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Grants
and Projects - Drama, Music and Arts
Documentary Production
Project
The Trust is contributing
$1000 for the production of a video documentary at the Summer Getaway Camp
for Indigenous students pursuing educational goals. The project gives
students the opportunity to participate in the production of a documentary
as well as record their experiences and the information gained at the camp,
which is run by Swinburne University's Indigenous Programs Unit.
Summer Getaway 2002
Now an annual event, the
Swinburne University Summer Getaway brings together over 130 Indigenous
secondary students in a peer & cultural support capacity to allow them
to think about their academic futures. Thankfully the Anna Wearne Trust was
able to support the Summer Getaway 2002 by committing funds to a film
production workshop that made up part of the week's program.
In addition to
established activities, such as surfing, art and culture workshops,
literacy & science sessions, horse riding and police yarn-ups, this
year's camp had a film production component.
Confined to the Phillip
Island Adventure Resort camp site the 130+ youth were broken into four
groups (numbering just over 30) and were asked to produce a segment of a
documentary that dealt with their education, identity and career
aspirations. The youth took up the challenge and nutted-out issues,
scripted, improvised, starred in, set designed and filmed their documentary
visions. All with the assistance of Melbourne-based poet/playwright Lisa
Bellear and Melbourne-based playwright/actor Kamara Wyles-Bell. And the
results were remarkable.
The first group wanted to
deal with racism at school and used a history lesson scenario to tease out
the issues in a fun, irreverent way. This segment addressed representations
of history, their culture, oral traditions and the all-important question
of who was here first.
Group Two took a
different approach, creating a spoof on 'The Ricky Lake Show'. Their
segment, entitled 'I Can't Believe My Daughter's A White Shoplifter!!!',
explored issues such as face value, stereotypes and the ludicrous reality
that is talk-shows. Reclaimed as 'The Ricky Fake Show' the segment featured
an accused Aboriginal girl, an overbearing (frustrated and racist) mother,
her shoplifting daughter and an audience that chanted, booed and cheered at
the most inappropriate of times. It was tied up nicely with "Fakey's
Final Fought" as he made (pertinent) comment on how you just can't
judge a book by its cover.
The third group
formulated a series of interviews of people involved in the camp- from the
students through to police members in attendance and Elders. They also
played host to a tour of the Summer Camp, taking in the lush camp
surrounds, its accommodation and the activities offered.
The final group gave the
production some structure, choosing to tie the above mentioned scenes into
a news report and conducting a 'dance-off' between the boys and the girls -
for no other reason than the fact that they wanted to showcase their
dancing skills. And why argue?!
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