2019
WINNER Best Short Film – CineGear Expo Film Series, Paramount Studios, 2019
WINNER Best Short Film - OzSnax Awards, Melbourne, 2019
WINNER Best Screenplay - Australian Writers Guild Awards (AWGIES) – Alison James, 2019
WINNER Best Cinematography – Heart of Gold Film Festival, Brisbane, 2019
WINNER Special Mention Best Direction – Rouben Mamoulian Award, Dendy Awards, Sydney Film Festival, 2018
WINNER Special Jury Mention Best Short Film – Stellar Film Festival, Melbourne, 2019
WINNER Special Jury Mention Best Short Film – CAPE Animal Film Festival, Nevada, 2019
WINNER Audience Awards Best Short Film – Australian Short Film Today - Down Under Berlin, St Tropez and Los Angeles, 2019
WINNER Special Jury Mention - Best Short Film – Northern Lights Film Festival, Thornbury, 2019
WINNER – Best Direction, OzSnax Awards, 2019
WINNER – Best Screenplay, OzSnax Awards, 2019
WINNER – Best Editing, OzSnax Awards, 2019
WINNER – Best Soundtrack, OzSnax Awards 2019
Nominated Best Short Film – Australian Academy of Cinema and TV Arts Awards (AACTA Awards), 2018
Nominated Best Short Film – Screen Producers Australia Awards, 2019
Nominated Best Short Film – Academy Accredited® Dendy Awards, Sydney Film Festival, 2018
Nominated Australian Directors Guild Awards – Best Direction, Alison James, 2019
Official Selection – Academy Accredited® Melbourne International Film Festival, Victoria, 2018
Official Selection – Academy Accredited® Flickerfest, Bondi – New South Wales, 2019
Official Selection - Academy Accredited® Interfilm Film Festival Berlin, 2019
Official Selection - Academy Accredited® Indy Shorts, Indianapolis, 2019
Official Selection – Academy Accredited® Show Me Shorts, New Zealand, 2019
Official Selection – BAFTA Qualifying® Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, 2019
Official Selection – Brooklyn Film Festival, New York, 2019
Official Selection – Dallas Film Festival, Texas, 2019
Official Selection - Doker Festival, Moscow, 2019
Official Selection – Dumbo Film Festival, New York, 2019
Official Selection - Perth International Arts Festival, 2019
Official Selection – Revelation Film Festival, 2019
Official Selection – CinefestOz, Margaret River, 2019
Official Selection – Astro Rocks Film Festival, Mount Magnet, 2018
Official Selection – Short & Sweet Film Festival, Russia 2019
Official Selection - Reel Good Film Festival, Victoria, 2019
Official Selection – Australian Embassy to Russia Screenings, 2019
Official Selection – Castlemaine Film Festival, Victoria, 2019
Official Selection – Martha’s Vineyard Festival, Massachusetts, 2019
Official Selection – The Valley Film Festival, Los Angeles, 2019
Official Selection – LA Femme Film Festival, Los Angeles, 2019
Official Selection – Vision Splendid Outdoor Film Festival, Winton, 2019
Official Selection – Ojai Film Festival, California, 2019
Official Selection – Oaxaca Film Festival, Mexico, 2019
Official Selection – Australian’s Short Film Today, St Tropez, New York, London, Boston, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, Austin, 2019