Why isn't death typically personified as female?
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That's the question that inspired 23-year-old Queanbeyan filmmaker Will Scott while writing his short film 'Mortis Lux'.
"The film is totally from her perspective as she deals with the sad fate of being destined to an eternity of solitude because everything she touches dies," Mr Scott said.
"Intersecting the story you have a girl named Aurora who has a bunch of close encounters with death, and ultimately they find a source of companionship with each other."
Written, directed and produced by Will Scott, 'Mortis Lux' will be shown from August 19 to 31 as part of the 2022 Far South Film Festival.
The festival showcases stories told by regional and remote filmmakers from around Australia.
This is the third year the festival has been held, the last two years, due to COVID restrictions, films were only available online. This year, however, the films will be screened at two venues in Merimbula on Saturday, August 20 and Sunday, August 21, following the opening night party on Friday, August 19.
The director said he met the two main actors through a musical he was involved with a few years ago and others through Perform Australia, a drama school in Canberra.
"Chris Chacos, my cinematographer, is a longtime Queanbeyan resident and he and I have been working on short films together for a few years now," Mr Scott said.
When he's not making films, Mr Scott studies education and works as a learning support assistant at a school in Canberra.
Despite being told his entire life to "not bother" trying to pursue filmmaking due to the difficulty of breaking into the industry professionally, Mr Scott has no intention to stop making films.
"It's something I'm really passionate about and it's really great to have opportunities like the Far South Film Festival," he said.
"It can be a bit hard when you're entering these big film festivals and you have international competition or even films that have won Academy Awards.
"I'm 23, I haven't got any money in the budget, so it's good to have an opportunity to do something more local."
Mr Scott said the money for 'Mortis Lux' came from his savings and costumes and props were purchased from second-hand stores.
"One of the props is Death's staff, which we found at the Canberra Green Shed, it's technically a seed spiker designed for planting seeds but then we realised that it actually could bear a lot of symbolism," he said.
Will Scott said he was also working on a feature film that was in the final stages of post-production.
"My colleague Chris is also currently developing a murder mystery series which is actually set in Queanbeyan, so hopefully the locals will be seeing us running around doing that not too far in the future," Mr Scott said.
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