PRIZES:
Tribeca Film festival 2018: Best documentary feature
Visions du reel 2018: Prix Buyens-Chagoll
AACTA Awards 2018: Nominated for best sound
AACTA Awards 2018: Nominated for best cinematography
Crested Butte 2018: Best Documentary
Mumbai film festival 2018: Grand Jury Prize
Adelaide film festival 2018: Winner
IDFA 2018: Winner Human Rights Award
Atom awards 2018: Winner
Director & Writer: Gabrielle Brady
Cinematographer: Michael Latham
Sound Designer, sound mixer: Leo Dolgan
Composer: Aaron Cupples
Editor: Katharina Fiedler
Narrative practice consultant: Poh Lin Lee
First AD: Zena Kells
Script Consultant: Lillah Halla & Francoise Von Roy
Producers: Alex Wadouh, Samm Haillay, Alex Kelly, Gizem Acarla, Gabrielle Brady
Co-Producer: Julie Niethammer
Produced by: Chromosom film Germany, Third film UK, echotango Australia, Various films
Color grade: Aline Biz
Post Production house: Moonlight Barcelona
Supported by: British Film Institute (UK), WDR (Cologne), Film- und Medienstiftung NRW (Cologne), MBB (Berlin), Bertha Foundation and Screen Territory (Australia)
Island of the Hungry Ghosts is a feature length documentary film set on the remote Christmas Island.
Poh Lin is a trauma counsellor living on the remote Christmas Island with her young family. Poh Lin’s job is to work with people trying to seek asylum to Australia who have been detained in a high security detention facility, deep within the islands jungle.
The island is one of the last discovered places on earth, with humans having migrated to its shores less than a century ago. The original inhabitants are the forty million land crabs. Pulled by the force of the full moon they begin their epic odyssey from the island’s jungle to its rugged coastline.
As Poh Lin and her family explore the island’s powerful and threatening landscape, a disquieting sensation grows. Local islanders carry out their ‘hungry ghost’ rituals for the spirits of those who died on the island without a proper burial. They make offerings to appease the lost souls, who are said to be wandering the jungles at night without a home.
In the intimacy of her therapy sessions, Poh Lin feels the oncoming dystopia, as the mental state of her clients begin to unravel.