''Change of Our Lives'' is a 2013

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

using comedy and drama to demystify

Hepatitis B Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the ''Hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) that affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. It can cause both acute and chronic infection. Many people have no symptoms during an initial infection. Fo ...

, its myths and misconceptions and set in the backdrops of the suburb of

Cabramatta Cabramatta ('Cabra') is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cabramatta is located south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Fairfield. Cabramatta ...

. It was produced and directed by Vietnamese-Australian director

Maria Tran Maria Tran (Vietnamese: Maria Trần) (born 30 January 1985) is an Australian actress, martial artist, producer, and director based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is known for developing the martial arts action film genre in Australia via the Asian ...

. It was commissioned by Cancer Council of NSW and Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE).

Screenings

*It was first premiered at Hoyts cinema in Wetherill Park, a suburb in Sydney to a reception of 600 audiences. *It had another screening on 29 July 2015 in Melbourne at the Horse Bazaar. *Selected to be screened at the 2014

Vietnamese International Film Festival First started in 2003, the Vietnamese International Film Festival (also known as ViFF) is a biennial film festival organized by the non-profits Vietnamese-American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) and University of California, Los Angeles, UCLAs V ...

Cast

*Thien Nguyen as Hung *Yen Le as Mai *Ian Tran as Long *

as Bich *Joe Le as Kai Le *

Vico Thai Vico Thai is an Australian actor, He is known for his role as Justin Yang on ABC TV’s award winning drama series Total Control and as Riz in Foxtel's Dangerous TV series. His other notable roles include starring as Chau in the international f ...

as Dr Minh

Production

Maria Tran facilitated workshops with project participants and developed the script with them in two weeks. The film was made in 7 days of production shooting. Post-Production was one month at Dong Tam Association. The movie was shot in

Cabramatta, New South Wales Cabramatta ('Cabra') is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cabramatta is located south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Fairfield. Cabramatta ...

, with more than 100 locals making up the cast and crew, and took four months to film. Director Maria Tran said "one in eight Vietnamese people have hepatitis B" and "there's a lot of stigma about having it in the Vietnamese community".

Reception

The film was praised for helping to put a new spin on the efforts to combat the high rates of hepatitis B in the Australian-Vietnamese community.

References

External links

* 2013 films Australian independent films 2013 independent films Australian drama films Cabramatta, New South Wales 2013 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s Australian films English-language independent films {{2010s-Australia-film-stub