The independently produced Melbourne short film, Speaking Daggers – a tale about love, revenge, deceit and betrayal, set in a modern café and using original text written by William Shakespeare 400 years ago, will make its Queensland Premiere as an official selection at this year’s Noosa International Film Festival.
Starring Michala Banas, Nadine Garner, Scott Major, Christopher Kirby, Sally McLean, Billy Smedley, Faran Martin and singer/songwriter, Jaron Natoli, Speaking Daggers is also directed and adapted by Melbourne actor and filmmaker, Sally McLean. Featuring eight Shakespeare characters from five different plays, the stand-alone short film is set in the same universe as Season Two of the acclaimed independent web series, Shakespeare Republic – also created and directed by McLean – a female-led and culturally diverse Shakespeare anthology series and one of Australia’s most lauded and awarded web series on the festival circuit last year (11 Awards, 48 nominations and 45 official selections to date).
Famed for their work producing “bite-sized” Shakespeare, the team behind Speaking Daggers are thrilled with the response the film has received so far on the international film festival circuit. The film was awarded Best Short Film at the 2017 Peak City International Film Festival in the USA and awarded “Highly Commended Finalist” status at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Shakespeare Film Festival in the UK by Jury President, Sir Kenneth Branagh. Now officially selected for thirteen international film festivals – Speaking Daggers’ Australian Film Festival Premiere screening was as one of this year’s Top 100 Short Films at the iconic St Kilda Film Festival in May.
Speaking Daggers (2017) Trailer from Incognita Enterprises on Vimeo.
“We are so excited to be part of the official line up at this year’s Noosa International Film Festival!”, says McLean. “This on top of being part of the official line up at this year’s St Kilda Film Festival is just amazing. We are so grateful for the support we are being shown for this film in our home country and can’t wait to visit Noosa for the first time later this year!”
It’s been a busy time for the team, with the first two seasons of Shakespeare Republic, starring Michala Banas, Alan Fletcher, Nadine Garner, Dean Haglund and Christopher Kirby, among others, being launched on USA streaming service, Seeka TV, just last month.
“Seeka TV is dedicated to the web series format and Shakespeare Republic is one of the best examples of taking advantage of that format,” says George Reece, VP of Programming for Seeka TV. “In just a few short minutes, each episode takes something from the Immortal Bard and turns it into something unique and relevant in today’s world. You can’t do what Shakespeare Republic does in any other format.”
Ranked in the Top 20 web series in the world out of over 500 international contenders (at #14), and in the Top 5 series in Australia (at #3) in 2017 (source: Web Series World Cup), Shakespeare Republic Season Three has also just been announced, due to begin filming later this year, with Alan Fletcher and Christopher Kirby joining the Creative team as producers.
“Over two seasons, Shakespeare Republic has received overwhelming international recognition and praise,” says Alan Fletcher. “Season 3 will continue to expand on this success and bring innovative new directions to the project. I am thrilled to be a part of such an incredible creative team.”
McLean, whose production background includes time working at the BBC in London, and is also currently the General Manager at Melbourne WebFest, believes that the online series medium – both long and short form – is clearly the future for serialized narrative content in general. After having Shakespeare Republic invited to screen at the 2017 St Kilda Film Festival as part of their “Australia’s Favourite Web Series” showcase, Sally also appeared at this year’s St Kilda Film Festival as one of the panel for the sold out workshop session “Let’s Talk Web Series”, alongside fellow award-winning creators Warwick Holt (Bruce, currently at #2 on the Web Series World Cup ladder), Leanne Tonkes (This Is Desmondo Ray!, currently at #1 on the Web Series World Cup ladder) and Alyce Adams (i can’t even.) – showing that short film and short form series content can definitely live side by side and that there is growing interest in the short form series medium.
“There are so many new avenues opening up in the emerging digital space and I am very excited about what the future holds for not just my own projects, but also Australian web series’ creators in general,” says McLean.
Speaking Daggers will screen in official selection at the Noosa International Film Festival on Saturday 27th October at 2:00pm at 5.30pm at the Noosa J Theatre.
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