Sector Support
VoxDocs
VoxDocs was a ground-breaking collaboration between Shark Island Institute and The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, as an initiative to support the Arts during covid. Combining journalism with short-form documentary filmmaking, VoxDocs brought together the filmmaking expertise of Shark Island and our collaborators, with the independent journalism, and depth and breadth of audience that The SMH and The Age deliver in print and online. More >
VoxDocs invited eight of Australia’s established and emerging filmmakers to each create a 5-minute documentary that explored the state of the performing arts in Australia during the pandemic lockdown. This was launched as part of The Good Weekend’s The Arts Issue in October 2020.
An initiative of…
In association with…
THE FILMS
01. THE DANCER
THE DANCER highlights the impact of racial inequality through the experiences of artists from African diaspora backgrounds.
Director: Santilla Chingaipe
Synopsis
What impact does systemic racism have on artists?
THE DANCER explores the motivations, dreams and harrowing accounts of racism in the arts industry through the stories of non-white creatives and interpreted through a dance choreographed and performed by acclaimed Congolese-Australian burlesque dancer, choreographer and performing artist, Zelia Rose. It asks the sector to actively work to dismantle racism which has long lasting impacts on creatives.
Director’s Statement
Dance is deeply rooted in African diaspora communities, and has historically intertwined social and political issues.
It is with this backdrop, that I wanted to introduce Zelia Rose – a talented performer in her own right. At a time when the global Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the continued impact of racial injustice and anti-Blackness, this film seeks to shift the focus to the arts industry in Australia through the stories of young creatives who’ve been impacted by racism.
More >Although systemic racism is prevalent across all industries, it is my hope that THE DANCER promotes greater awareness in the arts industry about racial inequality so that creatives aren’t missing out on opportunities because of their skin colour.
Director’s Bio
Santilla Chingaipe is a journalist and filmmaker whose work explores migration, cultural identities and politics. She is a regular contributor to The Saturday Paper, and serves as a member of the Federal Government’s Advisory Group on Australia-Africa Relations (AGAAR).
More >Her first book of non-fiction detailing the stories of convicts of African descent transported to the Australian penal colonies, is forthcoming with Picador in 2021.
The recipient of several awards, she was recognised at the United Nations as one of the most influential people of African descent in the world in 2019.
02. THE COMEDIAN
Stand-up comedian Greg Fleet discovers the reality of performing for laughs without an audience.
Director: Ian Darling
Synopsis
Internationally renowned stand-up comedian Greg Fleet is at the top of his game. The only thing he needs is an audience. COVID has closed down venues across Australia and live performances have been made impossible. When the reality of performing for laughs without an audience finally dawns on him, it raises some serious questions about his own mortality as a performer. He questions whether audiences will ever return, at a time when those who once laughed with him are now at home staring at their screens. What is left for this ageing performer, when there is no safety net and all is stripped away?
Director’s Statement
Greg Fleet and I have been great friends since the mid-70’s when we were both at boarding school together in Geelong. We did many plays together at school and both still have a strong interest in the performing arts. We are currently writing, together with director Sarah Butler, a new play, THE TWINS. It’s a two hander and we will both be acting in the piece too. The story has evolved from our experience of playing twins in Shakespeare’s THE COMEDY OF ERRORS back in 1978. We are hoping to launch the play on the fringe festival circuit in early 2021.
More >We hastily gathered our favourite documentary film crew, and over a day and night of filming in the Upper River Community Hall at Kangaroo Valley, the documentary emerged.
I had the great pleasure of directing Greg Fleet in THE COMEDIAN, which is one of the 8 short documentaries forming part of the initial VoxDox, the new initiative of Shark Island Institute and Documentary Australia Foundation, in association with the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Director’s Bio
Ian Darling is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with Shark Island Productions. His Director credits include The Final Quarter, Paul Kelly – Stories of Me, The Oasis, Suzy & the Simple Man, In the Company of Actors, Alone Across Australia, Woodstock for Capitalists, Polly & Me, and The Soldier.
Ian received the Byron Kennedy Award at the 2018 AACTA Awards. He won the AFI/AACTA Award for Best Direction in a Documentary, is a Walkley Awards Finalist (twice), winner of two Film Critics Awards and has been nominated for numerous Australian Directors Guild, AFI/AACTA, SPAA and IF awards.
He was Founder of Good Pitch Australia, Documentary Australia Foundation and voxdocs.
