A TAMA FILMS Production A HILARIOUS

 A MONTEREY MEDIA PRESENTATION FILM FINANCE CORPORATION AUSTRALIA Presents In Association with CLAYMORE CAPITAL SHOWTIME AUSTRALIA THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FILM CORPORATION 120DB FILMS A TAMA FILMS Production A HILARIOUS COMING-­OF-­AGE COMEDY KEISHA CASTLE-­HUGHES Introducing DANIELLE CATANZARITI ESSIE DAVIS RUSSELL DYKSTRA CHRISTIAN BYERS And TONI COLLETTE Produced by MIRIAM STEIN Written and Directed by CATHY RANDALL SUNNI: KEISHA CASTLE-­HUGHES ESTHER BLUEBURGER: DANIELLE CATANZARITI GRACE BLUEBURGER: ESSIE DAVIS OSMOND BLUEBURGER: RUSSELL DYKSTRA JACOB BLUEBURGER: CHRISTIAN BYERS AND MARY: TONI COLLETTE PRODUCER: MIRIAM STEIN EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: HEATHER OGILVIE, STEPHEN HAYS, PETER M. GRAHAM II , ANTON ROSENBERG, TONI COLLETTE ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: HARRY CLEIN, KRISTIN ANDERSONS, JESSICA HATHERALL, REBECCA WONG DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ANNA HOWARD, ACS PRODUCTION DESIGNER: NELL HANSON COSTUME DESIGNER: SHAREEN BERINGER EDITOR: DANY COOPER, ASE ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSED BY: GUY GROSS “THE ONLY ONE”COMPOSED BY: PAUL MAC WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: CATHY RANDALL RUNTIME: 101 Minutes MPAA Rating PG13 COPYRIGHT© MMVIII Film Finance Corporation Australia Limited, EB Productions Ply Limited, South Australia Film Corporation, The Premium Movie Partnership and Claymore Capital Ply Limited. “It's highly entertaining with a great soundtrack making it the perfect recipe for a hit with every teenage girl. MEAN GIRLS with heart.” – Ain’t It Cool News “This charming, highly-­‐accomplished first feature will gladden the hearts of parents everywhere looking for a film to watch with their pre-­‐teens… funny and honest. The dialogue and situations are also often just downright hilarious and occasionally outrageous.” – Screen Daily “The performances are delicious. Toni Collette's amazing. Diminutive Danielle Catanzariti is terrific as is Keisha Castle-­‐Hughes This was a very intriguing film... this cheerful comedy.” – ABC At the Movies “A sweet natured comedy for girls aged five to 90.” – Time Out Sydney “There are a lot of high expectations placed on the opening night selection of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, where a packed house of more than 1,000 moviegoers rings in the oldest and largest film festival of its kind. HEY HEY IT’S ESTHER BLUEBURGER hit a home run for us. It’s a funny, smart movie about a funny, smart girl, a coming-­‐of-­‐age story that manages to be tender and sharp at the same time. Our audiences talked it up so that repeat screenings were sold out too. It was a delight to present.” -­‐ Peter L. Stein, Executive Director, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival “A quirky and quite enjoyable coming of age saga. The film belongs to Danielle Catanzariti and her delightful breakout performance as Esther. Esther Blueburger, the adorable young lady, is a winner.” – BoxOffice.com 4 Stars. This is a must-­‐not-­‐miss, charming, delightful and wonderfully funny and very human exploration of teenage girls, adolescence and the challenges presented to us — especially as teens — when we are who we are.” – Mr. Movie, Tri-­‐City Herald “As it's not the type of film to traditionally win awards, hearts and laughs will have to do… entertaining and engaging. The interplay between the twin siblings is truly fantastic. Their ability to be kids striving for a different sense of adolescence while attempting to understand the parenting they're subjected to is both comedy and drama, and it's entertaining either way.” – Moving Pictures Magazine Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger is a hilarious coming of age comedy that explores what it’s really like to be an outsider in your own world. Esther (newcomer DANIELLE CATANZARITI) is not like other girls; she befriends a duck, talks to God through the toilet and break-­‐dances at her bat-­‐mitzvah. Her school is a daily torment of mind-­‐numbing conformity and bell-­‐ringing rituals. Home is a pressure cooker driven by her mother Grace’s (ESSIE DAVIS) demand for perfection. But life changes when Esther meets uber hip Sunni, (KEISHA CASTLE-­‐ HUGHES) and her off beat single mother Mary (TONI COLLETTE) and slips out of her oppressive all-­‐girls private school and into a public one under the guise of a foreign exchange student. She learns that it’s ok to be different and that being true to yourself is more important than fitting in. HEY HEY IT’S ESTHER BLUEBURGER – a smart, rueful and dead-­‐on portrait of life’s unending quest to fit in… and the girl who solves it by completely breaking out – introduces a feisty outsider