THE PROGRAM
Welcome to the 4th International Documentary Conference and Film Festival.
As we know, documentarists are no strangers to debate and dissent - in fact
they are almost definitionally steeped in it. This year's conference theme
Mind if We Watch? is a deliberately contentious one. The vexed question of
ethics continues to nag away at the edges of documentary practice, shaping
its currency and mapping out some possible futures.
With over 120 speakers (including some 30 international guests) this
conference is set to be one of Australia's noisiest - if not largest. But
for those times when the talk gets too much there is always the privacy of
the videotheque - an opportunity to view some of the latest documentaries
from around the world in the privacy of your own monitor and headset. For
the more socially inclined there will be the requisite occasions for
imbibing...in social interactions of the conference kind. And if being in
Melbourne isn't enough you can always escape to unknown destinations on the
internet.
On behalf of all those involved in organising this event I wish you a truly
'feistive' conference (and a souvenir T-shirt that actually fits).
Cheers,
Deb Verhoeven
Executive Director
Program Contents
FORUMS
REVERSE ANGLES
Thursday, November 23rd, 11.00am, George One
Barbara Chobocky &
Gilda Massalf-Markieh
Andrew Wiseman &
Tracey Howard
(Chair TBA)
A session in which the people in the films get to have their say.
What impact do documentaries have on the people in them? Should there be
limits to the intimacies of documentary surveillance? Do we need a
different set 'private' figures? What rights should documentary subjects
have over their own images? How ethical for example are 'release forms' as
they are presently utilised?
CUT TO THE QUICK
Thursday, November 23rd, 4.30pm, George Two
Carole Sklan
Dasha Ross
Franziska Wagenfeld
Claire Jager (Chair)
The short documentary has recently returned to favour with theatrical and
non-commercial television interest in the form. What documentary subjects
lend themselves to brief treatment? What are the pluses and minuses of
short documentary making? And how might the short documentary fare in a
commercial world without pithy?
Mind if We Watch
Thursday, November 23rd, 5.30pm, The Marquee
Jenny Brockie
David Goldie
Allie Light
Bob Maza
Deb Verhoeven (Chair)
A taste of some of the debates that will mark the remainder of the
conference. What are some of the key contemporary ethical questions
filmmakers face when making documentaries? What is the ethical
responsibility of the filmmaker to the subject of the film? The spectator
of the film? Do filmmakers have a responsibility to 'history', i.e to some
concept of the 'truth' of events of the past? How is a film's audience
implicated in a system of surveillance created in the documentary project?
Is it possible to Be There without Being Their? Do all these questions
demand different answers in different contexts and cultures?
S(T)ATED INTERESTS
Friday, November 24th,
11.00 am, The Marquee
Chris Fitchett
Sharon Connolly
Norbert Bunge
Peter Hughes
Annette Blonksi (Chair)
By its early definition the documentary was expected to serve the function
of producing citizens for the contemporary nation-state. For Grierson its
function was to help educate citizens for democracy; for Dziga Vertov its
role was to produce revolutionaries to build a new state. In New Deal USA
the documentary was intended to educate the citizen about the need for
government programs and the conditions which made them necessary - whether
environmental or economic.In 1940 John Grierson reported to the Australian
Prime Minister arguing that, "the film industry..can simply and easily be
mobilised in the national interest." He proposed that documentaries could
be produced for a range of ends:
- * Films for schools
- * Films showing achievements in various branches of national activity,
calculated to inspire a sense of Australian citizenship
- * Films calculated to show one part of Australia the activities of other parts
- * Films for women's organisations e.g films to reorient buying habits in
the national interest
In Australia documentary is currently produced in a range of contexts. It
nevertheless remains that governments fund a great deal of documentary
production. At the same time the concept of public service broadcasting is
under increasing ideological challenge and economic threat from
privatisation and Pay TV.
In light of this situation, what is meant by the concept of the 'national
interest' in Australia in the 90s? What is the relationship of the
documentary to the state in contemporary Australia? What should it be?
