Cowra, NSW, Dec 2011
CHALLENGE:
Tallstoreez’ Change Media and Bell Shakespeare Company have collaborated with a selection of artists from recent refugee / asylum seeker backgrounds, and explored the creation of a cutting edge inter-artwork that speaks to the global issues of forced migration.
Located at the Corridor Project near Cowra, this laboratory trained all 18 participants in digital media while developing creative responses to the current refugee debate through Shakespeare and Shakespearean equivalents from other cultures. We explored what unites and divides us in a rapidly changing world. Forced migration means millions of people are displaced to somewhere else. This global phenomenon affects us all. How do we live and share these stories? What is our vision for the future?
It is said Shakespeare speaks to the core of the human condition, but what role does ‘Shakespearience’ play for young refugees far from home, war and their own influential storytellers and cultural heritage? This 3-year project provides a framework for them to create their own stories, engaging with a Shakespearean filter.
Our key aim for this collaboration was to develop a high quality multi-art project in collaboration with Bell and various artists and mentors, most of whom have been refugees, to creatively re-frame the public discussion about refugee issues. It is in our interests that everyone collaborating in the Cowra lab has this as their core aim, and we will do everything possible to establish an inspiring, creative container to explore these ideas.
We are aiming for a deliberate collision of CACD and the ‘high arts’ sectors, facilitated through digital media, CACD and theater professionals, who bring a diverse range of skills and experiences. This exploration included ‘classical’ training [both digital media and theater] and ‘performing emergencies’ to develop a framework for representations of ‘Other’ and cultural difference. We want to create equitable relationships for a non-exploitative, safe yet high-risk creative collaboration. Our process playfully acknowledges our diversity of experiences [whiteness, racism, colonialism, classics vs new art etc] while pushing for fun, excellence and high quality outcomes. Out of the 14 concepts developed, we made 9 films during the 5-day laboratory, which will be available for online viewing soon.
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PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Bell Shakespeare Company – Mind’s Eye; STARTTS NSW; members of the Melbourne Asylum Seeker Resource Centre theater group; Tallstoreez Productionz, the Corridor Project Cowra
IMPACT & FEEDBACK:
We have collated our introductory statements for all 10 works below. In the comment section you can also find a selection of the participants’ feedback and comments from our secure blog site, where the work-in-progress was available for review and comments during the post production stage of the project.
1 – Sir Thomas More: This was our first attempt to explore viral messaging through a Shakespearean lens – a strong piece emerged in a few creative hours…it was fun that each person chose their own location to express their line. Not much has changed on this clip since Cowra, we added some music, let us know what you think.
2 – Behind The Scenes (Yomal’s Movie Moments): We think this is an extraordinary piece that speaks to the heart of the issue: representation… We decided to present the initial pitch up front, to quickly set up the premise, and removed the Scarface reenactments (sorry Paul), as it was too difficult to explain to anyone who wasn’t at Cowra… And some golden rules of editing: remove anything that doesn’t advance the story; and leave any attachments to the footage at the door (but I shot that…) We created a vintage TV template that is possibly too clunky, but kept it in to clearly signpost the different levels of media and representation, that we generally take for granted. We think there is potential for this piece as a short film with a film festival audience. It could also be developed further and included in to the game show performance or mockumentary concepts.
3 – Game Show Mirhat: We dropped the satirical torture underwear advert, it just wasn’t working. Mirhat’s performance of the tortured/torturer was the more profound version in comparison to the underwear ad-spoof. We created this draft format to demonstrate how the game show idea could be integrated with individual performances. We wanted to highlight the dexterity of the performers and dive into the pathos of the issue. We also included some of the feedback session, to present the intentions of the performers, for the benefit of viewers who weren’t at Cowra. The game show clips and performance rehearsals are in-development, we have prepared them to demonstrate the potential for a x-art performance. We think the game show format is a powerful tool to engage audiences playfully with complex issues, and it allows for high drama – and it’s structure allows the artwork to go anywhere… Please remember we filmed the rehearsal without knowing what would be presented, purely for documentation purposes, so when we say these are draft pieces, we want viewers to ignore shaky-cam / edit glitches, they are ideas generators, to be further developed and re-shot etc if the media was to be broadcasted. For us, the 3 game show examples represent one of the strongest ideas we could pursue as a group, with the support of a playwright.
4 – Game Show Elvan: In this piece, we attempted to combine Shakespearean text/ performance (A Winter’s Tale) with Elvan’s story, to create ‘A Woman’s Tale’. The text at the end might be a bit blunt, but we included them as a place holder for messaging if we want to explore that concept further.
5 – Game Show Reyaz: In this piece we explored experimental performance and integration of Shakespearience with text segments from Macbeth, again using the game show as a story device to move us from rehearsal performance to the more elaborate, experimental artwork.