hero unlike any other seen on screen. She is not remotely like your typical teenager. And she is not trying to win a dance contest or navigate the drug world or vie for the love of some star athlete. Instead, Esther Blueburger is seeking something far more ambitious, essential and exhilarating – to defy the chaos, unfairness and absurdity of the world with her irresistible and indestructible urge to be herself. Esther Blueburger’s (DANIELLE CATANZARITI) quest begins when she escapes from her own Bat-­‐Mitzvah party and is befriended by Sunni (KEISHA CASTLE-­‐HUGHES), the effortlessly cool and fun girl who is everything Esther thinks she wants to be. With the help of Sunni, Esther goes AWOL from her ordinary life – secretly busting out of her cold, repressive private school to clandestinely attend Sunni’s edgy, forbidden public school as a Swedish exchange student. Esther also leaves behind her blithely malfunctioning nuclear family – her flummoxed mother Grace Blueburger (ESSIE DAVIS), her sentimental father Osmond Blueburger (RUSSELL DYKSTRA) and her mad genius twin brother Jacob Blueburger (CHRISTIAN BYERS) – to hang out with Sunni’s far breezier and super-­‐hip single mom Mary (TONI COLLETTE). Esther embraces her masquerade and enthusiastically crosses over into an alternate, new world in which everything in her life has become reversed. Once bullied, Esther is now in charge. Once the reject, Esther dives boldly into sexual experimentation. Once the angelic daughter, Esther defiantly shakes up her bewildered family. But when one of Esther’s two very disparate worlds is suddenly shattered, she must find a way to bring together all the conflicting dualities of her life – public and private, real and fantastical, ugly and beautiful, the desire to be cool and the need to be loved – while finally and fully embracing the wonderful weirdness and ecstatic bliss of being Esther Blueburger. At once a sharp modern comedy about family and identity and a fable rife with incandescent memories of the perils of adolescence, HEY HEY IT’S ESTHER BLUEBURGER marks the feature debut of a fresh new voice Cathy Randall. The first time writer-­‐director creates an original visual universe for Esther in which a series of unexpected occurrences that display the vivid essence of a skewed world in which this young heroine nevertheless finds a way to make the best of things in her evolving world. Esther may be able to transform her new high heel shoes into flashy ruby slippers with glue and red sequins, but she discovers that that it is not quite so easy to walk in them. Danielle Catanzariti (Esther Blueburger) Danielle Cantanzariti won her first feature film role in 2007 when she was cast in the title role of Esther in Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger. Casting directors were quick to see Danielle’s talent and immediately cast her in her next film, Elise, starring opposite Natalie Imbruglia. Danielle is now being touted as one of Australia’s hottest young up and coming film actors. Following the completion of Hey Hey it’s Esther Blueburger, Danielle was cast in the prestigious Sydney Theatre Company production of Blackbird. Danielle was hand picked by Cate Blanchett, who will be directing her in the play. Keisha Castle-­Hughes (Sunni) In 2001 Keisha Castle-­‐Hughes caught the eye of a casting agent scouting primary schools, looking for a young girl to play the lead in an upcoming New Zealand film. Keisha made her film debut as ‘Paikea’ in Niki Caro’s Whale Rider released internationally in 2002. Her portrayal of Paikea earned her international acclaim and an Best Actress Oscar® nomination in 2003. She won Broadcast Film Critics, Chicago Film Critics, NZ Film & TV, Online Film Critics and the Young Artist awards for Whale Rider. Keisha Castle-­‐Hughes was ‘Queen Naboo’ in George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) and portrayed Mary in The Nativity Story (2006). Toni Collette (Mary) Renowned for the range and depth of her performances, Toni Collette first tasted international stardom following her poignant performance as the hapless ‘Muriel Heslop’ in P.J. Hogan’s Muriel’s Wedding for which she received an Australian Film Institute Award (AFI) and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. In subsequent years, Collette has shone in myriad feature films. She also flexed her musical talents by starring as ‘Queenie’ in the Broadway production of The Wild Party, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by A Leading Actress in a Musical and the Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Performance in a Broadway Production. In 1999 Collette garnered rave reviews and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar® nomination for her portrayal of a mother faced with her son’s paranormal powers in The Sixth Sense. