what next?
I just spent two days in regional NSW teaching youth how to make videos and they were attentive & enthusiastic & talented, it was a very refreshing experience: in just two days they wrote shot & made a quite sophisticated short film, brilliant. I also had a few traditional Aussie meals & a couple of beers to keep the neck lubricated. I went to the country early the morning after Streetsweeper screened at Tina to about 45 people. T “Kong” R wrangled the ambient light in the make-shift cinema & made sure the film started on time. (ironically, we also used banners from the AFC & the FTO to help block the light falling on the screen.) [NOTE: any light is the enemy of HD, & lethal when combined with poor projection!] It was a good screening (good pics & sound) to a good crowd: initial reactions were very encouraging. I had a couple of nice quiet post screening beers in the TINA festival bar with S* & some other motivated artsy types, who appear to be immune to “affluenza”. T & K & I also went to the zine fair in the park, which was nice & relaxed on a beautiful day but the sheer volume of work was overwhelming & made it impossible to judge a zine by it’s cover, I wanted to buyt many but ended up getting gelato instead. Then, mid arvo, we had a beer whilst watching & enjoying a band from Melbourne called The Winternationale (?) who were playing to an otherwise empty room. Of course the whole long weekend we got Rock Star parking spots right outside all the places we visited: don’t ya love live-able cities!
The film has screened to about 300 people so far, in “alternative” spaces, & the grass roots feedback has been great. Momentum is building. NM
