A film is a story. A filmmaker brings the story to the screen by mixing fact, interpretation, place and character in a predetermined manner.

As a run-and-gun documentary filmmaker I aim to present true to life characters within their own stories. Sometimes place holds a truth as in my film Dyarubbin. Sometimes the story revolves around stories within stories based on character and image as depicted in Walls and Images. Where truth and character forms the bedrock a truth can be gently shocking as occurred in my indigenous film Jarjum. Special people and special groups attract like my documentary Cargo Riders.

As a documentary filmmaker of seven years standing, I am not funded nor do I pay anyone in the particular film. Stars in the documentary get their own copy. This provides me with absolute control and very often new friends. Selling the idea or the story outline to the potential central characters is critical to getting the production off the ground. This process usually takes a month or two of effort.

Typically each 30 minute documentary takes six to eight months to complete. In short, I am an amateur on steroids! The last three films (mentioned above and on Filmfreeway.com) were submitted to 53 film festivals across the world. Across the three documentaries 11 were selected for screening in Canada, India, Italy, USA and Japan to name just a few festival locations. Of this group 8 documentaries were finalists, 3 honourable mentions, 1 semifinalist and 8 received significant awards. Some 7 are still undecided.

I remain unconvinced that festival directors fully appreciate the limitations of independent run-and-gun filmmakers. Placing one and two person productions in the same category as professional teams of 20 seems a little unreasonable. It should be mandated that for all screened productions the filmmaker is provided with a review for allowing the film to be screened.

It is the unusual story, the colourful character and the festival competition that drives this filmmaker. Working with a likeminded small group would be very desirable but highly unlikely. It is fun and technically demanding to cover filming, logistics, audio and editing but very worthwhile. So to all those run-and-gun filmmakers just go for it!!