• The Minister for the Arts and Sport released an issues paper, Review of Australian Government Film Funding Support on 12 July. The paper calls for comment on Government support measures for the Australian film industry. The paper is available on the DCITA website.


• Six top international sales agents from the US and Europe attended the AFC's 2006 IndiVision Marketing Workshop in Melbourne 24-28 July, which coincided with the Melbourne International Film Festival. The 11 teams participating included projects that went through the IndiVision Project Lab in February, a project developed through the AFC's SP*RK script development program, and completed projects that have recently received IndiVision production investment funds. Workshop director Iain Canning (General Manager of Becker Films International) programmed and hosted a series of panel discussions with local advisors and reps from leading international agencies. They covered topics related to film financing and marketing issues at all stages of film production, including development, completion, festivals and markets, distribution and exhibition. Read the whole report on our Skills & Networking pages, including many tips and words of wisdom from the speakers.


• A significant body of material in the NFSA's Indigenous Collection of Film and Sound is restricted because it deals with culturally sensitive issues, such as traditional men's business. On 22 August, the NFSA will conduct a special dialogue between senior Indigenous men, NFSA curators and an invited audience on how Indigenous audiovisual collections can be accessed in a culturally sensitive and responsible way. The panel will comprise: Steve Larkin, Principal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies; film administrator Wal Saunders; filmmaker Wayne Barker; Joe Neparrnga Gumbula, lecturer and Yolgnu Elder; and senior curators from the NFSA. More details.


• In July, the sixth project from the AFC/ABC Broadband Production Initiative (BPI) was launched. A Stowaway's Guide to the Pacific, an interactive docu-drama designed for children 8-12 years old, is an exploration of some of the great voyages of history. Set in 1769, Nick Young, a 12-year-old girl masquerading as a ship's boy, and Tayeto, a Tahitian boy servant, are sailing across the Pacific aboard Cook's ship the Endeavour. The two young explorers stumble across a beautiful conch shell, which allows them to join the voyages of other explorers past and present. Read the full media release and check out the program at abc.net.au/stowaways/.

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• Several Film Development strands have undergone major changes since 1 July 2006. Please consult the new Film Development Funding Guidelines 2006 now available on the AFC website. Applicants can contact Film Development administration staff with specific queries. Phone: 02 9321 6444.
  
  
• AFC funding deadlines - August/September:
  
  FILM DEVELOPMENT
  4 August
  Strand I - IndiVision Low-budget Feature Production
  
  11 August
  Strand L - Shooting Time-critical Material
  Strand V - Interactive Digital Media Early Development
  Strand W - Interactive Digital Media Matched Investment Development Funding
  
  18 August
  Strand S - Animation Development
  
  25 August
  Strand D - Draft Funding
  
  1 September
  Internships/Fellowships
  Strand T1 - Short Animation Production
  
  15 September
  Strand L - Shooting Time-critical Material
  
  22 September
  Strand H - Shorts Production
  Strand X - Experimental Digital Production
  
  29 September
  Strand N - Documentary Production
  
  INDIGENOUS
  4 August
  NIDF 9
  
  INDUSTRY AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
  14 August 2006
  ICD Interactive Media Fund
  New Projects Fund
  
  TRAVEL GRANTS
  1 September
  Type B (market experienced producers) and Type C (producers developing market experience) are available for the following international markets:
  World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, 11-14 November, Manchester, UK
  World Congress of History Producers, 16-19 November, London, UK
  American Film Market, 1-8 November, Santa Monica, USA
  
  
• AFC funding approvals.

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• At the recent International Oral History Conference in Sydney, the NFSA's Ken Berryman (Manager Oral History Program Documents & Artefacts Branch) presented a paper on the NFSA's Crawfords collection project in the context of the Archive's overall Oral History Program. It considered how the memories of those who contributed to Crawfords productions help us better understand and appreciate the unique Crawford 'family' phenomenon and its impact on millions of listeners and viewers, both in Australia and overseas. More.