03. Unbalanced
Stuck in their apartment during Melbourne’s coronavirus lockdown, performance artists Will and Garrett Huxley are looking for a way out. Welcome to the colourful escapist world of The Huxleys.
Director: Hollie Fifer
Synopsis
Stuck in their apartment during Melbourne’s second-wave coronavirus lockdown, performance artists Will and Garrett Huxley are looking for a way out. Their antidote to boredom, frustration and anxiety may look slightly different to most. Partners in life and work, Will and Garrett intimately film themselves as they navigate their cabin fever and search for an escape through their art. They discover that their glitter-submerged creativity is their lifeline as the importance of art and creativity in dark times becomes paramount.
Director’s Statement
I met Will and Garrett when I took over as Director of Schoolhouse Studios where they have their studio. During the first round of coronavirus lockdown, we made 16 short videos of the resident artists, one of which was The Huxley’s dressed up as The Golden Girls singing ‘Thank You For Being A Friend’ with green screened visuals behind them and their butt cheeks sticking out of their leotards – it was perfect. When the impending doom of the next wave of restrictions were about to hit Melbourne, we decided to keep collaborating.
More >The Huxleys filmed throughout their lockdown experience as they came up with the idea of using masks to let out their inner daily struggles. The bold shocking representation was so relatable that we decided to use this less as a making of an artwork film, but more as an emotional journey through the highs and lows of lockdown and how creativity was helping buoy their experience. It became obvious how important creativity and silliness is in a crisis, not just for Will and Garrett, but for the entire filmmaking team and hopefully the audience watching the film.
Director’s Bio
Hollie’s films have screened at festivals and been broadcast within Australia and internationally. THE OPPOSITION is Hollie’s debut feature documentary produced by Media Stockade that world premiered at Hot Docs and IDFA in 2016 before winning the Grand Prize at FIFO, screening at the UN Human Rights Council, winning Best Documentary Feature at the Oz Flix Independent Film Awards and screening in over 35 countries.
More >04. Playlist
A story about the loss of a performance, but also what can be gained in this shared time of uncertainty.
Director: Maya Newell
Synopsis
PLAYLIST is a short doc about Neda, a Tongan/Arabic Australian whose body still moves to the dance routines of her first breakout show, PLAYLIST before it was cancelled. Covid19 came without invitation, but the pause and stillness sparked Neda to question how she can represent her culture when she still has so much to learn.
Director’s Statement
PLAYLIST ensemble, a verbatim dance-theatre work from PYT Fairfield exploring the state of intersectional feminism and cultural identity through the eyes of five diverse young women from living across Western Sydney.
The show was picked up and played at the Sydney Opera House and was rapturously loved by the niche crowds. The newly formed crew were about to hit the road on a twenty-three-city tour until Covid19 cut these dreams short.
More >What emerged is an intimate story about loss, but also what is gained in this shared time of uncertainty. For black and brown young people to lead and represent themselves creatively, society must understand and make space for them to reconnect with their identities broken by millennia of assumed inferiority and active assimilation. Representing one’s culture creatively comes with maturity, responsibility, perseverance to learn and unlearn.
I hope this film shows the critical need for young artists to be valued at this delicate moment in their creative development. Art has critical value to audiences, but also to the artists who embody it.
NEDA TAHA (subject) – STATEMENT
When covid first sent us into our lockdowns, PLAYLIST had been at the forefront of my mind. We were supposed to be re-mounting for our long-awaited national tour and instead we were shoved back into our homes. When it all came to a standstill and everything seemed uncertain, I found that I started to ask myself important questions – What really mattered to me? What was something I could do to ground myself in the middle of a global pandemic? Amidst the cloud of uncertainty there was one thing that stood out loud and clear – my culture. This combined with my fresh “no more tour” wounds brought up even more thoughts about myself and how unsure I was in representing my culture on the stage. Was the information I was telling correct? How could I tell the world about my culture and its influence in my life if I didn’t really understand it myself?
After coming to terms with the fact that I wasn’t comfortable with how little knowledge I had about my culture, I set myself on a mission to learn and unlearn all my histories and truths.
From this came an uncomfortable conversation I had been trying to have with my mum for years. Why do we speak English at home when Tongan is my mother’s first language? Could we change that? Having that conversation flipped a switch and through this came hours of researching and watching footage online about cultural practices. I found myself hungry for even more knowledge so I joined Tongan tau’olunga classes, Tongan language classes and I set out to learn more about my ancestral lineage. With these tools, I could learn to walk in the world with a new refined confidence about knowledge I had unknowingly inherited the day I was born.
