CRAIG BOREHAM
 writer, director

by Cara Nash

A crowd-funded feature has managed to raise close to $68,000 and is now headed into production.

When FilmInk caught up with writer/director, Craig Boreham, about mid-way through the Pozible campaign for his feature film Teenage Kicks – an ambitious one which aimed to raise $67,000 in 67 days – he admitted he was “trying not to panic”. While it’s definitely been a nerve-wracking past two months for the director and his crew, they can let out a collective sigh of relief as the project has clocked in at just under $68,000 and production will commence soon.

Anyone keeping track of the project will know that the movie originally started its life as a short film funded by Screen Australia. Titled Drowning, the short follows a conflicted teenager named Mik attempting to navigate through his guilt over his brother’s death, as well as his own sexuality. It was always envisioned, however, as a feature film.

“The first draft of Teenage Kicks was a feature film script that I hammered out as a muscle draft quite quickly and then began to rework,” Boreham tells FilmInk. “I adapted a section of the feature script to be a standalone short. The larger script is a much larger tale about a family and the impact of a loss within it. I knew the bigger story had a lot more meat in it and it wasn’t going to spoil it too much to put Drowning out there.”

The fact that the project started life as a short – with the film playing in various international and local film festivals and picking up a handful of awards along the way – ended up working to Boreham’s advantage when he launched the crowd-funding campaign.

“We have always received feedback from people who had seen Drowning at festivals around the world or from the Peccadillo Pictures DVD release in Europe,” Boreham says, “so we knew there were people out there that the film really resonated with. It was great when they began to find out about the feature project and wanted to get involved. It has been really helpful in getting the word out. There were quite a few bloggers and movie fansites that encouraged people to donate. One of the greatest things about doing the crowd-funding thing has really been connecting with those people and having actual contact with an audience before the film is made.”

The feature has already recruited exciting Australian acting talent with Bojana Novakovic and Luke Arnold signing on to the project, but the heart and soul of this film is Miles Szanto, who will be returning to the feature project to play Mik.

“It is incredibly exciting to step back into this world,” Szanto says. “There is so much more to explore with this character and the feature script really allows space for that. In the short, we really only scratch the surface of Mik’s journey. In the larger story we get to see why Mik carries such huge guilt in regard to his brother’s death and his deep need to break out of the mould his family has set for him.”

To keep up to date with the progress of Teenage Kicks, head to the film’s website and follow the project on Facebook. Also pick up the current issue of FilmInk for more coverage on the project.