Man Who Picks Up Gonorrhoea At Bar Wins Short Film Comp

This man’s all swagger as he saunters into the bar, in the mind to pick up tonight. And he meets a lovely woman called Gonorrhoea.

The ad has taken out top honours at short film competition #SaveTheScript. The competition is a collaboration between Tropfest and NPS MedicineWise.

The winning film ‘The Pick Up’ was created by OneWay Pictures, produced by Vincent Zimbardi. Of the inspiration behind creating the film, Zimbardi said: “As antibiotics continue to lose their power, such an important and serious message needed to get out there and reach people. Sometimes audiences deflect overly dramatic and serious communication. We know people embrace and engage in humour, so we wondered, what if gonorrhoea was a person?”

The winning entrant will be screened at huge short film competition Tropfest in December this year.

Entrants were tasked with making a 45-second clip about the threat of antibiotic resistence, with the winners announced at trendy bar The Beresford in Sydney last night.

“Antibiotics aren’t what they used to be,” the man at the bar is told seductively by his new friend Gonorrhoea. “People use them so often these days the world has created new strains of superbugs that spread old favourites like tuberculosis, syphilis and yours truly.”

Second prize was an animated spot featuring a young girl and her toy rabbit.

Third went to another animation that utilised zombies, volcanic explosions and killer bees.

NPS MedicineWise managing director, Dr Lynn Weekes said that she is thrilled that so many filmmakers embraced the competition and its progressive approach to raising awareness about antibiotic resistance.

“Antibiotic resistance is a serious global health issue that is already affecting our community. Conversations must happen in lots of different places to ensure people understand this threat and our role in preventing it. Short films have enormous potential to reach a global audience and encourage people to think about how they can join the fight against antibiotic resistance,” said Weekes.

Judge Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall, guitarist with Frenzal Rhomb, said about the competition overall, “I’m a little ashamed to say that before I was asked to judge this competition, I didn’t know much about the very real threat of antibiotic resistance. Now because of it I got to learn something really important, with a whole bunch of very talented writers, animators, directors and actors as my teacher.”

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