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 co-devised and performed a puppet show at 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).
2020 saw her complete her fourth feature doco for BVHS, which is part three of a series about the local culture in the 70s-80s. Mullumbimby's Madness is about how the alternates/hippies found the Byron area and put down roots, with Mullumbimby's Magic - the Culture of the 70s-80s documenting the first proliferation of culture that grew from that early settlement: part one - Health & Wellbeing, part two - Activism & Politics, and part three - The Arts. These documentaries are owned by the BVHS and available on the Historical Society's website, the Mullum Museum or shops in Mullumbimby , (Mullum Newsagents, the Mullum Bookshop and Stewart's Menswear). Sprinkled with the usually zany characters and their amazing anecdotes, discover a rich and entertaining look into a shared history.
I can’t imagine how you managed to handle so much information and so many threads but you did and you even made it interesting for someone who wasn’t here at that time. I found it very touching and inspiring. Well done! What a wonderful achievement! - Virginia Reid
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).
2020 saw her complete her fourth feature doco for BVHS, which is part three of a series about the local culture in the 70s-80s. Mullumbimby's Madness is about how the alternates/hippies found the Byron area and put down roots, with Mullumbimby's Magic - the Culture of the 70s-80s documenting the first proliferation of culture that grew from that early settlement: part one - Health & Wellbeing, part two - Activism & Politics, and part three - The Arts. These documentaries are owned by the BVHS and available on the Historical Society's website, the Mullum Museum or shops in Mullumbimby , (Mullum Newsagents, the Mullum Bookshop and Stewart's Menswear). Sprinkled with the usually zany characters and their amazing anecdotes, discover a rich and entertaining look into a shared history.
I can’t imagine how you managed to handle so much information and so many threads but you did and you even made it interesting for someone who wasn’t here at that time. I found it very touching and inspiring. Well done! What a wonderful achievement! - Virginia Reid