• Vinyl records are still being pressed in Australia, and copies from the latest batch have been donated to the NFSA. The discs are pressed at Melbourne-based Zenith Records, one of only two companies that still press vinyl in Australia. The Recorded Sound Archivist in the NFSA's Melbourne Office, Maryanne Doyle, says this support from the artists, labels and Zenith is invaluable. "The pressing run of vinyl is usually quite small and exclusive - we are talking just hundreds of copies - and for them to give us two is wonderful. It means that these rare records will be preserved in the best possible environment." More.


• Throughout August, the NFSA Cinémathèque at Electric Shadows Cinemas in Canberra will screen the first major Australian retrospective of controversial French filmmaker Maurice Pialat. Pialat is celebrated as possibly the most important French filmmaker since the nouvelle vague, with his work now heralded as the major influence on contemporary French cinema. Read more on our Screenings & Events pages and check the NFSA Cinémathèque page for the full program.


• On 24 July, award-winning SBS journalist Chris Hammer presented a special lecture at the NFSA. He spoke about the craft of video journalism and documentary making. The talk was hosted by a newly created non-profit organisation in Canberra, The Film Networking Industry (Australia), who aim to promote film development and production through networking and education, improve access to film equipment, and recognise achievement in Australian and international film. More.


• The podcasting team Insatiable Banalities has developed quite a following on the Net. So much so that when the NFSA's Senior Curator of Recorded Sound, Matthew Davies, asked them if they would agree to their programs going into the National Collection, they responded by asking if they could record their 50th program at the Archive. So on 27 July an enthusiastic audience greeted the team as they presented their show in the theatre; it was a casual, breezy mix of conversation, humour, and live music. More.

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• It has been a huge month for awards and award nominations for AFC-funded films, beginning with seven film and telemovie script nominations in the 39th Annual AWGIE Awards, and three nominations (so far) in the 48th Annual AFI Awards.
  
  The AFC congratulates all the writers nominated for AWGIE Awards. The seven AFC-supported film and telemovie scripts all received either project or practitioner support. They are: Cedar Boys by Serhat Caradee; Hunt Angels by Alec Morgan; Call Me Mum by Kathleen Mary Fallon; Last Train to Freo by Reg Cribb; Candy by Luke Davies (with Neil Armfield); Ten Canoes by Rolf de Heer; and Irresistible by Ann Turner. The AWGIE awards will be held on Friday 25 August. More information.
  
  We also congratulate all the nominees in the AFI Awards. The AFC-funded films are: Stranded (Best Short Fiction Film); Vietnam Nurses and Welcome 2 My Deaf World (both Best Documentary). The AFI awards will be held on Thursday 7 December, and more information can be found on the AFI website.
  
  Beth Frey is the producer of two of the AFI-nominated films, Stranded and Vietnam Nurses. Read her feature article about the making of Vietnam Nurses in this edition of AFC News.


• AFC-funded documentary Devil Diary, written, directed and produced by Paul Scott, has won a Bronze REMI Award at The Houston International Film Festival. Devil Diary profiles the behind-the-scenes dramas at the world's largest Tasmanian Devil sanctuary, and discovers the secrets of a man who is a 'devil whisperer'. The film has also been selected to screen at the Scinema Science Film Festival in August. Congratulations to Paul and his team.


• Everything Goes, an AFC-funded short starring Hugo Weaving and Abbie Cornish, has won the Golden Accord Award for Best Fiction Film at the Vienna International Short Film Festival. The festival received more than 1000 entries and was judged by an international jury. Writer/director Andrew Kotatko flew to Vienna to attend the award ceremony. Congratulations, Andrew.


• The 48th Annual AFI Festival of Film will open in Melbourne on Monday 21 August with a gala launch at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) at Federation Square. The Festival is a major national event that theatrically showcases all sixteen feature films and documentary, animation and short film nominees entered into this year's AFI Awards. This event runs for three weekends nationally with screenings beginning on Friday 25 August. Details.


• The 55th Melbourne International Film Festival, 26 July-13 August, is featuring a showcase of Australian films. Sixteen are AFC-funded features, shorts, documentaries or animations. Check out the full program on the MIFF website.


