Grow Up

My name is Dari Justin, and I’m an 18-year-old filmmaker from Melbourne, Victoria. I am currently in my first year studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts. I am fascinated by character-driven storytelling with a focus on narratives that explore complex and authentic human relationships. My coming-of-age short film ‘Grow Up’ was created for VCE Media last year and was accepted into Top Screen, where it was the People’s Choice Award Runner-Up. When 12-year-old Kai is forced to recognise that his older brother has outgrown their childhood fantasy games, he decides it’s time to grow up - but is he ready?

What inspired you and your work?

Grow Up is the story of brotherhood and friendship. As the middle child of 5 siblings, I drew on my lived experiences, feelings, and family dynamics to create a film that is narratively fictional yet inherently reflective of my childhood. Some of my creative influences for this film include Janet Planet (Annie Baker), Bridge to Terebithia (Gábor Csupó), and Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson). My film explores the turbulent age when tweens can feel pressured to transition away from the innocence and comfort of childhood in order to embrace the complicated world of teenagehood, or, in other words, to "grow up".