Words by August Billy
The Moogai, which is screening at St Kilda Film Festival.
Filmmaker Jon Bell lives on Bundjalung country in Casino, northern NSW. Bell’s career work – which includes the TV dramas
Redfern Now and
The Gods of Wheat Street – has largely focused on the contemporary experiences of Australia’s Indigenous people.
Bell’s latest project,
The Moogai, is a 15-minute psychological horror film, which he wrote and directed. The action centres on a young Indigenous couple, Sarah and Fergus, and their newborn baby, Jacob.
Shortly after bringing Jacob home from hospital, Sarah (played by Shari Sebbens) starts having visions of a young Blak girl who tells her that “he’s watching”. “