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Opening this year’s festival, the MIFF Premiere Fund-supported Jungle tells the gloriously tense, real-life survival story of Yossi Ghinsberg (played by Daniel Radcliffe), who at 22 joined two friends – Swiss teacher Marcus Stamm and American photographer Kevin Gale – on what was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. But their dream trip into the uncharted Amazon soon turned into a wilderness nightmare from which not all of the men returned.
Join the real Yossi Ghinsberg along with Jungle director Greg McLeanin this unmissable In Conversation event to hear the jaw-dropping, head-shaking stories behind the film and learn what’s really needed to survive in the jungle.
Moderated by Sandy George.
Yossi Ghinsberg
Yossi Ghinsberg is the bestselling author of Jungle, A Harrowing True Story of Survival in the Amazon that has sold over 1 million copies. He travels the planet for business, community work and personal explorations, and his keynotes inspire and transform the world’s leading corporations and organisatons. A businessman, bestselling author and daring adventurer, Yossi is the founder and architect of a number of innovative creative projects such as the acclaimed Bolivian ecolodge Chalalan, and the social mobile application Blinq. Yossi is active as a spokesperson for Indigenous people and the defence of the Amazon jungle. He is an ambassador for Shalva Children’s Centre (shalva.org) for children with special needs, and as a speaker he routinely volunteers for the community. Yossi and his family live between Israel, Australia, and the USA.
Greg McLean
After training as a fine artist before working as a director in theatre and opera, Australian writer, director and producer Greg McLean's filmmaking career began when he created the horror smash hit Wolf Creek, which played at Sundance, Cannes and MIFF (2005) before going onto worldwide 'cult film' status. His films since then have included Rogue, Wolf Creek 2 and the Wolf Creek TV series for Stan, as well as Jungle and The Belko Experiment, both of which feature at MIFF in 2017.
Sandy George (Moderator)
Sandy George is currently digging into data and deals for the benefit of practitioners as part of Screen Australia’s ScreenIntel project. She has tracked the Australian film and television industry for aeons as a journalist, as a correspondent for screendaily.com, editor of Encore, film writer for The Australian newspaper and so on. She has presented films on SBS TV. She is the industry’s panel queen.
Note: producer Dana Lustig is no longer available to participate in this session.