NFSA blog entries by Brendan Smith

Project Coordinator Brendan Smith’s sneak peek ahead of the opening of The Art of Sound at the Grafton Regional Gallery.

NFSA manager for Education and Touring Programs Brendan Smith reports from the QUESTNet Conference in Queensland.

Cooee Cabaret, the Sounds of Australia on the road theatre performance, has wrapped for 2011 after sell out shows in Coffs Harbour, Lismore, Boonah and Toowombah. One audience member tells us first hand how Cooee was enjoyed by people of all ages.

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.

The performers stalked about the rehearsal studio, flapping their arms and clucking like chooks. ‘They’re crazy, Dad!’ my daughter whispered to me, smiling like this was a good thing.

Nigel Ubrihien, creator of the NFSA’s new touring sounds show Cooee Cabaret, came face to face with one of the show’s inspirations when in Gunnedah recently… well, at least face to statue.

We’ve just finished editing the new Big Screen trailer and call me a big softie but it still moves me even though I’ve sat through it probably a few hundred times. Trailer producer, director and editor Stephen Robinson has created an evocative montage of over 60 clips from new and classic Australian films, weaving together moments of love, laughter and loss … and trains. For some reason we picked up a running theme with trains. Has anyone done a thesis on this?

Nothing could be quite so perfect as watching an engaging Aussie film under the stars with a receptive local audience on the banks of the mighty Murray. The stars glittering overhead after a gorgeous sunset, and giant outdoor screen backed up against the heritage woolshed on the Homestead Lawns just outside Mildura.