NFSA blog entries for September 2010

It wasn’t until I sat down to attend Friday on My Mind recently at AFTRS that I discovered the crowded room of students and filmmaker professionals were here for the interview with the director and writer of the much talked-about new feature Tomorrow, When the War Began, and not the feature itself, as I had hoped.

On Thursday September 16, highly-acclaimed violinist, Niki Vasilakis and producer Joanna Buggy discussed the documentary film 4 via videoconference with over 60 music and media students from around the state of South Australia, including students at the event’s location – Christies Beach High School, south of Adelaide.

Having deposited most of my old audiovisual materials in the vaults of the NFSA, with more to come, I’m now spending time here in Canberra identifying the components of the collection and writing notes to put it all into perspective. These will eventually be available online.

Two of Australian’s finest make-up artists, Chiara Tripodi and Toni Ffrench, have won one of the highest American TV awards, an Emmy, for Outstanding Make-up in a Miniseries or Movie for their work on the historic war series The Pacific (HBO, 2008). The Pacific follows its sister series Band of Brothers (HBO, 2001) and screened on the Seven Network.

Warren Fahey AM, founder of Larrikin Records, provides a personal perspective on the NFSA’s recent Thomas Rome Lecture given by Ed St John.

Ed St John’s talk for the 2010 Thomas Rome lecture was illuminating and peppered with flashing warning signs. Music is a very resilient little devil but the record industry, or at least its traditional sound carrier systems, appear to be at death’s door.

September in Melbourne is Aussie Rules footy finals time! The city is abuzz and NFSA is screening footage of one of its most important sporting films in the heart of Melbourne at Federation Square, on the big screen, from  8 to 25 September.

To attend a film festival in Nambucca Heads for a screening of the film adaptation of my novel Tomorrow, When the War Began seemed an attractive idea, and I felt right at home there – the weather was exactly the same as Melbourne: cold and wet, bleak and grey.

The Cooee Cabaret is the NFSA’s new live show based on the Archive’s Sounds of Australia registry – a collection of iconic and culturally significant songs, sounds and recordings…like the Happy Little Vegemites and Aeroplane Jelly Song jingles, Along the Road to Gundagai and Waltzing Matilda.

Recently, NFSA staff, along with staff and students of the ANU School of Art, heard talented animator Katie Ryan reflect on her research into works in the NFSA collection. It was a fascinating insight into the history and technology of animation in Australia.