The Perfect Refugee, Minds Eye laboratory
Click on the link to watch - Sir Thomas More.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.
Click on the link to watch -Cowra Showreel.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.
Click on the link to watch - Yomal’s Movie Moments.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.
Click on the link to watch - Cure Hunters.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.
Click on the link to watch -Labels.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.
Click on the link to watch -The Ad Agency.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.
Our team will also produce new peer-produced training videos, that form part of our A Penny For Your Thoughts initiative with OurCommunity.
Click on the link to watch our current training clips here.
OUTCOMES:
During the first stage of the project, we created a series of viral mock ads, short dramas, comedies and mini-documentaries, by exploring fun/ innovative/ disruptive ways to engage the public in the debate. The short films form part of a performance work that we are developing with all participants and partners, with the aim to develop a major cross-arts performance work by 2013-14 for national presentation.
For the first 5-day creative laboratory at the beautiful Corridor Project art space in Cowra, NSW, December 5-10, we were inviting refugee artists and their supporters from different groups in VIC, SA and NSW, to work with Tallstoreez creative team [theatre, culture jamming, digital media and film making] and Bell Shakespeare team, including 4 Bell players Belinda Hoare, Ivan Donato, Paul Reichstein, Francesca Savige, theater designer Christian Harimanow and artist in residence James Evans.
The selected artists from refugee background for this first laboratory in Cowra were:
Ubah Badi
Alfarid ‘Reyaz’ Musaddique Hussain
Yomal Krishan Rajasinghe
Elvan Alp
Mirhat Turan
Fadia Al Faris
Jiva Parthipan
Samuel Bullen Alier
This laboratory was mentored by Change Media’s creative director Jennifer Lyons-Reid, producer Carl Kuddell, Bell artist in residence James Evans, Melbourne-based community theater director Catherine Simmons and Change Media camera operator Johanis Lyons-Reid.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Stay tuned for updates!
IMPACT & FEEDBACK:
We have collated our introductory statements for all 10 works below. In the comment section you can also find a selection of the participants’ feedback and comments from our secure blog site, where the work-in-progress was available for review and comments during the post production stage of the project.
6 – Cure Hunters: It was a Herculean effort to cut this piece down to 10min from its initial 18min Cowra rough cut and maintain its signature laconic pacing. We called it Cure Hunters, [comments please :) ] in keeping with the mockumentary style. We experimented with a ‘quest for knowledge’ soundtrack that is over the top and needs to be toned down and in places dropped altogether, to allow for the observational / fly-on-the-wall feel to come through. As a friendly pat on the back to us all, remember when you watch this that it was produced in a few days, alongside a plethora of other media, as the quality encourages viewers to compare it to big budget, time rich productions. This work could easily stand alone, but we see huge potential for the concept to be developed into a comedy series, either web-based or for TV. The satirical science format would allow us to explore taboos and contentious issues in a very playful yet emotionally charged way, with each episode delving into a new set of murky prejudices, debunking myths about asylum seekers each time, without being preachy or patronising.
7 – The Ad Agency/Viral Pitch Campaign: We included this pitch footage, as the concepts are very strong and we didn’t have enough time at the lab to follow them through. The fishing for refugees installation could work also very well within a x-art / game show performance.
8 – Proud Refugees – Community-made Media: The work stands on its own as it targets a different audience to the other pieces. It is a strong example that demonstrates the potential of self-run media hubs – to raise awareness and produce community messages by, for and about refugee communities and support organisations.
9 – Labels – Awareness raising: This is a strong example of an awareness campaign, and showcases the potential of peer-produced media (focus on clarifying the message and assets available so the final work isn’t limited by low budgets and/or limited time). We shortened the Cowra version to move the story along and keep a fun and fast pace.
10 – The Ad Agency – development: Our process for the Cowra Lab was to create the Ad Agency as a scaffolding to get everyone up to speed with our noisy, distracted collective psyche and to inspire everyone to do the impossible: create snappy messages to spark a public debate, the stuff of great art. It surfaced as the most effective way to explore complex political issues with a group of people who hadn’t met before, who had vastly different skills and agendas. Once we all shared our personal understandings of the issue with a strong drive to be heard, we felt the ‘think tank’ was ready to explore the issue through a Shakespearean lens. Thank you all for playing, it was inspirational to experience the passion, professionalism and thirst for excellence from everyone. We all ended up taking many risks to create in this way. This is a compilation of the clips we produced in a few days during the lead-up to the Cowra lab. We wanted to test drive some of our ideas and make sure that our plans for Cowra were achievable. We are keen to publish them online and see if we can get the viral campaign experiment to work. This would be a plus for community media if we can create some keys to compete in the castle-driven world of media. So please give feedback!
