Short war film made in Geraldton, No Man’s Land, to premiere at Orana Cinemas on Saturday

Geraldton is set to star on the big screen this weekend as locally made short film, No Man’s Land, premieres after four years in the making. Perth-based film maker Christian Kennedy is behind the fan film, a hybrid of action, war and sci-fi plot, which is inspired by popular video game Gallipoli and the Alien movie franchise. Geraldton became of interest to the filmmaker after seeing a clip of the trenches on Vimeo, and he was then given a tour of the trenches by Shane Day. Mr Day, a Geraldton resident who has previously worked with Mr Kennedy, worked on set for No Man’s Land. Kennedy was shown the 11th Battalion trenches, a model of trenches from World War I replicated in Kojarena, 30 minutes east of Geraldton. “I wanted to challenge myself, do something bigger — something high production, so I went home and wrote the script,” Kennedy said. “It’s amazing, these guys have built this trench that looks like a Hollywood, high production set so I thought if I threw some lighting and smoke in there it would turn out pretty good — and it did.” Kennedy said 90 per cent of the film was shot in Geraldton using the trenches and surrounding land. The cast of 30 people included the re-enactors who are regularly involved with the 11th Battalion trenches, and a cameo from former mayor, Shane Van Styn. “He is mates with someone on set and we needed an extra body in the shot and had some spare costumes and replica rifles floating around,” Kennedy said. The not-for-profit film was on set for one week in the trenches, using the surrounding farmland to help recreate the ideal World War I-inspired set. Kennedy has been making films for 10 years and funded No Man’s Land almost entirely out of his own pocket. “I was shooting commercials in between working on it, and just putting money aside to put into the film,” he said. The passion project was in pre-production for a year, and shot for a total of 11 days before entering post production for a lengthy period. The film premieres at Geraldton’s Orana Cinemas on Saturday at 11am and will include behind-the-scenes footage from the production.