Director’s Bio
Maya is a Japanese/Australian doc director and impact producer. She directed acclaimed feature IN MY BLOOD IT RUNS (2019) about ten-year-old Arrernte/Garrwa boy Dujuan and his family, produced by Sophie Hyde, Larissa Behrendt and Rachel Edwardson made in collaboration with those onscreen. It was selected for Goodpitch Australia, a Sundance Institute Fellowship, was nominated for Best Documentary and Best Cinematography at the AACTAs, screened at numerous film festivals worldwide and is in the midst of an impact campaign.
More >05. Verse
From fleeing war-torn Somalia at the age of 16, to detention on Christmas Island, Hani Abdile’s journey demonstrates the power of poetry & performance to transform lives.
Director: Cornel Ozies
Synopsis
Hani Abdile fled the civil war in Somalia aged just 16 and made her way to Australia by boat.
She spent 11 months detained on Christmas Island where she began writing poetry.
After being released, Hani found her voice and community through slam poetry and the organisation dedicated to supporting artists like her – Word Travels.
More >Director’s Statement
When I was first asked to be part of the voxdocs initiative I had grand plans to film multiple spoken word poets and various members of the Word Travels organisation, but I quickly came to the realisation that I would have to pick one story to fit into 5 minutes.
This was a challenge as all of the poets I have met through Word Travels are talented artists with interesting stories. I choose to work with Hani because she is such a strong example of what can happen when you create space for people who would not otherwise be heard.
More >He realised that his own thoughts or emotions would never be revealed waiting around for someone to cast him in the perfect role. Miles knew that others were having similar experiences: never feeling heard, always waiting for permission to speak to an audience. This is why he set up and continues to run Word Travels and work with artists like Hani.
Hani’s journey highlights the importance of grass roots organisations like Word Travel who develop and nurture new talent. Small arts organisations provide a platform for emerging artists to hone their craft and gain exposure. Without them we, as a society, risk losing unique stories like Hani’s. Hani has published a book of poetry and is now studying Journalism; all may have never happened if a small arts organisation had not offered her a platform to share her voice.
I wanted share Hani’s story because it shows the value of arts through the opportunities it can bring to those that are considered the “other” or less fortunate.
“Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” – Rumi
Director’s Bio
Cornel is a Djugun, Yawuru, Gooniyandi and Jabirr Jabirr man from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. He is a cinematographer, video editor and director based in Sydney. His documentary OUR LAW premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2020 and his documentary short FOOTPRINTS premiered at the 2015 Sydney Film Festival.
Cornel is driven to tell unique stories that are not usually in the spotlight – positive stories on behalf of diverse voices not usually in the mainstream.
More >06. My Mother, the Action Star
Actor and martial arts star Maria Tran thought legend Jackie Chan was her number 1 hero until she heard her mother’s story.
Director: Maria Tran
Synopsis
Covid19 has presented both challenges and yet also unexpected opportunities. For the past year, Maria has been developing a solo theatrical show ACTION STAR at PYT Fairfield but that went on hold when they had to shut down the venue due to Covid19.
More >Director’s Statement
My mother, Betty Thi Tran, was a private woman until making this documentary. Making this film was a deeply personal moment that has led me to connect more with the harrowing life and death Vietnamese diasporic journey via boat to Australia and how I can, as a performing artist embody some of these moments.
More >MY MOTHER, THE ACTION STAR tells a story of how my mother’s journey has inspired a new movement and action that I can take into the next stage of creative development for a new one woman play called ACTION STAR. It is a reflective piece where I, as an onscreen action performer, had the opportunity to explore how my path ties in with my upbringing, essentially my relationship with my mother.
The process of making the documentary has been unlike my other documentary experiences. Like my mother’s journey, it was infused with uncertainty. However, we had an ensemble of creative people and joined our voices together to explore Betty’s essence on film. It’s been an honour to collaborate with the community that’s gathered to tell this story, including filmmakers Elizabeth H Vu and Takashi Hara, who did a lot of facilitating and creating a safe space for Betty to tell her story. We had the full support of the filmmakers from Phoenix Eye collective as well as new collaborations with other talent that lent their expertise to create stunning visual aesthetics that went hand in hand with Betty’s story.
Overall Betty Thi Tran shared her passion, her legacy for her children, including me, and I am deeply grateful to share her story and translate it into a performance for a new generation.