Given that most docum-entaries are at least partly funded by the state what
is the function of documentaries for the state? Why do governments fund
documentary production? Are they likely to continue to do so? Should
governments fund films that are critical of the state? Is there still some
place for the types of films Grierson envisaged?
COMMUNITY TV
Friday November 24th,
4.30pm, Stop 22
(Videotheque)
Venieca Doolan,
Pearl Davern
Kim Montgomery
(Chair: TBA)
Community television closes the gap between filmmakers and viewers. How
might this closure contribute to a more ethical documentary practice? How
important are documentaries to community television stations around
Australia? How important is community television to documentary filmmakers?
This session examines aspects of an indigenous focus in programming and the
impact of television broadcasting in terms of language/cultural
deterioration and preservation.
REPRESENTING THE UNTHINKABLE
Saturday, November 25th,
9.00 am, The Marquee
Peter Jordan
Dennis O'Rourke
Jayne Loader
Mick Broderick (Chair)
This panel explores the artistic decisions and strategies of participating
filmmakers in rendering meaning to 'the nuclear' in non-fiction film (and
multi-media) form. How useful is humour and metaphor to the political
project of these documentaries? What is the documentarist's relationship to
'history' in these circumstances? How is it possible to move beyond
preaching to the converted?
DIDACTI-DOX
Saturday, November 25th,
11.00 am, The Marquee
Michael O'Shaughnessy
Gillian Leahy
Heide Larson
Jenny Sabine (Chair)
Documentary is seldom chosen by aspirant filmmakers completing training
courses at Australia's various film schools. This panel explores some of
the issues and problems found in teaching 'documentary' to tertiary
students. Is it possible to make documentary a more attractive option for
students? What resources, texts and techniques have proved useful to
educators? What are the institutional and ideological parameters that help
define course outlines? What affiliations with the wider film industry are
possible in training future generations of documentary filmmakers? What are
our regional training responsibilities?
CAMCORDER CULTURE
Saturday November 25th,
4.00pm, The Marquee
Jon Dovey
Anand Patwardhan
Alan Carter
Ellen Spiro
John Moore (Chair)
From the funniest home videos to the media/legal manipulations of the
Rodney King footage - what happens when home video makes the big-time? How
is an increase in visual literacy and popular access to broadcastable
technology contributing to a questioning of the relationship between
filmmakers and their subjects. Is the current trend to video-diary formats
a way of side-stepping this self-examination? And just how low will the
broadcasters go?
Conversely the advent of compact video formats has assisted independent
documentarists and activists around the world in their efforts to evade
government surveillance. How is the advent of video technology contributing
to a rise in grass roots agit-prop cinema in Asia for example?
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
Sunday, November 26th,
9.00 am, The Marquee
Freda Freiberg
Young-Joo Byun
Gaylene Preston
Sagari Chhabra
Helen Durham (Chair)
1995 has proved to be a year for memorialising global conflicts
particularly World War 2 and the Vietnam War.
Against the traditional war record however a number of counter histories
have emerged in Australia and Asia. These films tackle the question of the
personal (within a political context), the role of testimonial in
challenging popular memory, the emotional underside of international
detente.
DEALING WITH THE DEAD (AND THEIR CHILDREN)
Sunday, November 26th,
9.00am, George One
Steve Thomas
Wayne Barker
Hara Kazuo
John Lewis (Chair)
What strategies are available to the filmmaker when dealing with the
estates and surviving relatives of their subjects? Do documentary
filmmakers have a responsibility to some concept of the subject
(person/peoples) from the past who are no longer able to speak for
themselves? Is there any necessary need to honour the dead? What about the
practices and beliefs of other cultures? What about the living?
HOW GLOBAL IS GAY?
Sunday, November 26th,
11.00am, George One
Ellen Spiro
Kim Longinotto
Chris Berry (Chair)
Do you have to be one to know one? Is it more 'objective' to make films
from the position of outsider? What paths do filmmakers undertake when they
travel between cultures and 'sub-cultures'? How useful are the categories
we bring from our own culture to another?