• Black Screen distributed over 200 DVD compiles of Indigenous films across Australia for NAIDOC Week (2-9 July). Please contact Emelda Davis, Black Screen Coordinator (emelda.davis@afc.gov.au) for more information. Black Screen is an Australian Film Commission screening program that provides Indigenous communities and the broader Australian public with access to Indigenous films.


• A reminder that high school and primary school teachers in regional areas who would like free cinema screenings of Australian films for their students can now book online. The AFC, through its Industry and Cultural Development program, offers school students the opportunity to view and discuss contemporary and classic features, shorts and documentaries in communities throughout regional Australia. Online bookings can be made on the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) website. If your school is not able to access any screenings on offer, you can contact the AFC's Education Programs Coordinator, Bob Percival (robert.percival@afc.gov.au), to discuss organising a screening in your local cinema, or a free screening at your school if there is no cinema nearby. For more information about the program and the films, read the Screenings listings on the AFC website.


• The Australian films Jindabyne, Footy Legends, 2:37, 48 Shades, Candy, Ten Canoes, The Caterpillar Wish, Solo, Unfolding Florence, Shot of Love and Kenny are screening in August so keep an eye out for them at your local cinema.


• The Big Screen Touring Film Festival is heading to Tennant Creek in the NT. Miners, missionaries, mercenaries and madmen: that's apparently the lore of Tennant Creek. The town has a long history in mining and cattle. In fact it was the site of Australia's last gold rush. It's still a fabulously vibrant remote community with an active arts and culture scene, so it's only natural that Big Screen partner with such a community. From 9 to 14 August we'll run features and shorts programs, indoor and outdoor, with a strong Indigenous focus. We are lucky to be able to launch with Ten Canoes and close with The Tracker. We'll also screen Storm Boy and Oyster Farmer, and feature two nights of the Black Screen program at Nyinnka Nyunyu Art & Culture Centre.

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• On 13 July, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, announced a range of reforms for Australia's media industry. The Minister's media release outlining key elements of the media reform package is available on the DCITA website. The AFC's submissions on the subject of digital television and media reform can be found on our website here.


• Also on 13 July, the Minister announced that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will be given a range of new enforcement powers to strengthen its capacity to effectively regulate the broadcasting industry. Read the Minister's media release. In November 2005, the Government announced that it would review ACMA's enforcement powers. The AFC's submission to that review is available here.


• The AFC has prepared a submission in response to Government's statutory review of the Refundable Film Tax Offset scheme. Read the AFC's submission.


• The AFC has also prepared a submission in response to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) call for public comment on issues relevant to Australia-Mexico economic relations. The AFC's submission is available on our website.

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• The following AFC publications have been updated and are available online, or contact publishing@afc.gov.au for a hard copy:
  Film Development Funding Guidelines July 2006


• Are you looking for details of a particular Australian film title - feature, short, TV drama or documentary? The Searchable Film Database includes Australian and co-produced features, TV drama and documentaries from 1990 and shorts from 1998. It is updated on the AFC website each month.


• Upcoming Production Report.


• Latest updates to industry statistics in Get the Picture Online.

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• Welcome to Wendy Gray, Clearance Officer, australianscreen online; Mila Gisbert, Administrative Assistant.



• Farewell to Betty Fehir, Manager Finance; Aileen Yap, Clearance Officer, australianscreen online.



• Positions vacant: Business Development Officer; Administration & Clearance Officer.

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• Applications to attend SPAAmart 2006 close on 11 August. SPAAmart is Australasia's only feature film market, presented by the AFC and the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA). The 4th annual SPAAmart is a selective entry marketplace positioning Australia and New Zealand feature film projects with international and local film financing sources. It will be held alongside the SPAA Conference, 13-15 November, Sheraton Mirage Hotel Gold Coast. Enquiries to Dale Fairbairn, SPAAmart 2006 Manager, spaa@afc.gov.au or visit the SPAA Conference website.


• Crossover Australia is a 5-day interactive residential workshop taking place in the week before the 2007 Adelaide Film Festival and the Australian International Documentary Conference. It is a creative think tank bringing together national and international practitioners from film and new media sectors, with the aim of developing innovative digital and interactive projects. Applications are open 1 August until 16 October. Places are limited and no fees apply for successful applicants. For details, guidelines and application forms, check the Crossover Australia website.


