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Sydney Premiere: The Koalas & Filmmaker Q&A
30 June , 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm AEST
The brilliant film about what is happening with koalas across the East Coast of Australia by Gregory Miller and Sutherland Shire Environment Centre member Georgia Wallace-Crabbe’s will be screening in cinemas shortly.
If you care about our local koalas this film is one to watch. Why are our most loved marsupials facing extinction even as governments are announcing new strategies to protect them?
Upcoming Sydney screenings are at:
* the Dendy in Newtown 20 June: https://newtown.dendy.com.au/checkout/showing/the-koalas/363061
* If you’re on the North Shore, there’s a screening at the Cremorne Orpheum on 27 June:
https://www.orpheum.com.au/movie/the-koalas—qa-event
* And at Randwick Ritz on 30 June: https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/movies/the-koalas
* If you’re in the Blue Mountains there’ll also be screenings at the Mount Vic Flicks: https://mountvicflicks.com.au/sessions/the-koalas/
On the East Coast Australia, where ancient forests meet the urban fringe, koalas are facing unprecedented challenges. The Koalas sheds light on a disturbing truth: the very entities entrusted with safeguarding our natural treasures are contributing to the demise of these emblematic creatures.
The Koalas takes audiences on a journey into the lives of individual koalas, led by charismatic characters – Wonnie, Bexley, Tom, Baz, Coral and adorable joeys Hope and Pala. As these stories unfold we witness the unique characteristics of koalas, their bond with their young, and the wildlife carers they come into contact with. These seven emerge as ambassadors for all koalas facing threats to their ongoing survival.
After the Castlemaine Documentary Festival premiere on 16 June the film is being released nationally in independent cinemas: in Victoria at Ballarat, Melbourne, Geelong, and Leongatha, with other centres to follow. After the Sydney screenings, the film will be shown in regional NSW in Bowral, Newcastle, Canberra, and the NSW North Coast. Screenings in Perth, Margaret River and SE Queensland are upcoming. For screenings and cinema details see: www.thekoalasfilm.com
Sutherland Shire Environment Centre was a financial supporter of this film, along with WIRES, the National Parks Association of NSW, WWF-Australia, Documentary Australia, and Screen Australia.
The below review from Yahoo News about the new Koalas film is an excerpt. It’s worth reading in full: https://au.news.yahoo.com/australia-set-to-be-embarrassed-overseas-as-confronting-new-documentary-released-074057097.html
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“Embarrassed” is how a pair of Aussie filmmakers say they’ll feel once their confronting new wildlife documentary is screened internationally. But after four years chronicling the sad demise of the country’s most iconic native mammal for their feature The Koala, it’s an outcome producer Georgia Wallace-Crabb and director Gregory Miller think is unavoidable.
“As Australians it would be embarrassing to turn up overseas at a festival and to be asked about how bad the situation is,” Miller told Yahoo News. “Because most people see Australia as a wealthy, organised, safe, secure, modern country.”
The pair began filming The Koala after hearing a population of the cuddly marsupials would be displaced by a new multimillion dollar housing development planned for Sydney’s south-west.
“I was driving my car when I heard that, and it just made me so angry that the government had decided that little colony didn’t matter, because there’d always be another one somewhere else,” Miller said.
The film started as an investigation into that small population of koalas, but quickly expanded into an expose on the demise of koalas across the country as federal and state governments continue to preference native forest logging and housing over nature.
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