Who’s Who in 2022, Community: Lenny Seberry

Moreton Bay filmmaker Lenny Seberry took home one of the top gongs at the NOVA Employment 2022 Focus On Ability Short Film Awards in Sydney, winning the coveted Judge’s Choice Award.

Speaking to Moreton Daily in October after his big win, Lenny said he still couldn’t believe he had won.

“This was our second year entering and I wasn’t expecting to win,” Lenny said.

“To be named the winner out of 60-odd movies, it was amazing and very surreal.

“Taking out the Judges Choice Award meant a lot to me because it meant the film was judged by industry professionals, not a public vote or a social media push or anything like that.”

Lenny was awarded $5000 and several mentoring sessions with documentary director, writer, and producer, Heidi Lee Douglas.

About Lenny Seberry

Lenny Seberry is a filmmaker from Beachmere who enters his short films into national competitions to be judged.

The theme of Lenny’s films is disability, as one person he works closely with is a Sunshine Coast rap artist named Nathan Tessman, also known as MC Wheels. Mc Wheels lives with Spinal Muscular Atrophy with Respiratory Distress

Lenny has been working with MC Wheels for about 10 years and films all his music videos through his company Daideo Productions.

In 2022, Lenny was named as a finalist in the NOVA Employment 2022 Focus On Ability Short Film Awards for his five-minute clip titled A Day in the Life of.

The short film featured MC Wheels and his carer Rachel, who was filmed undertaking a wide range of everyday tasks with her limbs taped up so she could mimic Nathan and his condition.

Nathan would first demonstrate how hard certain tasks are, and then Rachel would copy him.

She was asked to perform a wide range of tasks which included texting on the phone with her nose, laying on the floor and putting a jumper on, skateboarding around an obstacle course, manoeuvring a motorised wheelchair in public and being hand fed at a restaurant.

The judges were so impressed with Lenny’s film that he was named the winner in the coveted Judge’s Choice Documentary category.

Following his big win, Lenny was determined to continue shining a spotlight on people with disabilities that he launched a short film competition asking people to challenge their own carers, support workers, family and close friends to take part in a video and complete tasks and challenges that are based around their own life.

The winner of the film competition was awarded $650 in prize money, with MC Wheels choosing the winner.