Park City, UT — Amie Batalibasi (Australian Solomon Islander, Feralimae/Kosi) from Melbourne, Australia, is the 2017 recipient of the Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellowship—an annual fellowship named in honor of the late Māori filmmaker Merata Mita (1942-2010). The announcement was delivered today at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
In October, BLACKBIRD screened at the 17th Annual imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada. The festival is the world’s largest presenter of indigenous content and it was an absolute privilege to be a part of it and have BLACKBIRD acknowledged on an international platform such as this. The underlying feeling of the festival seems to be …
‘Blackbird’ Screens at imagineNATIVE in Canada & Scores Pasifika Film Fest Prize
‘Lit’ screens nightly as part of the States of Blue West Projections Festival until – 10th of September 2016, 6-10pm at The Art Room, 125 Hyde St, Footscray VIC 3011. Walk or drive by to see the work projected at night. It’s on loop every evening till 10th Sept! ‘Lit’ is a 15 minute video …
‘Lit’ Video Art Piece Screens at West Projections Festival 2016
Shooting recently wrapped for Amie Batalibasi’s independent short film Docked. This is the filmmaker’s latest film starring talented South Sudanese actress Nyawuda Chuol with the awesome Damian Hill who recently wrote and starred in the Aussie feature PAWNO. A dynamic duo and a privilege to collaborate with these two actors. “‘Docked’ is a story that came to me over a …
Blackbird was selected to screen at the New Zealand International Film Festival this month as part of the NZIFF Nga Whanaunga Maori Pasifika Short Film Programme. It was an absolute honour to be sharing the screen with some wonderful Maori and Pasifika filmmakers and to have the opportunity to share Blackbird with a New Zealand audience. …
‘Blackbird’ Short Film Screens at New Zealand International Film Festival
On December 5th & 12th 2015, ‘Blackbird’, a short narrative film exploring a dark and little known part of Australian history, will screen as part of the VCA Graduate Screenings at ACMI. The film is the culmination of a long personal journey for Australian Solomon Islander filmmaker and Footscray local, Amie Batalibasi. 2013 marked 150 …
JUNE 2015 Melbourne based Australian Solomon Islander filmmaker Amie Batalibasi has embarked on a journey to tell a story that has so often been left out of mainstream Australian history dialogue. The Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI) are the descendants of some estimated 55,000 to 62,500 Pacific Islanders who were brought to Australia between 1863 …
Blackbird Film Shines a Light on a Dark Part of Australian History
Inaugural film festival to share Australian South Sea Islander stories An inaugural free one-day festival of Australian South Sea Islander film, arts, food and music will be held at BEMAC in Brisbane on Sunday 14 December 2014. The event is the culmination of a 12-month project, funded by the Australian Council for the Arts. It …
This August I volunteered for a group called the Australian South Sea Islander Secretariat (ASSIS) in Brisbane, Queensland. ASSIS is a group that works to be a representative voice for the descendants of 62,000 Pacific islanders who were brought to Australia in the late 19th Century to work on the cotton and sugar cane fields …
It’s been really great working on the Fishing for Culture project since 2012. The film is about 50mins in total and explores stories from 5 individuals and one group from diverse cultural backgrounds. It’s been an honor to direct and produce this film and meet wonderful people along the way (including the Koori Men’s Recreational …
We were fortunate to be able to hold the International Premiere of the Pacific Stories 2011 short films during the festival. Amie and Lisa were on hand to present the films to an absolutely packed house – it was hot, steamy and tropical in that big auditorium but that didn’t stop the show! The reaction from …
Fishing For Culture is a community film project initiated by Fisheries Victoria. I am happy to be on board as the the filmmaker. Fishing is important to many different cultures for many different reasons and as such, this 30 minute film will document some of the fishing stories from around the world and we are …