Streetsweeper
a film by Neil Mansfield

The streetsweeper is a loner who finds poetry in the ordinary. Early one hot morning a man climbs out of the sea and then walks all the way across a small city: shops… suburbia… swamps… until, at sunset, three days later, his odyssey ends, in a river.

He crosses the city unnoticed by its citizens, like a ghost, observing modest moments and souveniring ephemeral material. He is an amateur poet fascinated by “found” things: old shopping lists, lost love letters, abandoned whitegoods…

Streetsweeper is a languid off-beat 75 minute feature film. A portrait of an urban Australian landscape as seen through the keen eyes of an eccentric pedestrian: inspired by the great “street films” of Antonioni, Godard, Jarmusch, Kiarostami, Linklater, Tati, Vertov & Wenders.

I am a professional film & video-maker (writer-director-cinematographer) with 20 years experience – I wrote & directed Fresh Air, a $1M movie, in 1999 – and I have been developing this unique project for five years.

A small professional & resourceful cast & crew will create high production values. Marin Mimica is the streetsweeper, an idiosyncratic “Method Actor” who will push his broom-filled trolley across town for 20kms in 60hrs. The film will be shot on high quality Digital-Betacam by cinematographer Toby
Ralph. Documentary filmmaker/film critic Megan Spencer is shooting behind-the-scenes. And, musician James Misbrener (Jim Dead) has been commissioned to compose the soundtrack.

I am now trying to raise a lean $10,000 budget. And any & all contributions will be much appreciated. We plan to shoot soon (end of 2006 in Newcastle) & need to cover basic costs: video equipment hire & stock and catering & expenses for cast & crew.

If you want to contribute to this film you can sponsor lengths of road, ie. $50: “Tar”, $100: “Bitumen”, $200: “Asphalt”, $500: “Hot Mix”!

For their investment all sponsors will receive: an “on-screen” credit, an invite to the cast & crew screening; a “souvenir” from the film; and the satisfaction of supporting fresh local independent cinema.

For more info & bank details contact:
Neil Mansfield – mob. 0439 624 647
neilmansfield@bigpond.com

This entry was posted on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 10:32 pm and is filed under indiosyncratic & slow cinema, truth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.