The Sand That Ate The Sea

April 29, 2020

In the opal mining red dirt of Andamooka, South Australia; a son faces the memories of the mysterious disappearance of his father in a great flooding storm, while the same storm appears on his own horizon.

The South Australian desert is a mystical place – millennia ago it was an ocean, and opalised aquatic dinosaur fossils are still found in the dirt there today. It is home to an arid land and deep, old magic. It is a place of endless sweeping salt flats and undulating flat red earth.

Andamooka is where the frontier is, and the last of the great Australian frontiersmen call it home. The land is a stolen land, and a cursed land – and the magic of that wound has a unique way of working on the people that are born there new, and those who came before.


Original Music Composed by Luke Howard

Album available digitally via Mercury KX (here) // Album available on vinyl via Hobbledehoy Records (here)


Executive Producers: Julianne English, Cameron Gray, Matthew Helderman, Johnathan Sheldon, Cameron Cubbison, John Rhodes, Angela Thompson, and Ian Thompson.

Producer, Director & Writer: Matthew Thorne
Producer: Steven Garrett
Associate Producer: Zoe Edema
Location Production Manager: Lara Lukich
Location Logistics Coordinator: Katalin Wilby

Director of Photography: Aaron McLisky
Director of Photography (Pickups): Andrew Gough
Production Designer: Benjamin Ashley
Editor: Katerina Borys
Sound Designer: Chris O’Neill
VFX Supervisor: Pedro Motta
Colourist: Daniel Stonehouse

 

First AD: Christopher Seeto
Steadicam: Tim Walsh
1st AC: Chris Braga
2nd AC / Data Wrangler: Danielle Payne
Gaffer: Max Gerschabach
Grip: Martin Fargher
Sound Recordist: Luke Fuller
Art Director: Aisha Phillips
Art Department Assistant: John Flaws

Assembly Editor: Rolando Olalia
Assistant Editors: Eliza Cox, Shannon Michaelas, Jana Plumm
Compositor (The Refinery): Chris Betteridge
Additional Sound Design: Daniel Mueller, Soren Maryasin
Dialogue Editing: Brendan O’Neill
Title Design: Nadeem Tiafau

Kokatha Community Liaison: Glen Wingfield

Editorial by The Butchery
Sound Design by FrostFire Audio
VFX by Push VFX
Colour by Crayon
DCP by Postlab.io
Camera Equipment provided by Gearhead
Opals Provided by Dukes Bottle House Motel & Andamooka Opal Showroom
Catering by Tanya Simpson, Pippa Stafford and Charlie Sim

Produced with the assistance of the ScreenCraft Short Film Grant & Bondit Media Finance

Additional Cast: Stacey Dadleh, John Wilby, Paul Uhlik, Taj Gow-Smith, Clive “Spready” Spreadborough, Alan “Staffy” Stafford Heath, Stefan Bilka, Joe Sach, Drago “Tarzan” Antic, Val Harrison, Mash Clifford, Annie Uhlik, Jacinta Carrr, Tanya Simpson, Pippa Stafford, Claudia Mitchell, Greta Howard, Nikki Johnson

Special thanks to Greg Franklin, Jack Hutchings, Matt Glasser, Freya Maddock, Jospeh Sach, Margot Duke, Simon Quilliam, Peter Taubers, Lester & Gill Rowley, John West, Clint & Jodie Gow-Smith, Stefan Bilka, Kendal Secker, Conan “The Barbarian” Fahey, Samantha Collings, Mandy Masters, Rebecca Dugan, Rachael Ford-Davies, Greg “Greggie” Franklin, Cowel Electric, APOMA, The Pool Collective, Andamooka SES, Andamooka CFS, Charle & Co. Coffee, Roxby Travel and Cruise, Andamooka Boo-Teek Op-Shop, Coates Hire Roxby Downs, Roxby Downs Motocross Club, The Tuckerbox & Staff

For the community of Andamooka, South Australia.

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