It's been a while since we’ve managed to get a newsletter out. Hope you are all well with your various projects.

We wanted to let you know that we had the World Premiere of We Are Not Powerless at the mighty Adelaide Film Festival last week. Some photos below.

It was a powerful week and we had TWO FULL HOUSES AND TWO STANDING OVATIONS. Since then we have been receiving messages from around the country and I have been reflecting on the power of cinema.

See video of the 3 min Standing Ovation here

See our remarkable trailer here

In a world where there are millions of views on the most banal of ‘content’, I have been thinking about the relative value of an audience. The power of being in the room, of feeling an emotion and sharing that emotion with others is something far more special than a video watched on phone.

Like a hug between friends or lovers which gives us an energy to go on, an authentic story shared with an audience can reverberate around the world. I know our little story will live for decades from this moment.

I also thought about the importance of the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund.

We live in a world where streaming platforms, driven by powerful algorithms and owned by the richest men in the world, are trying to control our stories. These algorithms even reach deep into our screen agencies, trying to extract money with false promises of vast audiences. There is a ‘catch and kill’ element to their process.

Our stories get short lives on their platforms, before they are buried and lost to us forever. Added to the fact that they sell our stories back to us through subscriptions, and don’t even pay tax in this country there is no reason we should underwrite their businesses.

The AFFIF is one of the few rare opportunities that gives us the opportunities to send our stories out to the world. So our huge thanks to them. Viva La Adelaide Film Festival!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped get this story out, and thank you to the brave and dedicated refugees in Indonesia who shared their story so openly and honestly. Farahnaz, Laila, Tania, Reza, Tahira, Tabbesum, Khalil, and my best of friends and family Muzafar and Nagina.

Much love to you. May your stories go well.

Jolyon & Hamish and everyone at Light Sound Art Film