Steve Tandy has never understood the murky world of crime, drugs and violence, nor why people fall into their thrall … let alone why so many who engage with the vices never make it out alive.
“It’s just a world I don’t understand, and everything about it frightens me,” Tandy says. “I want to educate people as much as I can about things they may be on the brink of getting into.”
A passion for storytelling, and ‘saving’ people and animals, has earned the talented 24-year-old filmmaker from Bacchus Marsh an Australia Day ‘young citizen of the year’ award.
Tandy recently landed a contract, with a $750,000–$1.5 million budget, to write and direct his first feature film about how life’s many crossroads can take people down dark and dangerous paths.
The Black Dogs We Carry will tackle depression, anxiety, drugs, disaffected youth and dog fighting, and will be filmed next year in Bacchus Marsh, Melton and Footscray.
“Doing research about dog violence, it made me so angry. Not enough people know enough about dog fighting,” Tandy said.
“I’d rather go through … some really bad times of researching to make a film that’s going to educate people.”
Moorabool council’s citizen of the year was awarded to Marlene Burville; community event of the year award went to the Coimadai Memorial Park opening and the mayor’s award to Nathan Ractliffe.