BEASTLY STORIES
Sunday November 26th
11.00am, The Marquee
Maree Delofski
Karin Altman
Diane Tammes
Glen Carruthers
Jane Mills (Chair)
"The main problem documentary makers have is the same problem people have
who make fiction films: they don't start with a good story...I never
considered [Crumb] a documentary film. I had a story I wanted to tell."
(Terry Zwigoff)
"Fiction is not to reality what a lie is to the truth...Fiction is the moment of humanising nature and of constituting reality in society." (Francois Niney)
The rapid increase in visual material that has accompanied the explosion of
new media delivery systems has challenged forever the popular idea of the
documentarist as a 'picture deliverer'. Non-fiction filmmakers are now,
perhaps more than ever before, expected to provide vision and perspective
along with their footage. At the same time however, many broadcasters are
responding to the portability of new digital media with a return to that
staple of ethnographic documentary - 'fly-eye filming' (the televirtual
space where David Attenborough meets Sylvania Waters).
What are some of the ethical considerations faced by documentary filmmakers
when they assemble their films? What ethical issues does the director tempt
when shaping material for an audience's entertainment or edification? How
far can a dramatic device or effect be meaningfully used before it
compromises the documentary project per se? What can be tweaked or
heightened for dramatic effect - what is sacrosanct?
COPYRIGHT - CLEARING THE AIR
Sunday November 26th,
2.00pm, The Marquee
Mike Piper
Kate Hemmings
Daniel Pearce (Chair)
This session will provide an overview of current copyright laws with
emphasis given to the rights of documentary producers in the non-theatrical
arena. Attention will also be given to some of the issues arising from New
Technologies Copyright Forum (Friday November 24th, 2.00pm, George Two).
What will be the impact of 'moral rights' legislation on documentary
filmmakers. What are the legal rights of the subject to editorial control
over their representation? What might constitute the notion of 'performing
rights' in documentaries?
Sponsored by Holden Redlich
& The Audio Visual Copyright Society
SPECIAL programs
ACCORD-CASTS
Thursday November 23rd,
2pm, George Two
David Court
David Noakes
Andy Lloyd James
Mike Rubbo
Tony Chapman (Chair)
The Accord between the FFC and the ABC and SBS has been largely responsible
for funding the bulk of Australian documentaries in the past three years.
It has recently been renewed and commercial stations are now part of the
picture. How successful has the Accord been in guaranteeing a slate of
innovative films that encapsulate Australian themes? How successful have
they been in the international marketplace? How can we expand the area of
Non-Accord production? How should we structure and fund the process of
documentary making in the future? Does it matter that documentaries recoup
less than drama in commercial terms? What impact will new media
technologies have on the documentary marketplace?
see also: Info sessions (FFC, AFC,
Discovery Channel, Film Australia)
Global TV - What's On
Friday November 24th,
2pm, The Marquee
Alan Bookbinder
Peter Salmon
Steven Burns
Wynette Yao
Mike Rubbo (Chair)
International broadcasters talk about current trends/ directions/
initiatives/ debates in the international documentary production scene.
Who's Buying What?
Saturday November 25th, 11 am
Australian Institute of Management
Charles Schuerhoff
Deb Stewart
Jennifer Cornish
Kim Dalton (Chair)
Distributors talk about how the documentary is faring in the international
market place. What types of programs are likely to be bought? What are the
trends? An examination of the differences between the markets in Europe/UK
and USA? What is the future with Pay TV and the new markets in Asia?
Success stories.
