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.
.
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!
Belinda says:
February 1, 2012, 4:12 pm
Hi Carl and Jen, Final thoughts for deadline day! Sir Thomas More is an amazing piece of text and I think the concept is compelling. I think that one’s worth developing as well. Cheers, Belinda
Ivan says:
February 1, 2012, 5:26 pm
My particular favourites are the Sir Thomas More speech and the Behind the Scenes short. Both stood out for me as being pieces with the most potential. I think the evolution of most pieces but particularly Yamal’s piece is very promising and exciting.
Jiva says:
February 1, 2012, 5:29 pm
Hello. Thanks for the email and a happy new year. I am personally happy with the edit. If the participants ( Fadia or Samuel) have got any other suggestions I am sure they shall let you guys know their comments directly. You had asked to comment on the future involvement of Bell Shakespeare on the process – The onus is on the participants to decide if it best suits their interest. Please let us know when the videos are ready for the public. Best wishes, Jiva Parthipan
Frankie says:
February 1, 2012, 5:53 pm
Just a quick hello to say I LOVE the works, and wish I had time to go into details in my response to each, but certainly they have my approval before the deadline :)
Catherine says:
February 1, 2012, 5:54 pm
Dear Carl, Jen and all Here I am in the Lospalos district of East Timor, working with elders and their sacred stories, a youth dance/theatre group and a significant ‘performance blueprint’ is emerging. But as it is village life, internet access is inconsistent and very slow and it takes forever to download a clip, hence I have seen only fragments. Jen and Carl I am sure that you deliberated intensively and have done your best to create the edits you think work best (the written rationales make sense). As your art is that of film making, really the material is in your hands and I trust you did your best. I cannot comment more than this. Look forward to potential future developments Hello to all Warm wishes from a balmy, new moon Timor night Catherine
Belinda says:
February 1, 2012, 4:11 pm
Hi Carl and Jen, Final thoughts for deadline day! I think Yomal’s piece is incredibly powerful and could definitely be developed. As you say, it’s about representation, contrasting “being” with “acting”. They’re rehearsing, training – the title “Behind the Scenes” might not capture that. The title could be simply be “Yomal”? Cheers, Belinda
Reyaz says:
January 23, 2012, 7:34 pm
Big hello to everyone and a very happy New Year. Nice to see all the work coming along so beautifully. Thank you Jen and Carl for doing this and for providing this platform for us to discuss our thoughts on this project and what we have done. Just a few thoughts on the Edits: I really like the game-show idea and I agree that it’s very catchy and fits our agenda. I can also see the possibility to bring in little stories within the game-show format. I am a little unclear about our objective of showing the “rehearsal performance clips”? I did not understand the need to put those clips in. I think, while it works in Yomal’s video, I am a bit doubtful if it works in mine. Is it just for us and Bell Shakespeare to see to explore more of them in future or are we to develop the future project to go public in that format ?(game show- rehearsal performance- experimental artwork). For me, the three individual components stands out on their own (for the time being). In this particular video I am not sure if putting it together shows a progression in the story-telling. It appeared rather haphazard to me. But… of course, I assume since it is just a rough sketch of ideas, we have put the videos together as per the “refugee artists”? While I agree that the game show can allow us to go to different places and may serve as a good portal, I am also a bit skeptical of the haphazardness- that it may confuse. Now coming to the individual videos, I think it is very important to show the part where I am killing the spider because I feel it’s the whole point of that monologue (or as I percieve it). It’s the “me not wanting to be the Other (that I already am)” .The outrageousness of my self-hatred and racism to my own kind and to people of simiar experiences is, I feel, accentuated only when you show me killing the spider and the thoughtless impulse that goes into the killing. Regarding the “Scrub Racism Out” scene: I may totally get this wrong as I have no understanding of Shakespeare, so please correct me if I am wrong, but I am not sure of the following lines: 1) All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hands 2) Wash your hands, put on your clothes, look not so *dark* I somehow feel those two lines (in this context ) makes the Lady Macbeth presence rather too strongly felt diverting the attention to guilt of the sin , rather than mere outrageousness of wanting to scrub skin colour. I think it is enough to have (3)”Out damned Spot, Out, I say!” and (4)”What’s done cannot be undone”. However if it disturbs the flow of the video and makes it patchy in terms of the soundwork between (3) and (4), I can completely understand. These are my only thoughts regarding this video. I hope I didn’t make a fool out of myself with my observations. LOL. But I am really open to all forms of response. And that’s the beauty of having this platform. My apologies if I said anything monumentally stupid or hurtful. But I look forward to hearing from you all soon and engage in a conversation as much as time allows us. :-) Have a great week ahead! Much love, Reyaz.