Director’s Bio
Maria Tran is an actor, filmmaker and martial artist working across video, performance and action choreography. Her international film credits include Roger Corman’s Hollywood movie FIST OF THE DRAGON, Chinese mixed martial arts movie DEATH MIST and Vietnamese blockbuster TRACER.
More >In 2018, Maria became the recipient of the Create NSW Western Sydney Arts Fellowship award and established a female-led film and art collective, Phoenix Eye, based in Western Sydney.
07. Gove Arts Theatre
In a town where many lean more towards the pursuits of boating, camping and fishing, do the Arts even matter?
Director: Tamara Whyte
Synopsis
Far from the country’s largest art institutions, sitting on the pristine waters and lands of the Yolngu peoples, sits the town of Nhulunbuy. In Nhulunbuy, the largest institution is a bauxite mine. Within the Captain Cook Community Centre is the Gove Arts Theatre, a local theatre group who will be hosting their only event for the year.
More >Director’s Statement
Covid-19 limited what I could choose as the focus of a voxdocs story. I knew with the NT limiting access to other states, there could be every chance that if I flew for filming, I might get stuck and not make it back home. It was a relief to be able to stay local and focus on a story in the community where I live.
More >I chose to focus on community theatre because I knew it would bring an essential voice to the cannon of what is being presented. The support for the Community Arts comes in two forms, one is the support from within the community it represents and the other is in the form of financial support. For Gove Arts Theatre the financial support is next to nothing, if we don’t generate it ourselves, we don’t pay the bills. Occasionally, we are eligible to apply for grants, but an unpaid committee of volunteers doesn’t always have the time or capacity to do that.
Community Arts offers people the chance to come together and connect for the better of those in their near vicinity, it has a different voice in the conversation but one that mirrors what is happening all over the country. Within our own NT Covid bubble, Gove Arts Theatre offered the community a reminder of how valued the Arts are to them and the joy that comes from bringing people together.
Director’s Bio
A descendant of the Warrgamay peoples of coastal far north Queensland and Cane cutters from Vanuatu. Tamara lives in Nhulunbuy, NT, working across film/video, photography and photomedia. She has shot, written, directed and produced a number of short documentary, drama and video works since 2010 and has been screened and exhibited both nationally and internationally. Her photomedia work is held in private collections.
More >08. A Reminder
Chinese actor Kyle Chen reflects on his initial aspirations of becoming an actor, the liberating experience of performing, how performance art supports his mental wellbeing and the integral function of the arts in society as a whole.
Director: Alex Wu
Synopsis
Chinese actor Kyle Chen reflects on his initial aspirations of becoming an actor, the liberating experience of performing, how performance art supports his mental wellbeing and the integral function of the arts in society as a whole.
Director’s Statement
Making A REMINDER was an intensely cathartic experience. Like many of my fellow young aspiring artists – filmmakers, actors, dancers, writers, fine art practitioners, and so on – a full-time career in the Australian arts remains elusive; almost mythological in nature. The current state of the industry appears discouraging at best. So, to have gotten the chance to collaborate with DAF and Shark Island – on a project about the significance of arts, no less – was honestly a dream opportunity come true. I’m incredibly grateful.
More >Making a short documentary during Stage 4 lockdown came with an obvious set of restrictions. To circumvent this, we decided to tell the story through animation. I collaborated with three Melbourne-based animators – Rowena Lloyd, Sylvie Le Couteur and Robbie McKinstry – to each interpret a third of the story in their own unique style, and transform Kyle’s narrative into a vivid dreamscape, portraying the emotions and array of colours encapsulated in becoming different characters and telling stories. It ended up being a hugely satisfying creative experience from beginning to end and complemented the intended thesis of art as an expression of the individual.
At the end of the day, I hope that this initiative makes some kind of impact. At the very least, I hope it communicates both just how important the arts are in our lives and the immutable power of the creative spirit, to those who potentially weren’t aware of it beforehand.
Director’s Bio
Alex Wu is an award-winning Australian filmmaker based in Melbourne. Born and raised in Canberra, Alex made his first short film on Super 8mm while still in high school.
More >His most recent work, IDOL (2019), took home the prestigious Dendy Award for Best Australian Live-Action Short Film at the 2020 Sydney Film Festival, two awards at the 2020 Brooklyn Film Festival and has secured a nomination at the 2020 Australian Directors’ Guild Awards.