GREAT Lakes College student Ryan McNeil had his first walk down the red carpet at the recent Focus on Ability Short Film Competition awards night earlier this month at Fox Studios in Sydney.
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On his arm was friend and director Madeleine Sweeney, who entered the ‘open’ section of the competition with their humourous film Grin’N’ Share It!.
Ryan also collaborated with school friend Daniel Trewick, to make the film Taken for Granted. To watch the film click the link below:
The night was a celebration of films that best met the competition’s theme – the ability of people with a disability.
Sixty-seven schools from all around Australia entered the competition, which is now in its sixth year.
While the two films which featured Ryan were fortunate to make it to the shortlist, they missed out on taking home the big prizes.
Madeleine, who has disabilities herself after recovering from a serious car accident, was philosophical about the experience.
“It was fun making it, we don’t regret it one bit,” she said.
“Being there on the night was an inspiration to keep on going. You have to be able to live with what you’ve got, and make the most of it. After all, what else are you going to do?”
Winner of the 2014 School Documentary section was Joe Teakle from Trinity College, who flew all the way from Perth with his father to share his story of meeting the serious challenge of recovering from a car accident. Joe wrote, directed and starred in ‘One Massive Step to Achieve the Impossible’, ending with his participation in a fun run for charity. Bateman’s Bay High School won the Most Online Votes for a School category.
The Focus on Ability Film Competition is an initiative of NOVA Employment – a Sydney-based disability employment service that finds award-wage jobs in the general community for people with a disability.
“Please spread the word. Next year will be bigger, noisier, more inspirational ... Actually, how could it get any better than this? Come back next year and we’ll do it all again,” NOVA CEO Martin Wren said on the night.