Jen says:
January 24, 2012, 10:28 am
Hey Reyaz, thanks for your thoughts. We really appreciate your candidness, we will need it to truly collaborate remotely:) The idea with the game show format mixed with the rehearsals is to demonstrate a possibility.. We worked with what we have, we filmed the rehearsals purely for documentation of process, not to create filmic pieces …so go with the moments when the switch from game show to rehearsal work :) We tried to cut your rehearsal down to a minimum. I think your critique is heightened because you don’t really like the actual performance? As an outsider, I think there are moments when your delivery is strong and others when it is lost because your movements are designed for the stage. I agree with your analysis of the outrageousness of racist self hatred and feel your piece at the end, in the bath, represents that brilliantly. Unfortunately when you kill the spider, neither camera could film you as you were in the corner behind the audience, we wanted it in, but felt the sentiment comes across for anyone who hasn’t seen the performance :) Finally, I feel the Lady Macbeth quotes work beautifully, it gives the audience time to reflect on the mirror image and I hear ‘look not so dark’ – but I will watch again and see if I pick up on the guilt motif. I like the ambiguity that we know Lady Macbeth is wracked with guilt and I hear the voice of Western high culture playing a part in your painful attack on self. Lots of love, Jen
Jen says:
January 24, 2012, 10:39 am
Hey Reyaz, I forgot to add that we broke the game show into individual artists work because we need to keep all clips under 10 mins and we wanted to end with your film pieces. love jen
Reyaz says:
January 25, 2012, 9:26 am
Thanks, Jen. All good and your observations are fair enough too. So, if I understand correctly, these videos are not going public in it’s current state and format , right? And that it’s just there to develop new ideas? Somehow I was thinking that they were to go public once we all had given the green signal. As for how I would like to see the project to flow: I agree that the game show format is a very powerful tool and could definitely be used as a portal to tell stories. Also, the mockumentary format of the Cure Hunters/Doctor Strictland is something that totally grabbed my attention- it will be so great to see it develop in to a few more episodes. I watched it a couple of times and every time I found myself entertained and evoked with feelings. I also liked all the Ad Agency videos (#10). I feel those are the videos that definitely needs to be pursued more. And again, really great to see the videos. They are all so cool and makes me feel so proud that I was ever involved in this process, even in a very tiny way. Looking forward to knowing more about what other members from the team think. Kind regards, Reyaz.
Jen says:
January 25, 2012, 11:21 am
Hey Reyaz, Cool. It’s going to be interesting to see where we all take this :) And yes, the game show and performance pieces are so roughly shot [we agreed to document everything so we could present the ideas and have this discussion, otherwise we would have made an executive decision at Cowra to only explore 2-3 ideas not 12...] The exciting part is that we now have a scaffolding to jump from :) love jen
Ivan says:
January 27, 2012, 12:35 pm
Hey guys, Firstly I want to say happy belated holidays. I’m sure the two of you have been working very hard on the outcomes from the week in Cowra as evident in your emails but hopefully you’ve been able to find some time to regenerate the batteries. I know I certainly have. Let me just say again what a wonderful time I had during that week. It will be something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I wanted to talk to you about the wonderful work you guys have done with all the videos. My particular favourites are the Sir Thomas More speech and the Behind the Scenes short. Both stood out for me as being pieces with the most potential. I think the evolution of most pieces but particularly Yamal’s piece is very promising and exciting. I suppose the only one I can analyse and scrutinise properly is the one that Belinda and I worked on extensively for those two very short days in Cowra. I very much admire what you have done with the piece. The editing is much smoother and slicker, the story seems to move at a quicker pace, the incorporation of clips from our own ‘The Perfect Refugee’ warm ups was very clever as well. I must admit that my memory of the piece I edited is vague and perhaps clouded by time and some weird kind of romanticism but here are my observations of the new edit. One of the most endearing bits about the piece and most mockumentary style pieces are the characters. The story in itself is not inherently funny in fact it could be said that it is quite monotonous and nothing much really happens. But what makes it engaging and funny is all the subtlety of characters and characterisation. The looks