Shattered dream a winning film

By THERESA GARNER

The greatest four minutes of Cameron Duncan's relatively short film-making career cover more than your average lifetime's share of agonies.

After producing a road safety advertisement at the age of 13 that was so good it was used by the Land Transport Safety Authority, the 16-year-old Avondale College student had seemed destined for a career in film-making.

And last year, as a top softball player, he was selected for a national age-group side to tour Australia.

But he was never to pitch a ball for his country. After being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer that attacks the limbs of young people, he had his knee amputated and replaced by a titanium joint.

Cameron may never run again, but his film-making has hit new heights.

During a gruelling nine months of chemotherapy he created a short film so heart-wrenching it drew tears and won the popular vote award at the Wanganui Rivercity Film Festival.

Titled DFK6498, his medical reference number, it recounts his feelings about his cancer and reflects on the operation and chemotherapy. Cameron also picked up the best director and best script awards.

The four-minute film is based on the idea that cancer sufferers are jailed for doing no wrong. It stars Cameron and is set mainly in a cell where he is chained to a bed enduring a "prison sentence of cancer" in which every minute seems like hours.

The final shot shows him in his hospital bed receiving chemotherapy treatment.

Between 30 and 40 per cent of those diagnosed with osteosarcoma die, and the intensive treatment made Cameron's life bleak. His weight dropped from 80kg to 67kg , and the film was completed between bouts of nausea and vomiting.

He missed a year of schooling, but the cancer is now in remission and Cameron is back at Avondale College as a prefect, relishing the normal things of life like being told to tuck his shirt in.

Principal Brent Lewis said Cameron was an inspiration to other students.

"He is a talented young man with a strong vision and a commitment that has surfaced all year despite the terrible successive blows that his treatment has brought him."

Director Gaylene Preston said she looked forward to the contribution Cameron would make to film-making, and that DFK6498 was "very moving and very direct".

Cameron had hoped to have the film accepted by the Cannes Film Festival, but heard this week it had not been chosen.

He is looking for a film school to attend next year. Meanwhile, his next project is a "fun" action film with plenty of explosions.