Private Project

Hold Still

An origami swan folded in secret. Close friends lying on their backs in the sun. A sanitary pad expanding in the grass. Second glances shared at dawn.
‘Hold Still’ is a collection of the ‘in between’ moments after Logan, a lonely dancer in rural Victoria, meets a tradie at sunrise.

  • Emily Dynes
    Director
  • Emily Dynes
    Writer
  • Jasper Caverly
    Producer
  • Kristen Augeard
    Producer
  • Madeleine Magee Carr
    Key Cast
    "Logan"
  • Katie Long
    Key Cast
    "Ari"
  • Darcy Eagle
    Key Cast
    "Cal"
  • Nyssa Mitchell
    Cinematographer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Slow Cinema
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 23 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 7, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    4,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Shooting Format:
    16mm
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Emily Dynes

Emily Dynes is an award-winning visual artist and filmmaker committed to crafting inclusive, honest and intimate storytelling. Her films have been featured in the Melbourne International Film Festival’s prestigious Accelerator program, Aesthetica Film Festival, My Queer Career, Leeds International Film Festival, Short of The Week, Director’s Notes, Boom.TV, BIFF’s Young Australian Filmmaker Nominees, Frankie Magazine’s Good Stuff Awards and as a finalist at St Kilda Film Festival. Emily directs ‘Deep End,’ an ongoing visual series exploring intimacy, healing and trauma supported by the City of Melbourne. She was most recently awarded 'Best Victorian Short' at the 2023 edition of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival for her work 'Everything Gone.’

Emily is inspired by authentic and diverse Australian stories, and filmmaking that wears its heart on its sleeve.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I never quite know how to hold the feelings of growing up queer in a rural setting in my heart. The hum of the city felt desperately far away (a mix of character-filled bus rides and train trips over a handful of hours, more if they didn’t connect on time), but on a clear day, you could see the skyscrapers on the horizon and it felt like both a promise and a taunt. Sometimes it was painful, sometimes choking, sometimes lonely, sometimes freeing, sometimes giddying. An inhale, an exhale. There is a myth that queer kids need to move to the city to step into themselves, to dance in glitter under neon lights, to find love, to find their chosen family. But to be queer is to be in a constant coming of age, and the truth is that connection is everywhere, and we make communities and homes wherever we go, built from the minutia of our days. The people we smile to at bus stops, the sounds of a neighbour’s music bleeding through the walls and sharing in the sound, making a friend laugh accidentally liking an Instagram story, the stupid joy of laying in grass in the sun, the blossom of a crush turning your cheeks pink.

‘Hold Still’ was a way to explore these little quiet moments, and the different meaning they hold for different people at different times. A series of vignettes bookended by the liminal space of a bus stop, on the very outskirts of Melbourne, ‘Hold Still’ follows two strangers that cross paths at dawn, each waiting for a lift, each living very seperate lives.

After working in the furious paced world of music videos directing dance on screen, I’ve spent the last few years living in the bush, working with at risk youth and young adults, some queer, some not, exploring storytelling as a tool for navigating identity. ‘Hold Still’ was a way to pull all those threads together. Inhale, exhale.