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan and co-­‐starring Bruce Willis. Collette also co-­‐starred with Samuel L. Jackson in the 2000 remake of Shaft and received her second AFI Award (as Best Supporting Actress) for her unvarnished turn in The Boys, directed by Rowan Woods. Collette played opposite Hugh Grant in About A Boy, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA and starred alongside Ben Affleck in Changing Lanes. Other feature credits include Velvet Goldmine, Emma, Cosi, Hotel Splendide, 8 1/2 Women, Lilian’s Story and Spotswood. In 2002 Collette headed a cast that included Bryan Brown, John Goodman and Sam Neill in David Caesar’s crime caper Dirty Deeds. For her role in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours, Collette won the 2002 Boston Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her moving performance in the Australian feature Japanese Story earned Collette an AFI Award for Best Actress in 2003. Collette stars in the Showtime series United States of Tara, for which she received a Best Actress Golden Globe in 2010. Collette has continued to add to her growing list of diverse local and international film credits including the comedy Connie and Carla, In Her Shoes opposite Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine, Like Minds, the Best Picture Oscar® nominated comedy Little Miss Sunshine (earning both BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for her performance), The Night Listener, Dead Girl, Evening, and most recently, The Black Balloon. Essie Davis (Grace Blueburger) Born in Tasmania, Essie Davis s a multi-­‐award winning and critically acclaimed actor who is now widely recognized as one of Australia’s leading international film and theatre performers. Building on her established career in Australia, Essie moved to London in late 2002 to star as Stella, in Trevor Nunn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Glenn Close, at the Royal National Theatre, for which she won the 2003 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress. Then Davis played ‘Dottie’ in David Leveaux’ production of Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers, for the Royal National Theatre in London and later on Broadway, winning an Olivier Award and a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a play. On screen Davis starred opposite Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson in Peter Webber’s critically acclaimed The Girl with the Pearl Earring. In 2005 she returned to Australia to play the role of Mrs. Arable in the feature film, Charlotte’s Web. More recently, Essie starred in the feature films Isolation in Ireland, directed by Billy O’Brien. Davis’ other film credits include, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Meeting Misty Rain, The Sound of One Hand Clapping and Code 46. Her television credits include “Kings in Grass Castles”, “The Ripper” and most recently “The Silence for the ABC” and Sweeney Todd for the BBC starring opposite Ray Winstone. Davis won an AFI award in 2003 for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in After the Deluge. She has also been an AFI nominee for Best Performance by an Actress in a 2000 tele-­‐feature or miniseries for “Halifax FP” and in 1995 for Best Supporting Actress in “On Our Selection”. Essie Davis is also seen in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. CATHY RANDALL / WRITER/DIRECTOR In 2002, based on her screenplay Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger, Cathy Randall was awarded a scholarship to the Los Angeles Film School’s Feature Development Program and spent a year developing the project with Hollywood professionals. In 2003 the screenplay received an Australian Writer’s Guild AWGIE award nomination for best un-­‐produced screenplay and on returning to Australia she teamed up with producer, Miriam Stein, to continue the project’s development as its Writer and Director. Prior to her scholarship award, Randall was a writer for Home and Away, an internationally successful soap opera and an intern at Tony and Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free Productions in Los Angeles. Earlier Cathy Randall pursued her passion for filmmaking while working as a journalist in Sydney, Australia. MIRIAM STEIN / PRODUCER In September 2003, Miriam Stein set up Tama Films, as an entertainment and media company focused on developing, producing and marketing feature films and media content for local and international markets. The company’s first feature film produced by Miriam is the comedy Hey Hey It’s Esther BlueBurger. Stein is a producing graduate of The Australian Film Television and Radio School (1998) and has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from NSW University. Her