It’s Sweet As – Jub Clerc’s debut feature green lit for production

Sweet As, the debut feature film from writer/director Jub Clerc, has received major production funding from Screen Australia, with filming to take place in Western Australia.

Inspired by Clerc’s own experiences growing up in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia, Sweet As is co-written by Steve Rodgers, with Arenamedia’s Liz Kearney (Paper Planes) producing and Robert Connolly (The Dry) as executive producer.

With major production investment from Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department, Sweet As has also received funding from Screenwest and Lotterywest and support from the Western Australian Regional Film Fund and is financed with support from Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) Premiere Fund and Film Victoria.

Head of Indigenous at Screen Australia, Penny Smallacombe, said “Jub Clerc is an exciting talent, and we are thrilled to support her as she embarks on the next step in her career. We are also excited that this story is told from the point of view of a young Aboriginal teenager, a perspective we don’t see enough of on screen. Coupled with the amazing back drop of the Pilbara, Sweet As will be a film that adds volumes to the Indigenous Australian film canon.”

Set in the Pilbara region in Western Australia, Sweet As follows troubled 15-year-old Indigenous girl Murra who finds herself abandoned after an argument with her mother. When an unusual lifeline is thrown her way by her Uncle Ian, a local cop, in the form of a travelling Photo Safari, Murra finds herself careening down a dusty highway with a bus full of ‘at risk’ teens and two peculiar team leaders.

Director Jub Clerc said “I am so excited to be given the opportunity to tell this story. As a Nyul Nyul/Yawuru woman from the Kimberley my liyan is bursting. I am so humbled to pay homage to the Pilbara region where I grew up and to the people who raised me. I hope I do them all proud.”

Sweet As explores unconventional friendships, first crushes and finding who you are on the path less travelled.

The film will be shot on location in the Pilbara region with CEO of Screenwest, Willie Rowe, noting “Screenwest is thrilled to support the debut feature film Sweet As by Western Australian writer/director Jub Clerc with the assistance of the State Government of Western Australia’s Regional Film Fund. We look forward to production commencing in 2021 in WA’s unique Pilbara region to realise this story, which was also supported through Screenwest’s West Coast Visions funding program.”

Clerc is a Nyul Nyul/Yawuru woman from the Kimberley regions of Western Australia. After graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) 3 year acting course, Clerc performed for numerous theatre companies before moving to film and TV, including working on Mad Bastards, Satellite Boy, Jasper Jones and Mystery Road series 1. Clerc has directed numerous Indigenous Community Stories and has written and directed many short films and short documentaries including Storytime, Min Min Light and Abbreviation (from Tim Winton’s The Turning). In 2019 Jub directed two episodes on The Heights series 2 with Matchbox and For Pete’s Sake Productions for the ABC. Sweet As will be her debut feature.

Sweet As will head in to production in 2021, and will be distributed nationally through CinemaPlus with international sales by LevelK.