Real-life Murder Mystery at BMM meeting

BMM Club Meeting 5 February 2026

Now this is something we don’t usually have at BMM – a true-life murder mystery - a documentary on the infamous life and death of a Brisbane woman described by her daughter as a prostitute, police informant and parent.

President David welcomed 21 members and guests to the Brisbane Movie Makers club meeting of 5 February 2026.

Film Bite – 2001 – A Space Odyssey. Paul opened the meeting with a “Film Bite” of Stanley Kubrick’s ground-breaking classic 2001 – A Space Odyssey. There has been a lot of discussion about Artificial Intelligence and how it is being used to create vision and sound simply by giving word prompts to a computer program. In 1968 Kubrick pioneered engineering and cinematographic techniques for his ‘futuristic’ look at what might occur in Space in the year 2001. The techniques he pioneered inspired numerous copy-cat and evolutionary processes. Paul pointed out that the effects that Kubrick created cost millions of dollars but can now be reproduced relatively simply on your home computer.

Silenced Witness It was great to welcome back Dr John Harrison, now-retired journalist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland School of Journalism and Communication. John presented a documentary by post-graduate student Maia Keerie about the life and death of Shirley Brifman, a prostitute, brothel owner, and police informant who died from a barbiturate overdose in 1972, days before she was due to give evidence relating to police corruption in Queensland and New South Wales . The documentary featured Shirley Brifman’s daughter Mary Ann who claimed that her mother’s death was the work of criminals associated with corrupt police who needed to silence her. It also featured well known Queensland media identities Evan Whitton and Quentin Dempster.

ME After the break, Peter W presented a song written for his epic documentary ME – An Exploration of Self. He invited club members and guests to join in the chorus which may or may not have added to the quality of the acapella.

Peter later showed the trailer for the production which will be screened at Elizabeth Street Theatre on 18 April at 2pm. For bookings go to trybooking.com

Flying high with drones. Glenn showed the results of a recent drone-filming exercise that he and Michael S undertook at the Glasshouse Mountains . Spectacular views and great experience. Hopefully they don’t all turn out like a recent exercise with club members when ‘in a moment of distraction’ the drone almost had an unfortunate interaction with dogs in the adjacent dog park. Glenn said all were saved in the nick of time, but it was a ruff landing. (sorry about that).

Glenn also showed a drone video of a recent visit to spectacular Walls Pass in the Blue Mountains. Glenn is a registered drone pilot and has a standing offer to give club members the opportunity to learn and experience drone operations (especially rules).

UGG competition – Suggestions include a TV commercial and/or Promo for BMM, Emotions, Nature. Entries to be shown at the club meeting on March 19.

Quiet Achievers – Nigel has his production finished, others are close to completion. Glenn said he and Bala would be filming a story on a ‘re-generative farm’ west of the Sunshine Coast, which is something of a passionate project for Glenn.

Smoke and Mirrors. Kosuke and Heather showed a clip from the very early stages of “Glimpses of Australia” which Heather described as “ideas and images of past, present and future of Australia” using AI to turn the images into animation. It will be exciting to see where this one takes us, and the filming process.

“Too Easy” Glenn talked about an upcoming production “Too Easy”. It highlights the problem of teenagers breaking into houses, assaulting homeowners and stealing cars, and what we as a community can do about it. He has written a script about an incident where people in the street are alerted to a break-in and confront the thugs. Glenn said it’s not about vigilantyism but about the ‘village that we’re not using to help us and about using technology ’. Glenn is looking to shoot the video during the Easter holidays and is looking for a range of willing helpers and operators. Contact Glenn if you want to be involved in any capacity.

David also foreshadowed a production he is working on called No Time 4 Nostalgia. He has ideas which are still being fleshed out.

The meeting wrapped up at 9.40pm.

The next club meeting is on 19 February. For all the details of what’s coming up check out the club’s website bmm.org.au