F.Y.I.

Country Town Rescue to premiere in March

The Zapruder’s Other Films production Country Town Rescue is a six part series due to premiere on ABC1 from Tuesday 27 March.

The announcement:

Country Town Rescue, produced by Zapruder’s Other films, is an observational documentary series filmed over a year in the small NSW town of Trundle. It’s the compelling story of how ordinary Australians come together to save a small rural town whose falling population threatens its very existence.

To save the town from dying a small group of dedicated locals get together and try to boost the town’s population by enticing newcomers to the area by offering up abandoned farmhouses for just a $1 a week.

Over 400 families applied for only five available farmhouses. After much deliberation five families are chosen and arrive in high summer with temperatures soaring to 45 degrees. Filmed over twelve months, this series follows our five families who ‘up sticks’ with their kids and move to Trundle. Through renovations, changing seasons and family and farmers disputes, viewers get a ringside seat to this very Australian social experiment.

The houses, the environment and the isolation of the country raises immediate problems that range from the practical – water tanks full of dead frogs – to bureaucratic stuff ups. Marriages and relationships will be tested, personalities will clash, romances will blossom, lives will be reinvented and not all will make it.

The problems faced by the families are agonized over by the Trundle Tree Change committee resulting in some riveting television.

Country Town Rescue is about challenges and new beginnings. It’s about family life, renovation nightmares, the Australian spirit and mateship. But most importantly, it’s the inspiring story of how ordinary Australians come together to save a community on the brink. It’s a story with all the drama that comes with intensively filming the families who come from all over Australia to live in the bargain-rent homes. Will they build new lives and friendships in this small community? And will the traditional country community accept these newcomers into their town? This series is a compelling snapshot of the problems of living in rural in Australia in the 21st Century.

The five chosen families are:
The Guerkes – Dan a carpenter and Kylie a Thai cook, and their four kids.
Nabih and Christie Elemam a devout Muslim Family from Western Sydney;
The Gallens – typical Aussie battlers looking for a fresh start.
Claire and Tony Moore, nurses from Canberra.
And widowed mum Donna Roberts and her kids Tommy and Sammy.

Country Town Rescue Promo 1st March 2012 from Zapruder’s other films on Vimeo.

Source: ABC press release

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