Ben Apfelbaum

RED CARPET : TOP END WEDDING

There should have been an ochre carpet rather than a Red Carpet for the Sydney premiere of TOP END WEDDING.

The film stars Miranda Tapsell who co-wrote the script by drawing on her experiences growing up in Darwin and Kakadu National Park. The film took the cast and crew to remote and stunning locations in the Tiwi islands, Katherine Gorge, Kakadu National Park and Darwin.

The director is Wayne Blair who directed The Sapphires.  The film has already garnered critical acclaim.

The Northern Territory Government invested $1.5 million in the movie in the hope that it would boost tourism.Miranda who plays a lawyer in the film hoped that this role would change the perception of the Northern Territory as the ocker country of Crocodile Dundee.  She also hoped that by playing an indigenous lawyer she could be a further effective role model to young indigenous women.

Tapsell was also thrilled that she could show off the Larrakia land from which she came.

The Logie award winning actor has been consistently a vocal advocate to have more indigenous people and their stories on the big screen

Like Crocodile Dundee, it is hoped that TOP END WEDDING will have further success overseas.

The Northern Territory Government is dreaming big and if the film does indeed become a commercial success, then like the Lord Of The Rings tours in New Zealand, the Game of Thrones tours in Dubrovnik, there will be tours tracking the locations captured in TOP END WEDDING.

This uplifting romantic comedy  starts in cinemas on Thursday 2nd May, 2019.

Featured image Miranda Tapsell. All images by  Ben Apfelbaum.

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.