Tropfest

Howard and a small group of other volunteers got together one summer and created the short film “Pairs of Pears: A Pathway to Civilisation” and entered it in Tropfest that year. The film, written and directed by Howard, was aimed at raising awareness of the relationships between kindness, reduction in aggression and the attainment of peace on Earth, which has also a key theme in a number of conference papers written and presented by Howard locally in Australia and overseas at various conferences over the years.

Howard Bell, Movie Maker

What happens when a group of WorkCover NSW staff get stuck in an elevator with a ladder? Howard Bell writes a film.

This scenario was the inspiration for Howard’s first entry into the Tropfest short film festival held during February. Howard’s film, titled Pairs of pairs: a pathway to civilisation, focuses around an argument between two high school students and two teachers in an elevator on whether humanity has reached civilisation.

With a cast and crew of 16, Howard hired a mini bus to cart his team around several different set locations.

The film took a total of 5 days to make starting from auditions through to the final editing. “We managed to cobble together a masterpiece in triple time,” Howard said. Howard wrote and directed the film which delves into issues of social justice, global warming, aggression, refugees, and whaling.

Howard Bell, Principal Solicitor WorkCover NSW Legal Group, is a man of large aspirations outside of his working world. Besides having an interest in storytelling and film, Howard also participates in volunteer work with Amnesty International, community radio, Greenpeace and the Peace movement, is a member of the Army Reserve and a grandfather of five.

Tropfest is an annual festival inviting directors to submit a 7 minute film (Howard’s scrapped in at 6:59) to be screened in Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Hong Kong. Tropfest usually attracts around 500-700 entries which is culled to 60, with eventually only the top 16 being screened.

A professed festival addict, Howard has great ambitions for the film after Tropfest hoping that it will be screened at the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival to be held later in the year. He is also hoping that the film will make an appearance on SBS Television.

Although admitting that he has done “plenty of acting in the courtroom”, Howard wants to stay behind the camera with a feature length film on climate change already in the woodwork.