background has included producing television commercials and theatre. She completed AWARD school and worked as a copywriter/producer for Network Ten, Cation Creative and a producer for advertising agency, J Walter Thompson. Stein formed the theatrical production company (Fisher Stein) with theatre director Rodney Fisher and produced You Might As Well Live, Dead City and The Idiot. Stein has served as Policy Officer for The Screen Producers’ Association of Australia (1998/99) and the Australian Screen Directors Association and The Screen Producer Association’s Documentary Council (1999-­‐2001). Stein’s short film credits include Australian Film Institute Award nominated Has Beans and Remote for the Dendy Awards (screening at Sydney Film Festival). The Two Wheeled Time Machine starring Matt Day, Essie Davis and Jackie Weaver screened theatrically in the AFI’s, Fist Full of Shorts program and many local and international film festivals including Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Tampere, Forum Cannes, and St Kilda. It’s included on the DVD re-­‐release of The Peter Weir Collection and Cosi. Stein is executive producer on the feature film Monkey Puzzle. Tama Films currently has a slate of feature films and media projects in various stages of development and financing. Projects in development include a thriller by writer/director Rob Marchand titled Crime of Silence, adapted from the popular sixties novel of the same name. Stein is executive producer on the noir thriller The Left Handed Path by writer/director Gabriel Dowrick and produced by Rebecca Wong. Currently financing is a comedy called Hatched, written by Boaz Stark and to be directed by Robert Heath. ANNA HOWARD / DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY After studying cinematography at North Sydney TAFE in 1981, Anna Howard began working in the film industry for some of Australia’s best cinematographers. In the last 10 years Howard has been busy working on many commercial and film projects in both Australia and New Zealand, winning awards for her lighting and images in advertising and film. Howard’s accomplishments as a cinematographer include an Australian Cinematographers Society Gold Award for the acclaimed mini-­‐series “Marking Time” (2003). Anna Howard’s other work is featured in the soon-­‐to-­‐be-­‐
released Rats and Cats and the award-­‐winning television productions of “Small Claims” (2004), “Girl In A Mirror” (2004), and “Out There” (2002). NELL HANSON / PRODUCTION DESIGNER Nell Hanson is one of Australia’s new generation of up and coming designers. Her work can be seen in recent feature films Suburban Mayhem (2006) and Clubland (2007), and Ned Kelly (2003). Hanson has also Art Directed Opal Dream (2006), The Illustrated Family Doctor (2005), A Man’s Gotta Do (2004), Australian Rules (2002), and Russian Doll (2001). Nell Hanson was recently nominated for Australian Film Institute and IF awards for Best Production Design for her work on Clubland. DANY COOPER / EDITOR One of Australia’s best known and respected editors, Dany Cooper won her first AFI in 1994 for the feature film Angel Baby directed by Michael Rymer. More recently she was nominated for AFI and IF awards and won an ASE (Australian Screen Editors) award for Neil Armfield and Luke Davies’ Candy with Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. Cooper’s other credits include December Boys (starring Daniel Radcliffe), Samantha Lang’s The Well, which screened in competition at Cannes and for which Cooper received her second AFI award, and Queen of the Damned. For television, Dany Cooper was nominated for a 2004 Emmy Award for her work on the TV mini-­‐series “Battlestar Galactica”. LIAM EGAN / SOUND DESIGNER Liam Egan started his career in sound at community radio station 2XX. He has been working freelance in the Australian film industry for just over 20 years. During this time Liam has been the Sound Designer on over 20 features such as Suburban Mayhem, Hating Alison Ashley, Dirty Deeds, The Wog Boy and Idiot Box. Internationally he was also the Sound Designer on US films such as Manthing and George of the Jungle 2. He has also been nominated for, and won, numerous awards from the Australian Film Institute, Inside film, Flickerfest, The Australian Screen Sound Guild and the U.S. Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE). Liam has recently completed work on Ten Empty and The Tender Hook as well as Hey Hey, It's Esther Blueburger. GUY GROSS / COMPOSER Guy Gross is one of Australia's leading film and television composers. From his British Academy Award (BAFTA) nominated score to the international hit The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to the US hit SCI-­‐FI series Farscape, his film scores cover a huge variety of styles. Testament to this diversity, Gross has received numerous peer awards from the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) and The Australian Performing Rights Association (APRA) including awards for: Best Music for a Documentary, Children's Series, Short film, Animation, Promotional Video, Advertisement, TV Theme and twice for Best Music for a TV Series. Over his 25 year career, Gross has composed music for many hundreds of hours of film and TV, including series (Farscape, Bordertown), children’s animation (Blinky Bill, Flipper and Lopaka), documentaries and also features (The Adventure of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert, Frauds). This diversity is reflected in the numerous peer awards he has received from the Australian Guild of Screen Composers. Gross's most recent credits include the KnapmanWyld production East West 101, Ch 10 and ITV's Joanne Lees -­‐ Murder in the Outback and the Logie winning documentary Who Killed Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler. His film music has underscored the acting performances of Toni Collette, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Molly Ringwald, Kylie Minogue, Phil Collins and Guy Pearce and his scores have been performed in concert by the Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. Guy Gross is one of Australia’s most respected and diverse screen composers.
To bring HEY HEY IT’S ESTHER BLUEBURGER to life in all its humor and humanness, the filmmakers knew they would need to find the heart of their movie, and so it was that they set out on a long, challenging hunt for their Esther. They knew the role was going to be no easy bill to fill – because Esther isn’t really like any other young heroine. She had to possess both innocence and a chutzpah, both high anxiety and naturally sweet spirit, both a sense of the ridiculous and a dash of the courageous. Cathy Randall didn’t know exactly what she would look like, but she knew she would know the right Esther when she saw her, so the team began scouring the whole of Australia. Over a period of four months, Randall, Stein and casting agent Anousha Zarkesh traveled to every state capital across the large island nation, viewing thousands upon thousands of teen hopefuls in open auditions. “It was an incredibly rigorous search,” confesses Randall, “but we just knew this person had to be exceptional. The character is in every scene, so whoever played her had to be able to carry the film. I was adamant that we search far and wide until we found the right Esther.” “At times I wasn’t sure we could keep going,” laughs Stein. “As the producer, I was watching the budget and kept hoping, ‘surely we must be getting close.’” Then, at long last, came the breakthrough they had been waiting for: fourteen year-­‐
old Danielle Catanzariti showed up “at a cattle call audition in Adelaide, the place I least expected to find her. She walked in and it was love at first sight. I knew instantly she was Esther,” recalls Randall. Danielle had some local theatre experience but most of all, she possessed an utterly iconoclastic mix of charm, goofiness and honesty that was a dead match for Esther. She also demonstrated surprising acting chops, which came to the fore as Esther races through a lifetime of events in a short period of time, and changes from someone running from herself in undercover guises to proudly embracing her Blueburger identity, funny name and all. “Danielle had trained in her small town local theatre but somewhere along the way she had developed skills well beyond her years,” says Randall. “She has a tremendous range and does a phenomenal amount of work. Every time I gave her a direction, she would find a way to make it fresh and her own.” Raised Catholic, Danielle had to take lessons in Jewish history and Hebrew to prepare for blessing over the Torah in the Bat Mitzvah ceremony, as well as learn to breakdance during the hora sequence at Esther’s “coming of age” party. But there was little doubt in Danielle’s mind that she was ready to give everything for this role. “I loved the script and the journey you go on with Esther through all the challenges of peer pressure and bullying and becoming yourself,” she says. “She’s a very strong character and I knew I was going to have a lot of fun playing her.” On the set, Danielle was nicknamed “Audrey” after Audrey Hepburn for her irrepressible spirit and professionalism. This combo of qualities especially impressed Danielle’s Academy Award®-­‐nominated co-­‐star Toni Collette, who says: “While we were shooting, she broke my heart with her honesty and she also made me laugh. I think she is a really incredible and strong individual. For someone so young, she is very clear about who she is, but not in a contrived way. I really liked her a lot.”
