A DESIRE to have creative control over their projects has led three locals to form their own film company.
Bicton couple Jennie Tkaz and Ben Matei and friend Sean O’Keeffe, of South Fremantle, will screen their short film Telos at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in July.
The trio formed Torchbearer about 12 months ago, filming in rural China to create a documentary about an international tai chi competition.
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They also flew to Sydney last year as 2018 Australian Academy of Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) Pitch finalists, pitching ideas to producers.
The group writes, directs, produces, acts and does all the background tasks for their films.
O’Keefee described Telos as a “funky genre mash-up” of Greek mythology, spaghetti Westerns and Lovecraftian horror.
“It’s our exploration of this wonderful poem (Ocean Voung’s Tele-machus) and the questions and ideas it inspired among us,” he said.
“At the same time it was a wonderful opportunity to play in all of these different genre sandpits; we love Westerns, we love horror movies; Ben created an insane xenomorph-inspired headpiece with a fully body piece.
“For me, the most wonderful thing about meeting Ben and Jen was to work with world-class actors who can bring any character to life.”
Ms Tkaz said the trio formed the company to take more control in their careers.
“It’s a way of getting control of being able to tell the stories that you want to tell or play the characters you want to play,” she said.
The Revelation Perth International Film Festival runs from July 4 to 17.