Following the successful cinematic release and television screening of HERE OUT WEST on ABC TV, writer Bina Bhattacharya, whose chapter The Eternal Dance was praised as “one of the standout stories” (SMH, 10/08/22), is excited to announce her debut feature film project as sole writer/director, FROM ALL SIDES, which is scheduled to go into production in November.
The film is set in Bhattacharya’s home of Campbelltown in Sydney’s south-west and tells the story of a middle-aged Indian-Australian woman whose former life as a professional dancer resurfaces, catapulting each member of her multi-racial family into parallel journeys of cultural and sexual awakening, unearthing a minefield of race relations, class tension and sexuality.
‘From All Sides’ stars Monique Kalmar (‘Shantaram’, ‘Heartbreak High’, ‘The Bump’) as Anoushka, and Heath Ledger scholarship finalist Max Brown (‘The Gloaming’, ‘Retrograde’, ‘Glitch’) as her bisexual husband Pascal.
The film also features an exciting ensemble line up of diverse Australian actors in supporting roles, including Georgia Anderson as daughter Nina, an aspiring dancer, and Josh Virgona (‘Iggy & Ace’) as Pascal’s love interest Remy. Josh Virgona is also a Campbelltown native.
The film is written and directed by one of the country’s most exciting new talents, AWGIE-nominated Bina Bhattacharya, who is part of the writing team on ‘Here Out West’, which opened last year’s Sydney Film Festival. The Western Sydney-based creative has also had a successful career as the producer/writer/director of award-winning short films including the Eurovision-themed ‘Wild Dances’, a finalist in My Queer Career at the Mardi Gras Film Festival.
The film will feature dance styles spanning contemporary, Bharatanatyam (South Asian Classical Dance) and fusion, in line with Bhattacharya’s signature style of blending South Asian cinematic styles with a modern, Australian sensibility. The film will also be a landmark depiction of sexuality as experienced by people of colour.
“I wanted my first film to be a film only I could make. It was important to me to represent East and South Asian characters as fully realised, three-dimensional, sexual beings with all the ambiguity and messiness that entails. I grew up on Indian cinema and so having singing and dancing in the film is true to my taste.”
‘From All Sides’ is a production from Campbelltown-based Gemme de La Femme Pictures and has been developed with the generous support of Western Sydney arts organisations PYT Fairfield and Campbelltown Arts Centre.
