OzDox: Sydney Film Festival Panel: Can Documentaries Make A Difference? | Babelgum

Login | Sign up

Logout

OzDox: Sydney Film Festival Panel: Can Documentaries Make A Difference?

expand

Babelgum

OzDox: Sydney Film Festival Panel: Can Documentaries Make A Difference?

[ 01:46:00 ]

Documentaries such as Fahrenheit 9/11 and SFF05 title Shake Hands with the Devil reveal stories and expose issues and perspectives glossed over by the mainstream media. But can they actually affect the course of events - and would we want them to? A panel of local and overseas documentary makers, including associate producer/researcher of Shake Hands with the Devil Patrick Reed will explore this issue.

01:14:26

OzDox: Blowin' in the Wind
The academy-award nominated director of documentaries including Frontline; Chile, Hasta Cuando; and Nicaragua, No Pasaran, is again on the political front-line with his chilling expose on US weapons testing in Australia particularly at Shoalwater Bay in Queensland. Bradbury also examines the US military's use of depleted uranium in Iraq. Depleted Uranium has a radioactive half-life of more than 4 billion years. The film asks: If Iraqi babies are now being born with major birth defects, will Australians living downwind from the testing ranges be next? Bradbury meets and interviews a family from Shoalwater Bay whose fourth child was born with multiple genetic defects. If you missed the screening at this year's Sydney Film Festival, this is an exclusive chance to see Blowin' in the Wind and to ask questions of David about how he has self funded this doco 'without a cent of public money', and the issues that raises.

01:52:21

OzDox: Is Politics the New Black? And alternative...
What is the role of the political documentary and what motivates people to make them? Where does activism and film making meet? Where is the best place to watch political documentaries and why? These are just some of the questions OZDOX will be asking four prominent Australian film-makers and activists as they join us for a lively discussion and show excerpts of their recent projects.

01:44:24

OzDox: Sedition and Anti-Terror Laws
With Julie Rigg, Richard Harris, Alida Stanley, Julian Morrow. Charied by Martha Ansara. Alarm bells are ringing in the Australian Creative Community as the Howard government cracks down on dissent. Why are they doing so at a time when other democracies have repealed their Sedition Laws? What are the consequences of this legislation for you, and what are we going to do about it? All these questions and more will be discussed at the lively (and possibly seditious) Ozdox Forum. Is Sedition only a storm in a tea-cup, or if there is something very weird happening right now in the land of Oz... There will be a screening of anti-sedition work and a free-speech forum with Julie Rigg (ABC Film Critic, member of the Watch on Censorship); Richard Harris (Executive Director of the Australian Screen Directors Association) who organised the infamous illegal screening of the banned move Ken Park; Alida Stanley, Senior Solicitor at the Arts Law Centre; and special guest Julian Morrow of the Chaser. You may like to read a previous background paper about Proposed Offences for Sedition in the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005. This was a Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee 27 October 2005 - by Chris Connolly. Law Faculty, University of NSW The Sedition Act undermines the right of free speech, which has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right. James Madison, 1778 Fourth US President and "founder" of the US Constitution.

01:28:13

OzDox: Making Australian Histories
Panel: Malcolm McDonald, Paul Rudd, John Hughes, Vicki Grieves. Chaired by Jeni Thornley. Panel discussion - How are documentary filmmakers working with ideas of 'nation' and story telling? Chaired by Jeni Thornley, three experienced documentary filmmakers with very different approaches to Australian history and documentary will screen excerpts and discuss their recent TV series and works-in-progress. A historian will respond to their work in discussion with the audience. Their work includes reality TV, dramatisation, compilation archival, and a deconstructionist 'cross platform' DVD, film, installation approach. The panel discussion explores questions of memory, history and 'narrating the nation'. It will also consider the international co-production contexts of some of these documentary programs.

01:50:21

OzDox: Who Can Represent Whom?
Frances Peters-Little with Romaine Moreton, Adrian Wills, Erica Glynn comprise our panel of film-makers and academics addressing the question of what rights we have, or should have, when making documentaries representing other cultures - either Aboriginal cultures, ethnic or other subcultures or societies overseas. Convened by Gillian Leahy.

