The much loved Ocean Film Festival World Tour returns to Noosa this March and will feature a locally shot film set beneath Sunshine Coast waters.
After 34 years serving in the Australian Navy, the ex-HMAS Brisbane was scuttled off the coast in 2005.
Seventeen years later, it is home to over 200 species of fish.
Hypnotise is a short film capturing the relationship between the ship and the marine life that embodies it.
Sunshine Coast based filmmaker, Ste Everington brings to life the remarkable underwater world local to South East Queensland and aims to inspire others to get out there, and capture more stories from our oceans.
“The Ocean Film Festival is what inspired me in the first place to create a film celebrating our local oceans and marine life,” Ste said.
“I chose to call the movie Hypnotise because that’s the feeling I got when the baitfish surrounded me on the wreck. I’ll never forget my first dive on the wreck, when the baitfish surrounded me, I felt completely hypnotised.”
Ocean Film Festival World Tour is excited to celebrate its 10th anniversary this February and Hypnotise is just one of seven extraordinary films that honours everything the festival embodies.
Jemima Robinson, founder and chief executive officer of the festival remarks, “Ste perfectly captures the beauty and mysticism of the ocean and to see the amount of fish currently inhabiting the ex- HMAS just off the Sunny Coast is truly a hypnotic experience and one that we know will capture the hearts of all viewers.”
Ste, who moved to Australia from the UK in 2016, said although his career has nothing to do with filmmaking, he’s always loved being behind a camera.
“I always found the Ocean Film Festival so amazing, and I thought it would be so cool to create something that would make it into the festival,” he said.
“I was blown away when they emailed and said they wanted to include it. It’s always been a hobby and a passion of mine.”
Ste said he hadn’t spent too much time in the ocean prior to moving to Sydney.
“Growing up in the UK, obviously it’s freezing in the water,” he said.
“You go to the beach but you don’t really go in the water that much. I’ve alway been fascinated by David Attenborough documentaries like Planet Earth, so I think that’s where my interest started.
“When I’m watching one of those documentaries in the UK, it’s such an alien world, and I thought I’d never be able to do something like that because it’s so far from what I know. When living in Sydney, my wife and I were planning a holiday to Indonesia and thought we’d do our dive certification before we went so we would could do a couple of dives there to tick it off the bucket list. We thought it’d be a once in a lifetime thing, but we ended up getting completely hooked on it and started diving quite a lot around Sydney.”
The film is part of a two-and-a-half hour showcase of equally inspiring and celebratory ocean films that focus on topics such as ocean adventure and exploration, the oceanic environment, marine creatures, ocean related sports, coastal cultures and ocean lovers.
“I hope my film inspires people like it inspired me when I first went to the festival,” Ste said.
“Whether people are inspired to do their own underwater project or it inspires them to get out and do and see these things.
“I’m going to be attending the Brisbane and Noosa screening and I’ll be doing a quick Q and A.”
The tour will in Noosa at The J on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 March from 7pm to 10pm.
With other local Australian films in the line up set amongst the Gold Coast, and another two in Victoria, this year’s films are bound to inspire Australian audiences.
Audiences can view these amazing family friendly films at one of 11 screenings around Queensland starting from 28 February and 27 other locations across the country.
Tickets can be purchased online at oceanfilmfestivalaustralia.com.au/tickets/