DOCUMART
Saturday 25th,
1.30pm - 5.30pm
Australian Institute of Management
Peter Salmon
Alan Bookbinder
Steven Burns
Mike Rubbo
Andy Lloyd James
David Noakes
Sharon Connolly
Tim Worner
Len Downes
Kim Dalton
Charles Schuerhoff
Wynette Yao
Jenny Cornish
Peter Beilby (Chair)
A first for Australia, the Documart is an opportunity for 11 pre-selected
producers to pitch their ideas to a panel of international broadcasters,
financiers and distributors. The aim of this session is entirely serious;
to stimulate co-financing and co-production of new documentaries and it is
expected to become a biennial event.
There will be a strictly limited audience for the Documart.
Sponsored by the Film Finance Corporation & Beyond Distribution
Bit By Bit; New Technologies
A series of seminars designed
to introduce filmmakers to
the bits and pieces of
new media production
Sponsored by
the Australian Film Commission
BYTE-ING BACK
Log onto the 'net at Stop 22. Cruise and peruse some of the sites already
up and running for doco-devotees around the globe. Join in a news-group
debate or just surf away to your heart's content..
DIGITAL ARCHIVAL RESTORATIONS
Thursday November 23rd,
11.00am, George Three
Peter Doyle
Simon Britton (Chair)
Peter Doyle is the Creative Director at Arri Digital in Munich, where some
of his work involves the digital restoration of archival footage. At this
session he will show footage restored especially for the conference and
will discuss the possibilities for the complex restoration of footage
previously considered marginal. He will advise documentary makers on ways
in which they can access digital restoration technologies and suggest new
and exciting ways in which digital technologies can be used in documentary
production.
JAYNE LOADER'S
PUBLIC SHELTER
Friday November 24th,
11.00am, George Two
Jayne Loader
Lisa Logan (Chair)
In this session Jayne Loader will go through her CD-Rom 'Public Shelter'.
Based on the familiar 'frame by frame' format, this session will consist
of an intimate discussion of her own work to give a real feel of the ins
and outs of working with multimedia. Written, directed, edited, co-
produced and now presented by Jayne Loader, Public Shelter is inspired by
hercelebrated film The Atomic Cafe. Public Shelter contains 30 minutes of
video -much of it unseen since the 1950's. There are also 400 photographs,
18 original songs, 12 hours of audio and 1500 text files (a total of 15 meg
of fully searchable text) all pertaining to atomic weapons and energy from
the Trinity Test to the present. Most of the documents in Public Shelter
are original artifacts, many of them recently declassified by the US
government. Some of the most shocking deal with nuclear accidents, nuclear
waste, atomic testing, and government-sponsored radiation experiments on
humans. Public Shelter also features apocalyptic science-fiction by Vonda
McIntyre, Mary Rosenblum, John Stith, Joe Haldeman and David Brin.
PRACTICALITIES OF NEW MEDIA PRODUCTION FOR DOCUMENTARY MAKERS
Friday November 24th, 9.00am, George Two
Bill Stewart
Laura Tricker
Gordon Williams (Chair)
For many filmmakers the practical issues of multimedia production are an
unknown. This session aims to provide an introduction to what is and what
is not possible in New Media production. Topics covered will include: the
delivery platforms and how they handle video, image quality issues (window
sizes, frame rates, JPEG and MPEG compression, storage issues), shooting
for interactive multimedia, levels of interactivity achievable in the
various formats, and a brief look at typical production costs
GETTING COPYRIGHT RIGHT
Friday November 24th,
2.00pm, George Two
Bryce Menzies
Arun Khanna
Jayne Loader
Jenifer Hooks (Chair)
Copyright has always been an issue for filmmakers but today, with new
multimedia formats available, it has become a significant aspect in the
filmmaking process. It is vital that practitioners have an understanding
and grasp of the implications of current copyright regulations. This
session will include a practical look at the issues arising from producing
multimedia and case studies of recent productions.
