Melbourne Queer Film Festival: Stories that Unite (cinema ad)

As Australia becomes increasingly hostile to minority voices, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival is more vital than ever, carving out a space for stories that are under-represented in mainstream cinema. To make this point, JWT Melbourne turned to an unlikely subject as source material for this year’s cinema trailer: the divisive rhetoric of right wing politicians, Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson, on subjects like safe schools and marriage equality. The aim was to transform these hateful messages into a visual story of strength, unity and love, taking recorded interviews and speeches from the politicians and turning their basic voice data into a visual and audio form that could create a beautiful animation of MQFF's iconic new logo. They collaborated with Berlin 3D Visual Artist, Bernd Marbach and Melbourne-based composer and producer, Cornel Wilczek, to do so, ultimately telling the story summed up in the campaign line: when the agenda is to divide, we need stories that unite.