A short film documenting the practice of ANU PhD candidate and well-known local artist, Amanda Stuart, has taken out the Yowie Award for best documentary at the Blue Mountains Film Festival.

The award adds to a growing list of accolades for the film, including the Best Film Documentary at the Canberra Short Film Festival in 2013.

“Wild Things” stems from Amanda’s research into the relationships between wild dogs, dingoes and humans in South East Australia. The film was produced by director, Richard Mockler.

“It’s the hidden story behind a permanent sculpture that many locals would walk past every day in Civic,” Richard says.

“I was really excited to reveal Amanda’s sculpture bush pack to the city in a new way.

“To be acknowledged in this way is such a thrill for the whole team involved.”

Before the film’s production started, Amanda met Richard when she was finishing her PhD at the ANU Sculpture workshop at the ANU School of Art.

“But my project was based on my previous experience as a ranger, where I had developed a fascination with the ‘less loved’, or the ‘other’ or the ones that are considered ‘troublesome’ or ‘vermin’ animals,” she says.

“And so my whole project was based on wild dogs and dingoes and the conflict and tensions between regional communities and land-management agencies.”

Amanda says the film process took about 12 months and included various field trips out with Richard, where he interviewed rangers, farmers and field managers.

“He also then came back to the workshop with me and would see how I have manifest those ideas and processes through a sculptural language.”

Richard says he was impressed by Amanda’s passion on the issue along with her warmth and ability to engage with people.

“Amanda offered a fresh and intimate perspective on an issue that is constantly appearing in the news.

“Because of Amanda and her research, people walk away from the film wanting to talk about the complexities surrounding wild dogs and how we manage them.”

The film has already featured at the Flickerfest International film festival, earlier this year, where it was runner up in the Best Green Documentary category.

The well-known bronze dogs were created at the ANU Sculpture Workshop and Foundry, and Amanda says her achievements couldn’t have been reached without Workshop’s support, along with the School of Art.

“They were always incredibly encouraging with some of my crazy ideas!” she says.

“What they do there is incredible and they’re just such a committed and passionate team.

“So I just wanted to give them a little bit of a congratulations and acknowledgement for their willingness to make the film so rich.”

Amanda’s works of art will be featured in an exhibition called “Sacred” at the M16 Art space in Griffith, Canberra, next month.