MARKETING, PUBLISHING AND DISTRIBUTION ISSUES IN NEW MEDIA
Friday November 24th,
3.00pm, George Two
Roger Buckridge
Rev Gordon
Ted Hopkins
Cynthia Goliopoulos (Chair)
What are the different forms of publishing? What does the filmmaker need to
be aware of when deciding on alternative forms of publication? This session
aims to provide practical information on: the parameters of the
international mew media market, a survey of the distributors and publishers
of new media, existing and future, the evolution of online services and thei
r implications for filmmakers, and a survey of the type of product
available internationally
THE EVOLUTION OF ONLINE SERVICES
Saturday November 25th, 4.00pm, Stop 22
Neil Bethune
Jeff Morgan
Keeran Farrell
John Smithies
Bill Simpson-Young
Simon Britton (Chair)
The World Wide Web, e-mail and other Internet-based services are a rich
resource for documentary makers - for research, distribution of audio and
video, conferencing and fun. This session will provide a snapshot of
current services and how they will evolve as the convergence between
television and online services accelerates.
FRANK DEMONSTRATION
Friday November 24th,
4.00pm, Stop 22
Bill Simpson-Young
Dr Ken Yap
The Film/TV Researchers Archival Navigation Kit (FRANK) is a prototype
software system that supports filmmakers, film researchers and others in
browsing and searching film archives across broadband networks. FRANK is
being developed by the CSIRO Division of Information Technology with Film
Australia as part of the Research Data
Network Cooperative Research Centre. It will be used for the Biographical
Information Online System project which aims to make available the material
from Film Australia's Australian Biography series (including original
interview footage, production for broadcast, transcripts, shotlists and
associated material) over Telstra's Experimental Broadband Network. A
filmmaker or film researcher will be able to remotely browse through video
(using VCR-type controls plus random positioning), browse through
transcripts and shotlists, enter a search term and immediately have the
video positioned to the corresponding place in the video, click on
representative frames in a sequence summary to view video from the
corresponding position, etc. The architecture of the system has been
designed to facilitate filmmaker contribution back into the system. In this
way researchers can make their own screening notes available to the system,
allowing other researchers to benefit from their efforts.
DOCU-mentors
This year we celebrate the work of Australia's post-war pioneers of
documentary. Judy Adamson, Colin Dean, John Heyer and Maslyn Williams will
collaborate one more time in a major re-assessment of the introduction of a
government sponsored documentary industry in this country. They form the
basis of what will be an entertaining and largely anecdotal account of
Australia's early documentary film production
Saturday, November 25th, 2.00pm. The Marquee
Judy Adamson
Colin Dean
John Heyer
Maslyn Williams
Dean Williams (Chair)
What exactly were the conditions of the Australian film industry at the
point when the National Film Board (later the Commonwealth Film Unit and
later still Film Australia) was established? How influential was John
Grierson in encouraging government intervention in the industry? What other
factors played a part in the progression of events?
Associated Screenings
The Forerunner
Friday November 24th,
1.15pm, George Two
(35mins, 35mm, 1958)
Directed by John Heyer for the Shell Film unit. John Heyer's favourite film
from his distinguished career, The Forerunner adapts the folk resonances
apparent in 1950's culturein a narratorless film that seeks anevocation of
the rationale for the Snowy River Scheme rather than traditional
documentary didacticism. The film stands as an early example of the
compilation film employing Cinesound newsreel, army public relations and
Commonwealth Film Unit footage of the Maitland floods. In three sequences
of restful rumination on wonderfully composed images of mythic Australia,
the film plays out a strategy that coincides with a particular culmination
of 1950's documentary experimentation that is being re-read today as a
benchmark of Australian film culture.
John Heyer will introduce his film.
Mike and Stefani
Saturday November 25th,
11.00am, George Three
(64mins, 35mm, 1952)
Directed by R. Maslyn Williams for the Film Division, Department of
Interior for the Department of Information.
One of the Division's finest achievements, Mike and Stefani eschews the
conventions of institutionaldocumentary in a narrative drama of displaced
persons in post-war Europe. The Story of a Ukranian couple, separated in in
wartime, the film traces their respective stories of labour camps and the
months of chaos and lonliness in the re-settlement camps of post-war Europe
and their struggle to relocate themselves, eventually to Australia.
