Producer Deanna Ortuso refers to the movie Just Between Us, as “the little film that could”. She and her colleague and co-star Joanne Nguyen bring the Aussie flick to Majestic Cinemas Port Macquarie, on July 28 and 29.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This talented young woman also wrote the movie. “It’s a concept I had while driving over the Westgate Bridge, Ortuso says. It was 2am and I was listening to a song that I thought would be great on a road trip.
Three years later, come August, the project has gone from first draft to on screen. If the trailer is anything to go by it will be an Aussie ripper. The original soundtrack is great. “Kaarin Fairfax, who is in the movie, is Paul Kelly’s wife, and their daughter’s band wrote some of the music. Our director Christopher Kay said ‘you have got to have great soundtrack for a road trip movie’.”
Ortuso says she wanted to create a movie that wasn’t traditional art house or horror. “We wanted a story all Australians, male, female, and all different shapes and sizes could relate to.”
The filming took place across three states, including in and around Port Macquarie. “We wanted to include a music festival, I mean what’s a road trip without a music festival? We thought, ‘how are we going to do this so it translates on screen and brings great production value?’ To recreate it was going to take so much time, and thousands of people. So we hit up lots of festivals and the Festival of the Sun people said ‘come on down’. They were so welcoming.”
As a consequence, local audiences will have the chance to walk the red carpet before both screenings and have their photo taken with the stars and director. There will also be a Q & A directly after the screening. If you can’t make it to the gala screenings, the film will also screen Monday through Wednesday at 7pm.
This is the first feature film for the creative team of Ortuso, Nguyen and Kay, but based on the success of this one so far, it certainly won’t be the last.
“We kept meeting the right people to get the funding, and support. Things fell into place. It was a lot of hard work but we were also very fortunate. Australian films rarely get a theatrical release, but our premiere sold out in 10 minutes.”
It was funded by private investors. “Everyone fell in love with the story. We needed an Aussie car so we emailed a couple of car clubs. Within 15 minutes, we had the offer of a four-door, automatic, yellow 1970s Torana.”
Ortuso says there are 30-plus roles and casting was a mammoth task. “We wanted to avoid stereotypes as we have so many characters that pop up along the journey.
“It was great, we even had people tell us at the Melbourne International Film Festival screening, that they forgot they were watching an Australian movie.”
