POSSUM

Brad McGann
(New Zealand, 1997), 14 minutes, 35 mm

Production credits

Writer/Director Producer Director of photography Editor Music Production designer Costume design Sound design Little Man Dad Kid Missy

Brad McGann Trevor Haysom Leon Narbey Chris Plummer Tom Bailey Tracy Grant Kirsty Cameron Chris Burt Martin Taylor Stephen Papps Eve-Marie Brandish Alexia Verdonkschot

Festivals and prizes

Melbourne International Film Festival, Australia

Telluride Film Festival, USA

New York International Short Film Festival

Sao Paolo Short Film Festival, Brazil

Mill Valley Film Festival, USA

International Jury Prize for 'Best Short Film,' Gijon Film Festival, Spain

Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, France (competition), 1998

Toronto Film Festival, Canada

Auckland Film Festival, New Zealand

Wellington Film Festival, New Zealand

Five for Five, New Zealand

Odense Film Festival, Denmark, 1998

Oberhausen Film Festival, Germany

Montecatini Terme, Italy

Bristol Short Film Festival, U.K.

Antalya International Film Festival, Turkey

Award for 'Best Craft in Short Form Drama' (cinematography), New Zealand Film and Television Awards

Second prize, Hamburg International Short Film Festival, 1998

Filmography

1989 1995 1996 1997

Home Away from Here (writer, director, editor), 30 min. Come As You Are (co-writer, director), 27 min. It Never Rains (writer, director) Possum (writer, director), 14 min.

On Brad McGann (adapted from the press kit for Possum)

Possum is Brad McGann's fourth film. Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, he moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1989 to attend film school at Swinburne (now VCA) after completing a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Otago. His first film, A Home Away from Here, was a 30 minute black and white surrealist drama about a power struggle and the subsequent isolation within the family environment. It was here that he developed an interest in pyschological drama, with focus on issues of isolation, identity and the foibles of communication between people in close proximity.

The Australian Film Commission and ABC Television funded his next film, Come As You Are, a stylized half hour documentary about alter ego. Again exploring issues of identity and isolation, the documentary journeys into the lives of three people who, for various reasons, have created a second self. It has been screened on national television in Australia and has recently been invited to: the British International Short Film Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, the INPUT Broadcasting Conference in France, and the Oberhausen Short Film Festival.

Brad McGann was invited by the ABC TV Drama Department to make a twelve minute film for the series entitled Short Wave, show-casing the work of six young directors. It was here he made It Never Rains, a realist drama which parallels the urban isolation of two charactrs from different walks of life. It has screened on national television in Australia and has recently been shown at the Five For Five programme in New Zealand and the St. Kilda Short Film Festival in Melbourne.

Possum represents a stylistic shift for Brad McGann. It is a dark fable in which the narrative hovers between real events and the imagination of a young boy. This film is perhaps the most personal and risk-taking of all his work to date. It is a film about the subconscious and the primal relationship between people and their environment. Possum reflects his continuing interest in making films about the outsider and the emotional quest for a sense of place and belonging.

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