We’re so lucky to be connected with so many amazing music heads and creative people! We’re especially excited for our good friend and long-time Soul of Sydney regular Marcus Khoudair, also known as DJ Hebenon, who has just launched his new short film project, He’s Not Here.

If you’ve spent any time on the dancefloor at Soul of Sydney over the last decade, you’ve no doubt felt Marcus’s infectious energy — always front and centre, moving with pure joy and connection. A freestyle dancer with a deep passion for music, art and culture, his creativity shines through everything he does.

In a sweet twist of fate, we actually met and hung out with his family in the mountains of northern Lebanon during a lovely summer back in 2006, years before Soul of Sydney even began, & long before we knew we’d one day cross paths with Marcus himself.

Marcus is not only one of the most vibrant figures on our dancefloors but also a talented screenwriter, currently developing four feature films. His latest project, HE’S NOT HERE مَنّو هَوْن‎, is a cross between Moonlight and La Haine. It follows a young Lebanese boy in Sydney who tries to heal his family after his brother goes missing — a heartfelt story about what it feels like to move through an overwhelming world.

Marcus recently won the 2025 Panavision Award at the Lebanese Film Festival Australia, and now he and his team are fundraising to create the short film version of He’s Not Here, which will compete at international film festivals once completed.

You can read more or make a tax-deductible donation to support the project here:
https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2EMn00000UzIzdMAF/hes-not-here-short-film

To celebrate, Marcus and the team are hosting a Free Fundraising Party / Launch with Roman’s Deli on Saturday, November 8, 12pm–7pm. Drop in to connect with some of Sydney’s finest creatives:
https://events.humanitix.com/roman-s-deli-x-he-s-not-here-community-fundraiser-event

You can also catch Marcus on the dancefloor at Soul of Sydney’s 14th Birthday on November 30 — feel free to say hello and chat with him about the film.

Roman’s Deli x He’s Not Here – Film Fundraiser Party
Saturday 8th November 2025 | 12-7PM | Roman’s Deli, Georges Hall

We’re teaming up with Georges Hall’s own Roman’s Deli for a special film fundraiser party to support our short film He’s Not Here مَنّو هَوْن.

The film is all about community, so we are bringing a hectic party to you, enjoy the new THE BEIRUT BAGEL with a fully sick LEBOJITOS and get a feed with the film makers while you are at it.

50% of all proceeds from the bagel and drink go directly to the film.

This special menu will drop on Wednesday 5th and run all the way to Sunday 9th.

Beats will be played by DJs, Conzept, Menacx, Aiira G, Emmanz1, Ixnaey, Timba and Hebenon and make sure you get a pump so that MIGUMIND, the live artist, can paint your large biceps. Expect Arabic, house, Afro, amapiano, bounce, dnb, hip hop and pop sounds to soundtrack your Saturday!

Event is FREE but please RSVP so we know numbers.

ABOUT THE FILM;

Caught between multigenerational migrant love and the body-pulsing hardstyle scene, a boy’s mission to enliven his dying grandma falls apart when his brother goes missing. Western Sydney, 2009.

In the coming-of-age fiction short film HE’S NOT HERE مَنّو هَوْن (“Manno Hon” in Arabic), 12-year-old Joseph Chamoun sets out to transform a pivotal day for his ailing grandma Salwa—but his plans unravel when his beloved older brother Charbel goes missing. What intimately follows is a child’s navigation through adult complexity, while amidst his own spiritual search—written, cast, and shot in Western Sydney.

HE’S NOT HERE channels a world cinema sensibility to capture the Lebanese and Southern European diaspora in 2000s suburban Sydney, highlighting its multigenerational homes and the hardstyle rave, gym aesthetics, and social media subcultures of its youth—worlds rarely seen on screen. Think Moonlight meets La Haine, with a boy in-between, simply trying to master the dabke. Through its ambitious ensemble, this film offers audiences a visceral and poetic portrait of youth, family, grief, identity, and cultural change. We plan to film in late 2025 with post-production soon after.