Designed to address perceptions that immigration selection procedures were
inadequate, the film becomes a damning criticism of Australia's attitude to
immigration in post-war years. The reunion and selection interview scenes
in Mike and Stefani are two of the best handled narrative moments in
Australian documentary. Williams and cameraman Reg Pearse made this
beautiful unfolding film of a family's struggle with the forces of history
only to see the film caught uncomfortably between a commercial film trade
unwilling to accept the film's gritty realism and a Government institution
incapable of comprehending it's scope and length.
R. Maslyn Williams will introduce his films at this session.
Goldtown
Saturday November 25th, 11.00am, George Three
(10mins, 16mm, 1948)
Directed by R. Maslyn Williams for the Film Division, National Film Board
for the Department of the Interior. Featuring Ted Cranston's evocative
photography, Goldtown marks the emergence of a certain musicality in
Australian documentary making. This documentary indicates a seeding of the
aesthetic ground that was to come to fruition in Mike and Stefani
Capacity Smith:
The Story of a Successful Dairy Farmer
Saturday November 25th,
11.00am, George Three
(32 mins, 16mm, 1951)
Directed by Colin Dean for the Australian National Film Board for the
Department of the Interior, Commonwealth Department of Commerce and
Agriculture. Remaining close to Grierson's model of the 'creative treatment
of actuality' Dean's 'narrative documentary' renders the simple tale of
farm mechanisation within the framework of post-war nationalism a
surprising visual and dramatic triumph.
Colin Dean will introduce his film.
See also: Dox by the Metre
Thursday Nov. 23rd, 9.00am,George Two
Spotlight on Cecil Holmes
Friday Nov. 24th, 9.00am,George One
Case Studies
RPA
Friday November 24th,
11.00am, George One
Fiona Baker
This session will detail the production of RPA with an emphasis on how the
producers dealt with some of the ethical demands of the program.
RPA has swept Australian audiences away with its verité depictions of the
cut and thrust at a large Sydney hospital, The Royal Prince Albert. The
series follows people as they come and go from RPA as a result of accident,
major illness or complicated pregnancy. We experience first-hand their
consultations with doctors,
their lives in the hands of surgeons on the operating table and their
recoveries and relapses supported by friends, family and medical staff. RPA
comprises ten half hour episodes: each one intertwines several stories.
RHYTHMS OF LIFE
Anatomy of a Production
Saturday November 25th,
11.00am, George Two
Dione Gilmour, Mitchell Kelly, Jeremy Hogarth, Craig Carter, Martin
Friedel, Jonathon Holmes
Rhythms of Life is a one hour natural history film that is a co-production
between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Geographic
Society and the British Broadcasting Corporation.
First conceived in 1989, principal photography didn't begin until late '93
and the program was completed this month. The filmmakers grappled with
recalcitrant animals, new filming techniques and a complicated
post-production path in order to tell the story of how the sun and moon
influence the lives of plants and animals. In this session we'll hear some
of the behind the scenes stories of the production problems and solutions
from the point of view of a producer, cameraperson, researcher,
scriptwriter, composer, sound designer and post-production co-ordinator
with clips from rushes and the completed program
WORKS in progress
ROAM SWEET HOME
Thursday November 23rd,
2.00pm, George One
Ellen Spiro
Ostensibly about old folk in the US who live permanently in motion in their
caravans, Roam Sweet Home is concerned with seeing the world as the
contemporary nomad does - with the direct experience of living that the
permanent traveller embodies, stripped of routine protections and
diversions, and therefore open to pleasures, dangers and transformations of
a life lived in movement. Roam Sweet Home is anti-travelogue. It is not
concerned with the exotic and glamorous places to which tourists flock. And
because the filmmaker is a one person/one dog crew living the lifestyle
which is being documented, the experience of the viewer is not one of
staring distantly into a goldfish bowl, but looking out from the
perspective of the fish.