Film Spotlight- An Orange And The Eye

Log Line

This is a story about a hard-working trolley collector who is given some grace by a homeless man during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Synopsis

In the city of Parramatta during the COVID19 pandemic, people are frantically going about their business stocking up on toilet paper and other essentials, behaving much like ants gathering their stockpile.
A key element amid all of this is the shopping trolley. It's what enables all these people to gather what they need and bring them to their homes. An overlooked person in all this is the trolley collector.
Around the Parramatta vicinity, a trolley collector gathers all the stray trolleys left in the abandoned places. He also encounters a gruff old man who won't give up his trolley to the collector.
As the collector tries to track down the last of the trolleys, the old man sees the effort the collector has gone to, to do work for everyone else, and has change of heart. Even though he is homeless himself and needs this trolley, he decides to return the trolley with a little orange from his own stash as an offering.

Director Biography - Chrishantha Surith Fernando

My career in the arts began as a child actor in Sri Lanka, with numerous roles in theatre and radio drama.
I was selected by the Sri Lanka T.V. Cooperation for a three-year producer traineeship.
I was granted a three-month release to write and direct a successful youth production of a musical drama entitled " Vyanga" for Ceylon Theatres Ltd.
On completing the three-year traineeship, I was permanently employed as a producer by Sri Lanka TV Cooperation, where I produced numerous Studio & OB productions for public broadcast.
I won a producers scholarship in TV Broadcasting. As part of the scholarship, I carried out an assignment at the Australian Film, Television Radio School
I have developed few documentaries for both ABC and SBS broadcasters. I also worked as an assistant director on short films and also made my first short film “ An Orange And The Eye”. Currently, I am developing "The Naked Eye" a low budget feature film.

Director Statement

My biggest challenge was to make a film production in Australia as a migrant. It took so much struggle and perseverance to achieve my goal. I came across various barriers and obstacles one after the other. Finally, I reached my goal. Now, I look forward to sharing my cinematic statement with the audience worldwide to celebrate our human spirit. I have left it to the audience to get to know a little bit of the human nature of the two characters in our film. They are not actors but real people in our society. This short note is a humble invitation to all the film festivals worldwide to be part of this short film and share An Orange with your eye.