Poster for THIS MAN'S WORTH, directed by Ash Cottrell, AFIN 2023

Documentary Short AFIN 200

THIS MAN'S WORTH

Directed by Ash Cottrell

AFIN 2023 Winner · 2 awards

  • 2023
  • 41m
  • Australia
  • English
  • M
Australian
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Stills

1 frame

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Credits

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Synopsis

At the conclusion of fulfilling working lives, two very different men, Graeme and Michael, convinced of their loss of identity and disconnection to the world around them, decide that suicide is their only option. Only one man survives the attempt on his life.

What makes this one special

From the Judges

From the Judges

This short leaves you with its message sitting squarely in your chest. The panel responded to how cleanly it says what it sets out to say, with writing that lands its point and coverage that gives the subject room to breathe. The execution drew warm agreement, right down to the considered costuming.

Curated, anonymised highlights drawn from the judges' notes.

Director's Biography

Ash Cottrell, filmmaker portrait provided to AFIN. Ash Cottrell Director

Ash Cottrell has worked in the film and television industry in a range of different roles and capacities over the last ten years. She began in the acting world in commercials and with guest roles on shows such as Neighbours. Prior to working in the film industry, Ash completed an undergraduate degree with majors in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Analysis that continues to inform her interest in the effects of protracted conflicts on a person’s mental health. She has an Honours degree in Film Theory from Monash University, where her thesis focussed on male anti-heroes in seventies New Hollywood cinema. She also holds a Masters of Producing from the Victorian College of the Arts, mentored by Gus Howard. Over the past five years, Ash has worked in production, assistant directing, accounts and the art department across feature films, television commercials and digital content. She is a freelance producer for a variety of production houses in Melbourne and works in both digital content as a director/producer and television commercial content as a producer. Most recently she produced the cooking series, The Chef’s Secret with celebrity chef, Adrian Richardson in Western Queensland. She has been in story rooms for television shows in development with the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and has worked directly for producers on Screen Australia funded comedy Web Series’, notably, Other People’s Problems, The Drop Off and The Listies Work for Peanuts. In the past year, Ash was the Art Department Coordinator on FIRES (ABC), Love Me (Foxtel Binge) and Savage River (ABC). She was also the Art Department Coordinator on the feature film High Ground and took on post-production roles working directly for Producer, Maggie Miles. Ash has worked extensively in Melbourne, in Far North Queensland (Celeste), rural Victoria (The Intolerant Cooks), Sydney and Red Hill (Ferrari) and Arnhem Land (High Ground). Throughout this diverse production experience, she remains committed to a career as a documentary filmmaker and has a particular interest in projects that focus on social justice issues. She is committed to visually stylistic documentaries with commercial appeal and infusing a narrative approach to the storytelling.

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THIS MAN'S WORTH was Winner of Best Original Score and Best Documentary Short and a Nominee for Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing at the AFIN International Film Festival 2023, a Top 100 Best Reviewed and IMDb-qualifying festival.

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