HE’S NOT HERE will bring the tried-and-tested cinema wisdom of “universal appeal in the specific” to a geography and culture the world never sees. Not just for the project’s story, but for how it is being made—by and with community, starting from the wellspring of the writer’s life and years of iteration, shared with festival audiences internationally. This falls at a crucial time. HE’S NOT HERE paints one boy’s life in the sensory and spiritual detail we need to be shaken out of our numbness. Joseph, this unique protagonist from two distinct migrant families (reflective of our core creative team), stands in contrast to a trend of homogenised working-class migrant stories. We ask for your help to turn this film’s nuanced personal storytelling into a launchpad for other Western Sydney artists to reject essentialism and embrace their own specific voices, the way that Oscar-winning films like MOONLIGHT have.

Every dollar raised will directly support the production, set to shoot in November 2025 — covering essential costs like crew, locations, set design, costumes, and equipment. This short film will serve as a proof-of-concept for a feature, championing powerful, community-grounded storytelling while advancing the next wave of Australian filmmakers. Your donation will thus make you a direct benefactor in the futures of our accomplished and passionate HE’S NOT HERE team: Chloe de Brito (director, co-story), an Australian Directors Guild Award-winner whose recent short premiered at MIFF, Marcus Khoudair (writer, co-story), winner of the Lebanese Film Festival’s inaugural Panavision Award and CinefestOZ’s Diversity & Inclusion Award, Georgia Moraitis (Producer) who is in production of her debut coming-of-age feature film and Rachael Ford-Davies (Executive Producer) who is the leading force behind multi-award winning production company, Collider.

About the FILM MAKERS:
Our Story

CHLOE DE BRITO – Director, Co-Story

Chloe de Brito is an Australian Directors Guild award-winning director and artist whose work merges the real and imagined into dreamlike yet visceral worlds, attuned to myth, memory and the unseen. 

Her short Pink Reef (2022) premiered at the Oscar-qualifying Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) before screening at Fantastic Fest, Flickers’ RIIFF, and Fantaspoa, and was later showcased by the Australian Centre for Moving Image at BFI Southbank. An alum of MIFF Accelerator Lab, Sydney Film Festival Platform and Adelaide Film Festival EXPAND, she has created moving-image works for Sydney Opera House, Bangarra Dance Theatre and Vivid Sydney (Space to Dream, 2025). Her recent short hybrid documentary Las profundidades de la memoria (2025) shot under the mentorship of Apichatpong Weerasethakul had its world premiere at MIFF in August.

MARCUS KHOUDAIR – Writer, Co-Story

Marcus Khoudair is a screenwriter in Sydney who also facilitates creative writing workshops in public schools with Story Factory. A graduate of the Master of Screenwriting program at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and a mentee of Gabrielle Kelly, Marcus is in development on several film projects. His co-written short AGOGE premiered internationally at Palm Springs ShortFest 2025. Marcus’ current focus is collaborating with ADG award-winning director Chloe de Brito on his feature screenplay HE’S NOT HERE مَنّو هَوْن (“Manno Hon”), which is one of six finalists in PlayLab’s ongoing Co-Production initiative. Most recently, Marcus’ short DEPENDENT premiered in competition at CinefestOZ 2025 and won Lebanese Film Festival Australia’s inaugural Panavision Award. Marcus is additionally partnering with actor-producer Julian Maroun (THE CORRESPONDENT, dir. Kriv Stenders) and 2025 AACTA Best Short Film Award-winning director Veniamin Gialouris on two feature films respectively, both with production and distribution interest. 

GEORGIA MORAITIS – Producer

Georgia Moraitis is an experienced producer with a passion for culturally aware, youth-focused storytelling. In 2025 she is in the midst of producing her debut feature film (directed by Toby Morris) and has been producing high end commercial work at award winning production company Collider.

FOR MORE INFO: hnhthefilm@gmail.com