As Australia’s art community experiences its toughest year ever, leading Australian filmmakers have been invited to turn their lenses to our performing arts and artists to explore how they are faring, the contribution they make, and their inspiration in the time of Covid-19.
voxdocs is a new initiative from Shark Island Institute, headed by filmmaker and philanthropist Ian Darling, and Documentary Australia Foundation, in association with the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Eight Australian experienced and emerging filmmakers have been invited to each create a 3 to 5-minute documentary with a focus on the performing arts. They are Maya Newell (In My Blood it Runs, Gayby Baby), Hollie Fifer (The Opposition), Ian Darling (The Final Quarter, Paul Kelly – Stories of Me), Santilla Chingaipe (Black as Me), Alex Wu (winner of Dendy Award for Best Australian Live-Action Short Film at the 2020 Sydney Film Festival for Idol), Tamara Whyte (recipient this year of the Inaugural Centralised Documentary Australia Foundation Fellowship), Maria Tran (actor, filmmaker, martial artist) and Cornel Ozies (Our Law).
Themselves from a diverse range of artistic and cultural backgrounds and traditions, their subjects are equally wide-ranging and include a Tongan-Australian young woman whose body still remembers the dance routine of her first big show, before it was cancelled due to the Covid-19; performance artists using isolation for creative inspiration; comedian Greg Fleet discovering the reality of performing for laughs without an audience; the impact of systemic racism on artists including an African/Australian burlesque performer and a Chinese/Australian actor; the role of the performing arts in remote communities; a Somali/Australian slam poet; and a daughter’s film about her mother, a Vietnamese/Australian refugee.
“In these most difficult of times, when our ability to experience performing arts has been curtailed and when our artists are struggling financially and for meaning, this series of films is a timely exploration. It’s a series about both loss and resilience, it’s a celebration of artistic expression and the gifts our artists give to the community and, we hope, the films will kickstart a conversation about how we can better support and appreciate the performing arts in Australia,” Ian Darling, Shark Island Institute, said.
Dr Mitzi Goldman, CEO of Documentary Australia Foundation, said: “To create an opportunity to hear from a diversity of voices on the critical importance of the arts to our lives, and how the arts helps us process the unprecedented times we are experiencing, is to throw a life line to both the artists and their audiences. The collective impact of the stories as a whole will hopefully drive home what the arts offers us as a society and why artists need our support.”
Each film will end with a specific call to action about how communities can support the artists in the film and performing arts sector more generally.
The films will be available to view on the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age websites from October 3rd as part of The Good Weekend’s Art & Culture issue published on that date.