Cathy Randall felt tremendously fortunate to have found someone as special as Danielle Catanzariti to create the title role of HEY HEY ITS ESTHER BLUEBURGER. She had equal luck in attracting two major international stars to play pivotal and unpredictable parts in Esther’s season of major discoveries and changes: the Oscar®-­‐nominated teen Keisha Castle-­‐Hughes as the alluring public school rebel Sunni and the multiple award-­‐winning Toni Collette as Sunni’s exuberantly fun-­‐loving mother. Hughes, who came to the fore as the young Maori heroine at the center of the acclaimed indie hit The Whale Rider, couldn’t resist the story from the second she picked up the script. “It really struck a chord with me,” she says. “The story felt so true. It is about that time where you want to be an adult but you are not quite grown up. It is as if you still want to play with Barbie® dolls and yet dress them up in really short skirts. I felt it contrasted with all those other movies that say teenagers do extreme things or don’t grow up at all. When I read the script I even felt like, ‘ohh, so I’m not the only person in the world who felt like that!’” Randall was thrilled at the chance to work with Keisha, especially in a role that could really use her unusual maturity and gritty strength to full advantage, as Sunni goes from being an idol to being heartbroken, and, in a twist of fate, ultimately ends up in the last place she expected. “Keisha is a beautiful soul and a joy to work with. She’s an instinctive actress and she was an inspiration to the other, less experienced kids. Her Sunni becomes a kind of every-­‐man voice. When Sunni judges Esther, so too does the audience,” observes Randall. Toni Collette, who won accolades in last year’s runaway dysfunctional family comedy Little Miss Sunshine, also joined the increasingly long line of people who found themselves falling in love with Esther. “I fell in love with her plight and her story and her quirks and I just found it all very emotional,” she says. “I am often drawn to themes where people have to find themselves, where they start off slightly off kilter and learn that they can well and truly be themselves. “The style of this film is so unusual and beautiful and interesting and funny -­‐-­‐ I think it will appeal to both kids and adults. You know, a film can be fun but I think that it is much more important to have a heart. When it has both, like ESTHER, it is perfect.” Collette was also drawn to her character, Mary, because she is someone she knew many people would recognize from their own childhoods: “the cool mom,” or at least the woman who appeared that way from a distance, even if her life wasn’t so picture-­‐perfect on second look. “I do think Mary is good for Esther because all the other people in her life are so dominating and Mary just allows her to be who she is. We all remember those mothers you could really open up to and I think Mary is that for Esther.” “A perfect example of ‘Esther-­‐Vision’ is the opening scene where you see the uniformed girls all cart wheeling in unison,” explains Randall. “It’s not quite reality, but it reflects the way Esther sees things.” An extension of ‘Esther-­‐Vision’ also comes when Esther, and by extension the camera, delve completely into her fantasies, such as in the sequence where, in the midst of sexual and peer pressure, a trash dumpster is transformed into a stage where Esther performs a telling song-­‐and-­‐dance. Hanson and Randall developed a considerable “Blueburger Style Bible,” and looked for ways to layer everyday objects from Esther’s ordinary life in meaningful ways throughout the entire film. For instance, the necktie Esther’s father turns into a tallit-­‐like prayer shawl as he blesses her with at her Bat Mitzvah becomes a send-­‐off for her duck, Normal, and later a way of approaching death. Likewise, her traditional Bat Mitzvah dress is refashioned into a sexier outfit for Sunni’s party and refashioned into something even more spectacular in the trash dumpster’s fantasy sequence. “It all reflects Esther’s ways of