to the camera, the situations that don’t quite got to plan, the honesty of the characters, the necessity for Belinda’s character to do something just because a camera is pointed at her, her vulnerability etc. All the things which we all know about this type of storytelling. And in my opinion the only way this can work is through time investment in these characters. The build up to the the ‘gags’ are more important than the gags themselves. In fact the gags don’t really stand up to scrutiny in isolation. I hope these comments are helpful. Please don’t think that I’m slamming all the hard work that you have done. Like I said, your edit looks like a proper professional edit and runs very smoothly, gets straight to the point and trims all the fat. These comments might be wrong, they probably are but I guess it’s all subjective anyway :) All the advancements of the idea will only make it better in the long run. And you have my full support if you guys want to further develop this stuff with other group you’ll be working with along the way. The more the merrier. Well that’s enough from me. You guys are doing a fantastic job and I hope to hear from you soon. Ivan
Jen and Carl says:
January 27, 2012, 12:37 pm
Hey Ivan, Great to hear from you and thanks, yes we had kind of a break… Your feedback is spot on, we had a hard time cutting the 18min rough cut back AND keep some of the feel and pacing. We think it sort of works, but agree it lost some of it’s ob-doc, slow-reveal character it had in your cut. Something had to go, we didn’t want to loose anymore of Samuel, or reduce the sessions. We also still needed to show multiple characters, more in trailer sense, to showcase potential. Main rationale was to get it under 10min, partly to make it more web-viewable, but also to adhere to the union agreement… We take our hats off to you, you did an amazing job. We are keen to develop this concept further with you. Right now we are waiting to see how the discussion with Peter and James goes, how and if Bell wants to continue and what we all agree the next stage development should focus on. It was a pleasure working with you and if Bell wasn’t interested to pursue the comedy concept, we should talk and see if we can develop it with you. We tested it on a range of people and had really good results :) We now need to figure out where the Shakespeare relevance sits, and how we can make work that is relevant to new arrivals AND a mainstream audience. We think your piece does that very well – though without Shakespeare …. ;) May be a token bust on her desk…. Anyway, let’s talk more soon and catch up in Sydney. Cheers Jen and Carl
Belinda says:
January 30, 2012, 1:10 pm
Dear Jen and Carl, Congratulations on the huge job you guys have done cutting Ivan’s 18 minute short film down to 9 minutes! I know that’s not easy, and I agree with Ivan’s comments about it being a slick edit. I have some thoughts which aren’t criticisms of your work, they are just my reactions and hopefully they might help the process in some way. I completely agree with Ivan about the necessity to establish the characters and relationships as they are the core of the story. Most particularly the relationship between the cameraman and Dr Strickland, and ofcourse Samuel. There was an intimacy between Dr Strickland and the camera in the first version that seems lost here. From memory there were also wider shots with the camera slightly shaky, establishing the world and the atmosphere, which played a big part in the story. The silences and the sense of time passing was crucial in creating the awkwardness of this piece, and through that, the humour. There aren’t massive gags, this film really relies on a sense of life being lived in a very ordinary way. Otherwise it might look like we’re trying to be funny, and therefore making fun of those idiots who are bigoted towards refugees. As a pose to sending ourselves up, making it about “us” and not about “them”. How you do that in less than 10 minutes, or perhaps ideally less than 5 minutes is very tricky. I can only think it would require some very clever scripting. You asked for comments on your new title The Cure Hunters. It’s tricky to find titles, I’ve been trying to think of one – I’ve only thought of The Amygdala Solution or The Rehabilitators. I think a title should be intriguing. I also like the use of the words “compassion” or “genes”, or something scientific or neurological. I haven’t thought of anything intriguing yet – I’ll keep thinking! Congratulations again Carl and Jen, you’ve done an incredible job, and I look forward to hearing more about the advancement of the ideas in coming months. Take care, Belinda
Reyaz says:
February 1, 2012, 6:02 pm
…Also, the mockumentary format of the Cure Hunters/Doctor Strictland is something that totally grabbed my attention- it will be so great to see it develop in to a few more episodes. I watched it a couple of times and every time I found myself entertained and evoked with feelings…