I N D E P E N D E N T F I L M M A K E R

Sharon Shostak was transplanted to the hills of the Byron Shire from Melbourne at nine years old, and credits the fertile surrounds with nurturing her creativity from that young age. She had devised and performed a puppet show with a friend by the age of 14 that toured local markets and made her first short drama on Super 8 film in 1984, after many years stalking the world with a stills camera.
Victorian film industry trained and with two degrees in film, her independent filmmaking gained wings in 2004 with a win of Best Film at the New York Short Film Festival for her 9 minute digital short The Deep Pool.
Since then she has worked mainly in documentary, education and music video clips. In 2011 Shostak wrote, directed and edited the independent documentary feature The Echo Doco – Born To Be Trouble, as well as her 2012 dramatic short feature Tish Ho, winner of The Triangle Award for Excellence In Originality from the Colombia Gorge International Film Festival, USA.
Her four year contract as the video journalist for the online paper Echonetdaily resulted in hundreds of short documentaries about events in the Byron Shire. Shostak also produced longer commissioned pieces for Lismore Regional Gallery, such as Not Quite Square - owner built houses in the Northern Rivers, and Dancing on Sacred Land for Tweed Valley Women's Service. Sharon also tutors primary school students in devising, creating and acting in their own digital short dramas.
Sharon's feature doco commissioned by Brunswick Valley Historical Society Mullumbimby's Madness - the Legacy of the Hippies screened to sold-out audiences, and has been acclaimed as "an incredible gift to the community to create such an entertaining, beautifully shot and edited piece" (Tony Guilding).
Her current project is a fourth film for BVHS and Part Three of a series about the culture of the 70s-80s. Mullumbimby's Madness is about how the alternates/hippies found the area and put down roots and Mullumbimby's Magic - the Culture of the 70s-80s is about what grew: part one Health & Wellbeing was released in 2017, part two Activism & Politics was released in 2018 , and part three The Arts is slated for release in late 2019.
These documentaries are available for sale via the Historical Society's website or shops in Mullumbimby township such as the Newsagents, the Bookshop and Stewart's Menswear.
Sprinkled with the usually zany characters and their amazing anecdotes, it is a rich and entertaining look into a shared history. Proudly commissioned by the BVHS on behalf of preserving the community's stories.
Victorian film industry trained and with two degrees in film, her independent filmmaking gained wings in 2004 with a win of Best Film at the New York Short Film Festival for her 9 minute digital short The Deep Pool.
Since then she has worked mainly in documentary, education and music video clips. In 2011 Shostak wrote, directed and edited the independent documentary feature The Echo Doco – Born To Be Trouble, as well as her 2012 dramatic short feature Tish Ho, winner of The Triangle Award for Excellence In Originality from the Colombia Gorge International Film Festival, USA.
Her four year contract as the video journalist for the online paper Echonetdaily resulted in hundreds of short documentaries about events in the Byron Shire. Shostak also produced longer commissioned pieces for Lismore Regional Gallery, such as Not Quite Square - owner built houses in the Northern Rivers, and Dancing on Sacred Land for Tweed Valley Women's Service. Sharon also tutors primary school students in devising, creating and acting in their own digital short dramas.
Sharon's feature doco commissioned by Brunswick Valley Historical Society Mullumbimby's Madness - the Legacy of the Hippies screened to sold-out audiences, and has been acclaimed as "an incredible gift to the community to create such an entertaining, beautifully shot and edited piece" (Tony Guilding).
Her current project is a fourth film for BVHS and Part Three of a series about the culture of the 70s-80s. Mullumbimby's Madness is about how the alternates/hippies found the area and put down roots and Mullumbimby's Magic - the Culture of the 70s-80s is about what grew: part one Health & Wellbeing was released in 2017, part two Activism & Politics was released in 2018 , and part three The Arts is slated for release in late 2019.
These documentaries are available for sale via the Historical Society's website or shops in Mullumbimby township such as the Newsagents, the Bookshop and Stewart's Menswear.
Sprinkled with the usually zany characters and their amazing anecdotes, it is a rich and entertaining look into a shared history. Proudly commissioned by the BVHS on behalf of preserving the community's stories.