reconfiguring objects from one situation into another, her yearning to pull everything together,” says Hanson. The film was shot entirely in Adelaide, the small but dignified coastal city that serves as the capital of South Australia. Says Randall: “Adelaide is a great city, very warm and friendly and convenient. The only thing that can be a bit trying there is the weather. The day we shot the opening cartwheel sequence, it was 43 degrees Celsius [109 degrees Fahrenheit]. We started out with 80 girls but wound up with 27 because they kept fading away with heat exhaustion.” Still, most of the heat that the production experienced came in the form of local passion for assisting the film. Miriam Stein says: “For the extras at the Bat Mitzvah we ran an ad in the local newspaper asking for volunteers and 80 people turned up to volunteer their services. At Marryatville High School, which played the public school, we had 200 students and teachers volunteer for the film. We also had more than 200 girls from Annesley College join as extras and St Peters College allowed us to use the school as a location. The Adelaide community was amazing to us.” It was while looking at local schools that Cathy Randall further sharpened her portrait of Esther’s public school life, replete with its clearly delineated cliques: from the oh-­‐so-­‐
smooth Ribbons to The Emos, The Lollipops, The Rah Rahs, The Bible Bashers, The Social Climbers, The “Braidy” Bunch, The Pony Club, and the place where Esther at last finds a home, the Lion Pits, so-­‐called not only for their ferocity but their meeting place in a part of the school that was once a zoo housing wild animals. “We really wanted to highlight the different groups in the school and put a great deal of effort into depicting them,” says Randall. “We went to schools and community centers and talked to the kids about their peer groups and they are all reflective of the research we did. Then, when it came to casting each of the cliques, we went to one school and basically typecast them.! It became a really fantastic and fun part of the film, designing their individual looks and where to shoot each of them. We all loved it.” Meanwhile, Nell Hanson began designing interiors, drawing stark contrasts between Esther’s very different lives at home, at Sunni’s house, in private school, and in public school. “Esther tends to communicate by disrupting the order of things,” notes Cathy Randall. “So we wanted the Blueburger house to be very symmetrical, ordered and clean, in contrast to the pubic school which is much more chaotic with a lot of camera movement.” Click on the link below for high resolution downloads
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The monterey video division is the 2nd oldest independent video manufacturer and distributor in the United States
now encompassing all digital markets including iTunes and Netflix. monterey is well known for its broad marketing
and its direct relationships with key retail, mail-order and internet sites, schools and libraries, and specialty
markets; all major Pay-Per-View and Video-on-Demand providers; and monterey media films can currently be seen
on, Showtime, Starz, Lifetime, PBS, Super Channel and a variety of others.
The versatile monterey video library encompasses unique feature films and documentaries with the Company
having been awarded numerous Multi-Platinum RIAA and ITA sales Awards; prestigious Independent films
starring such distinguished actors as Susan Sarandon, John Ritter, Tommy Lee Jones, William Hurt, Forest
Whitaker, David Strathairn, Brian Dennehy, Robin Williams, Danny Glover, among many others; celebrated
sports programming including Bruce Brown Films On Any Sunday and The Endless Summer; the most
prestigious educational yet entertaining library of films adapted from literature’s renowned authors combined
with acclaimed performances from many of Hollywood’s greatest actors; and note-worthy children’s
programming. In addition, monterey has the honor of being the first video market licensee of the American
Film Institute. 1210