01:20:28

OzDox: Emerging Documentary Filmmakers
Panel: Sam Doust, Jan Ryall, Dee Jefferson, Lisa Scott and others. Chaired by Loosie Craig and Imogen Semmler. Emerging from diverse backgrounds, the next wave of doco makers can be found at film schools, within broadcasting bodies, as video artists, in production companies, as animators, or making films in their bedroom... there is no 'right' pathway but each has an interesting story to tell and this is your chance to tell it! The first half of the session is a screening: a showcase of work and excerpts from a diverse pool of documentary makers including recent AFTRS graduates, UTS and Sydney Film School students as well as emerging animators, video artists and independent filmmakers. The second half of the session, an open forum discussion, will be moderated by OZDOX Committee member Imogen Semmler. This is an opportunity to share your stories and to discuss the different career pathways within the documentary industry AND to learn more about the broadcasting, funding and festival opportunities for emerging artists.

56:29

OzDox: Shape of the Moon
With director Leonard Retel Helmrich. Chaired by Graeme Isaac. A cinematic journey into the every-day life of a Christian woman, her son, and her granddaughter in the growing social chaos and escalating Muslim fundamentalism in Indonesia, the largest Islamic community on the globe. Leonard Retel Helmrich painstakingly presents Indonesia with such detail and understated emotion it radiates fervent beauty. Among a population of 240 million people, the film finds quiet moments with three generations of a Christian family amidst the bustle and texture on the outskirts of Jakarta. The widow Rumidja is a Christian who prays regularly with her grand-daughter, but practices some Muslim traditions and even graciously contributes to the local mosque for its new speakers. Rumidja's son Bakti roams their tight-knit community, living his own life, refusing to participate in Muslim traditions until he decides to marry a Muslim woman and must convert.

47:46

OzDox: Screening: Voices of Guerrero
With director Adrian Arce. Chaired by Pat Fiske. 'Voices of Guerrero' is a documentary film that shows the results and experiences from a photography and video workshop run for street-kids in a poor neighbourhood of the biggest city in the world. Apart from being the main characters, these guys, to a great extent, produced the film. It's a social, artistic project aimed at fostering marginalised people's development through art and opening new communication channels between community and the street-kids. By using innovative approaches to media, the documentary allows the audience to see the life of these street-kids through their own eyes, transforming them from passive media consumers into active producers.

02:06:49

OzDox: Shaping Our Documentaries
With Dasha Ross, Chris Kiely, Susan MacKinnon, Julia Overton, and Penny Robins. How do broadcasters, funders and distributors shape Australia's documentary output? Commissioning editors from SBS, ABC and Film Australia, distributors and representatives from funding bodies discuss their visions of what documentaries should be made, how they contribute to what gets made, where documentary is heading - theatrical exhibition; or television?; Series or singles? - and strategies for success. Documentary filmmakers and teachers Gillian Leahy and Pat Fiske will moderate the session.

01:00:30

OzDox: The Men Who Would Conquer China
Filmed over three years it's a candid, funny and ironic saga of East-West capitalism and cultural conflict where a corporate banker from New York City teams up with a successful Chinese businessman to form an 'odd couple', a relationship that ultimately says a lot about where the West has been and where the East is heading. After the screening join director NICK TORRENS for an interview and audience Q&A with Sydney Morning Herald film critic PAUL BYRNES.

Recent posts

Street Art Central

Street Art is the biggest global art movement in history. With over 100 shorts and features...

Editor's picks

24 videos

Celebrity never sleeps. Neither do they.

Go behind the camera and into the lives of photographers who work in the lucrative trade of tabloid journalism.

Edit Playlist Name Delete Playlist Videos Delete Playlist

Edit Playlist Name

New Playlist

Are you sure you want to delete all the Playlists' videos?

Delete Playlist Videos

Are you sure you want to delete all the Playlists' videos?

Delete Playlist

Are you sure you want to delete this Playlists?