Peacekeeper, a short film about a homeless veteran, won top honours at the Project Homeless Awards night.
Melbourne filmmaker, Joshua Hoareau, took out both the Parramatta prize for best film.
Independent filmmaker, Hoareau, outdid submissions from across the world to take home 1st prize with a provocative story about a peacekeeping mission gone wrong.
The story revolves around an Australian Peacekeeper who is stationed in Somalia for peacekeeping operations in 1993. During his time there, he is witness to the horrors of child trafficking in that country and he falls victim to the mental anguish and conflict of being powerless to interfere.
Jumping between his time in Africa and being homeless on the streets of Melbourne, this film’s character sheds light on some of the issues surrounding homelessness. In his acceptance speech, Horeau shared that: “In this film, we aimed to highlight 3 particular areas of concern for us: child slavery, people trafficking, and some of the challenges faced by returning war veterans.”
Joshua added: “This is a case of art mirroring real life when, two weeks into filmmaking, news broke out about the abduction of 91 Nigerian school girls.”
With the assistance of crowdfunding, Peacekeeper was made specifically for Project Homeless competition which promotes the role that film can play in raising awareness.