• The annual X|Media|Lab digital media event is back in town and will be held as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, 11-13 August. X|Media|Lab is a think tank and production workshop for digital media professionals. The theme for this year's event is Media Mobility, and focuses on the key changes to digital media content production arising from the emerging dynamic mobile media models. For registration details visit the X|Media|Lab website.


• The 16th Flickerfest Short Film Festival is now open for entries in several categories. Due to the competitive nature of the Festival, FF favours Sydney premieres and films that have not been broadcast in Australia. Application deadline for Australian films is 15 September. The Festival will screen at Bondi Pavilion in Jan 2007 and will tour nationally Jan-March 2007. Check the Flickerfest website for more details and entry forms.


• The AFC's Industry and Cultural Development Division proudly supports the following upcoming festivals, tours and awards:
  
  Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) 2006
  21 July-13 August
  
  Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) 2006
  26 July-13 August
  
  Darwin Festival 2006 Film and TV Workshops
  19-20 August
  
  The Other Film Festival, Melbourne
  25-27 August
  
  The 39th Annual AWGIE Awards
  25 August
  
  MIFF's Travelling Film Festival 2006
  Echuca, 15-17 September
  
  The Shoot Out 2006
  Toowoomba, 13-15 October


• Open Channel's Write Your Documentary short course commences 8 August, with tutor and award-winning documentary filmmaker Philippe Charluet. The course offers guidance on researching through to interviews, and explores the challenges of writing sophisticated treatments and scripts for film or TV. For more info visit the Open Channel website.


• Phillip Noyce is the guest director on 17 August at Metro Screen's monthly Filmmakers Studio. The studio provides Sydney's filmmaking industry and community with opportunities to hear high-profile screen professionals interviewed in an intimate environment. Metro Screen's Members Production Group meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 6.30pm. Meetings are open to all Metro Screen members and give you the opportunity to pitch new ideas, discuss your current projects, share skills and resources, and collaborate with others to produce your own films, TV content and media projects. For information about Metro Screen's other events including the DigiBytes competition (closes 25 August) and HD Stop Frame Animation Workshop in Aug-Sept, check the Metro Screen website.


• Popcorn Taxi, a regular film event where filmmakers and film lovers can meet, watch films of all types, and discuss the filmmaking process all year round runs in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin. For further information and screening details visit the Popcorn Taxi website.


• mo:life monthly is an informal gathering on the second Monday of every month, that offers the opportunity to discuss the latest advances and opportunities in mobile media technology and culture. Find out about the various players and networks and what they offer, explore the capabilities of the latest handsets, and see what others around the globe are doing with this new format. Contact d.opitz@metroscreen.org.au


• ScreenWest and PAC Screen Workshops have announced the PAC Script Lab initiative, monthly rehearsed readings of West Australian feature film scripts on the last Sunday of each month. The aim is to hone West Australian scripts and increase the profile, quality and awareness of West Australian film projects.


• IF Magazine's What's On in Film guide to screen events is sponsored by the AFC. The July to December 2006 calendar is now available as a PDF on the AFC website.


• Other AFC-supported activities and events.

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Producer Beth Frey has recently received two AFI Award nominations for two AFC-funded films. Stranded has been nominated in the Best Short Fiction Film category and Vietnam Nurses in the Best Documentary category. Here, Beth discusses how Vietnam Nurses unfolded and how the untold stories of a unique group of Australian women came to light via a documentary and interactive website. The website not only promoted the film when it was broadcast on SBS, but also created a space for people to share their own experiences of a war that was so close to home.

Writer/director Polly Watkins first became interested in the stories of the Australian army nurses who served in the Vietnam War after seeing a segment on ABC TV's 7.30 Report in 2002. The story featured Dr Narelle Biedermann from James Cook University in Townsville, who had written a thesis on this topic and who later became story consultant on our documentary. We had heard over the years many stories from male Vietnam veterans, but the role of the Australian army nurses who were also soldiers had barely been acknowledged, and this offered a new insight and perspective. Although many Australian women went to Vietnam in various roles from doctors, nurses and journalists to entertainers, the army nurses were soldiers who had gone as part of Australia's military commitment. This was, we felt, very much an untold part of our history.

