LIttle Big Shots

Here's an idea I can see had its genesis in Adelaide coming directly from this years' Fringe Festival. Cast your mind back to March; the Fringe was on and the first of the many performances which sold out was a kids dance party, pitched at youngsters from the age of 2 years and over. Clearly, the parents thought it was a great idea, and packed out the venue (at the Festival Centre).

Clearly, someone at the Festival Centre also thought it was a great idea, and could see a way to engage a new audience.

Cue 'Little Big Shots', a film festival for - and some of it created by - children. 'Little Big Shots' comes to Adelaide for the first time this year, after its beginnings in Melbourne a couple of short years ago.

Curator Marcello Bidinost is thrilled by the attention, and the opportunity to bring her festival to SA.

"We were really chuffed because the Adelaide Festival Centre got in touch with us," she enthuses. "It's so great to put on this festival and we had 3000 people through the door for our Sydney season, so we're growing in all directions."

"The minute 'Little Big Shots' had ended in Melbourne the Sydney Opera House got in touch with us and invited us up there. The reason they were so keen about doing it is because there literally is nothing on the landscape for kids to do or to be interested in.

"I have to say that mostly I feel really honoured because they think it's a good thing to be part of and to get behind."

"The kid thing" - she starts tripping over her tongue in her enthusiasm, Bidinost insists - "its not exactly an untapped market, but it's an audience begging for entertainment. We've changed to meet the demand in the last couple of years. We've broadened the thing from 12-15 to 5-15 and now 2-15, and yes of course we love kids, but a lot of the films are for adults as well as kids."

Lest you think this is some kind of highbrow film festival, and you missed the point entirely - that it should above all be good clean fun for the kids, Bidinost and I discuss current developments in mainstream cinema and where it does get things right for kids. She's a big fan of the two huge 'series' of films which are around at the moment; the 'Shreck' and the 'Harry Potter' franchises, which she likes to describe as multi level film.

"They're so good and the so entertaining and well done that I look up to them as something of a model," she says. "You want to make the adults come as well and the way to do that is to offer them quality films to see. If there's several layers to the films - in comprehension and understanding, I think that's okay.

"Our festival though, is mainly made up of short films, and in a one hour package audience members might see between five and fourteen film." Fourteen? "Yes, maybe a documentary, a short, an animation, one film made by a kid, it can be a real mix up of styles and content.

"I like to call it 'Little artists, big dreams' - with a cast of thousands. Some of the films might be cast with kids as protagonists, and we get a lot of feedback saying they liked it that way as well. So it's fair to say that about 30% of the films we show are made by kids and for the kids in the audience. It's good to be that sort of a touchstone, so we can include films on what kids are doing out there as well." She draws a breath: "These really are some of the world's best films for kids... the quality is all-important to me, because I see no point in showing a bunch of films which are substandard."

Though it's not a major problem - Bidinost thinks there are enough good films around for her to keep programming - she does admit to needing to keep a close eye on content. I'm not talking censorship, for Australia's standards in that area speak for themselves, but of the quality for its intended audience.

"You just hope that there is enough quality being made, and there is. There's better equipment and better films being made, we're kind of flooded with content, but it still has to reach a standard."

And the single best thing about 'Little Big Shots' according to Bidinost? "We get to show them films in a safe environment."

Alex Wheaton

The 'Little Big Shots' International Film Festival for Kids runs at Her Majesty's Theatre from Thurs 4 to Sat 6 Oct