Ben Apfelbaum

NEW AUSSIE FILM ‘ELLIE AND ABBIE AND (ELLIE’S DEAD AUNT) OPENS TODAY

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Film at the 2020 Mardi Gras Film Festival, ELLIE & ABBIE (& ELLIE’S DEAD AUNT) is a heartfelt and hilarious queer teen rom com about school captain Ellie (Sophie Hawkshaw) who has a serious crush on her classmate Abbie (Zoe Terakes).

When Ellie accidentally spills the beans to her mum (Marta Dusseldorp) and outs herself in the process, things start to get complicated, and a little bit spooky. Enter her deceased aunt Tara (Julia Billington), a lesbian activist from the ‘80s who returns from the dead to act as a kind of fairy godmother to Ellie,guiding her through the trials and tribulations of her first love.

ELLIE & ABBIE (& ELLIE’S DEAD AUNT) has opened in cinemas today. The film is screening at the Dendy Newtown, Randwick Ritz, Palace Central and Palace Byron Bay.

The pics are by Sydney Arts Guide photographer Ben Apfelbaum at the film’s Red Carpet Sydney premiere on Tuesday night.

Featured image: Monica Zanetti, Sophie Hawkshaw, Mahveen Shahraki.

 

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.