Narelle introduced Polly and I to many of the nurses she had interviewed for her thesis and we were struck by their powerful personal stories. They held universal resonance, and even though they were reflections and memories of a time and war passed, they were relevant to us today with Australia's military presence in war zones around the world.

The Army nurses were based at the Australian field hospital in Vung Tau, South Vietnam. In total, 43 Australian army nurses served, working 12-hour shifts in stifling heat, caring for hundreds of patients. The tour of duty for each was up to 12 months, and there was only a small number there at any one time. The first four nurses (three of which appear in the documentary) arrived in May 1967. The last nurses were withdrawn in November 1971 when Australia's military commitment had dwindled to a handful of army advisers.

Concepts like intensive care and trauma training were very new, so even those nurses with some experience of trauma in emergency departments found the wounds they were confronted with very challenging. The patients were predominantly Australian and New Zealand soldiers, but they were also required to care for Vietnamese POWs and villagers.

For the documentary, we focused on six of the army nurses. Even though not all had been in Vietnam at the same time, there was a camaraderie that comes from sharing memories and an intense common experience. Throughout the interviews for the documentary, it was clear that the impact of this year in these young women's lives had resonated through the following decades within their families and across the nursing and medical professions.

It was important to give the viewer an understanding of the experience of nursing in a theatre of war - an insight into the everyday world the nurses lived and worked in during their time in Vietnam. To complement the very personal storytelling of the women, Polly wanted the visual style of the film to have a 'home-movie' feel and utilise as much personal archival imagery as possible. Distinctively, Vietnam was the first televised war; it was also one of the most photographed by soldiers, so snapshots, colour slides and Super 8 footage abound. Many soldiers, including the nurses, had been able to afford cameras from duty-free ports while they were on rest and recreation breaks during their time in Vietnam. So part of our research process involved a call out to personal archives and Vietnam veteran publications. Considerable time was also spent exploring the Australian War Memorial's vast database, and with their support and generosity we could access and utilise a wealth of material.

While researching the documentary we heard so many interesting, funny and sad stories recalled by the nurses, the medics who worked alongside them in the hospital and the soldiers they cared for. We felt there was further potential for this project far beyond a one-hour television documentary and so began development of an interactive online site.

Polly Watkins says: "My approach in making Vietnam Nurses and the online project, particularly with the focus on personal archival imagery and memory, is based on the notion that memory is a kind of knowledge that informs our communal identity, our history, and that our shared memories connect us to each other across time. By exploring the memories of a specific group within the context of the Vietnam War, not only do we gain insights into their experiences and the war, but beyond the confines of time and place, we also learn something about ourselves."

The interactive Vietnam Nurses website invites the user into an emotional space through the Memory Gallery, in which memories of the nurses are presented offering different insights and material from those featured in the documentary. Constructed with a range of personal archives, the memories also work collectively so that each informs and enriches the experience of the other. In Memory Snapshots users can explore others' memories of the Vietnam War and also contribute their own.

Vietnam Nurses premiered on SBS TV in September 2005 and the website was launched to coincide with and promote the broadcast, and to ultimately enhance and extend the audience's experience of this story. Following the broadcast we held an online webchat, which surprised us all and drew overwhelming public response. In fact it was SBS's largest online audience ever. The webchat was intended to last one hour but three hours later we logged off, exhausted. The nurses' stories had touched a broad and diverse demographic of both young and old. The impact of the Vietnam War resonated down through the generations, and for many days following people continued to contribute to the online webchat. Vietnam Nurses was the third highest rating documentary in SBS's Storyline Australia series for 2005.

While producing Vietnam Nurses we were also in production on Stranded, a 50-minute TV drama for SBS directed by Stuart McDonald. We have recently received AFI nominations for both films and are very excited by this industry recognition, which is a credit to the generosity and talent of the participants, cast and crew.

The Vietnam Nurses documentary and interactive website were developed and produced with the assistance of the AFC, Film Victoria and SBS Independent.

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