DON’T let the beard fool you. South African Quinton Lavery is the youngest filmmaker at the Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF) this year. In fact, the 22-year-old student, from the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA) in Cape Town, is missing his graduation tomorrow to be here.

His 12-minute short, Freedom Days<$>, shown at Liberty Theatre last night, follows the lives of three characters in post-apartheid South Africa, showing the changes over the past decade of democracy and whether or not they are able to cope.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come here,” he told the Mid-Ocean News this week. “It’s actually quite surreal.”

But, he said, it came with a lot of soul searching, as he spent his life savings on the air fare and would return home virtually penniless.

The one thing the aspiring young filmmaker doesn’t lack is spunk and optimism and believes he’ll bounce back in time, especially since he already has a job lined up on his return.

This is Mr. Lavery’s first trip abroad anden Freedom Days<$> was picked for BIFF, he said he could not let the opportunity pass him by, especially since it’s the second time the film has been chosen for an international film festival. Freedoays <$>was selected as the only South African film in the 14th Chilean International Short Film Festival last year, where it ended up winning a Special Mention Jury Award.

The film also won Best Third Year Production at the second Annual AFDA Cape Town Film Festival in 2005.

His friend and future business partner, who was also the director of photography for Free Days<$>, Darren Wertheim, was unable to attend, despite the pair’s best efforts to raise the necessary cash.

Mr. Lavery and Mr. Wertheim worked on eight films during their four years together at AFDA, including Only in Death, an eight-minute experimental, which screened at Cape Town’s Horrorfest last year.

As for the actual event, Mr. Lavery said he was thankful the committee were able to arrange accommodation for him in Bermuda and praised them for what he termed “a spectacular event”.

“Compared to film festivals in South Africa, this is so well-organised,” he said, adding that he couldn’t believe everything the committee had managed to arrange for both filmmakers and the international press during the last week.

As for meeting American actor Richard Dreyfuss, the BIFF jury co-chair, he said: “Wow! Now that was surreal!”