• The annual Cannes Film Festival was held 16-27 May this year. Over 200 Australians were registered and 12 completed Australian films had official market screenings. The AFC again managed the Australian film office. This year saw a strong interest in Australia from the international industry because of the recently announced changes in film financing from the Government. The AFC was involved in organising or partnering in a series of events throughout the market, including the Created in Australia beach-themed cocktail reception for 400 people - complete with waiters dressed in Aussie lifesaving gear. Full story


• The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), which was restored by the National Film and Sound Archive in 2006, has been added to the international register of UNESCO's Memory of the World. Established in 1997, the prestigious register formally acknowledges historical heritage of world significance, such as the Gutenberg Bible and Beethoven's 9th Symphony. NFSA Director Paolo Cherchi Usai was thrilled by the news. "I am deeply grateful to UNESCO for recognising Australia's role in the advancement of cinema culture and industry." Media release. UNESCO website.


• Three AFC-supported films received Dendy Awards at the Sydney Film Festival. 2 Mums and a Dad (w/d: Miranda Wills; p: Sally Ingleton) received the Documentary Award, while the Fiction Award went to Katoomba (d: Leon Ford; p: Melissa Johnston & Nicole O'Donohue). The Yoram Gross Animation Award was presented to Sweet and Sour (d: Eddie White; p: Sam White, Barry Plews, Hugh Nguyen & Ren Zhong Lun). In addition both 2 Mums and a Dad and Katoomba were awarded the SBS In Language Award in the categories of Documentary and Fiction respectively. More.
  
  Two AFC-funded/supported films won World Movies Channel Audience Awards at the festival. Lucky Miles (d: Michael James Rowland; p: Jo Dyer & Lesley Dyer) won in the Feature Category (State Theatre), and Searching 4 Sandeep (d: Poppy Stockell; p: Cecilia Ritchie) in the Documentary Category (Satellite Venues).


• AFC Acting Chief Executive Chris Fitchett joined the Federal Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator the Hon. George Brandis, NFSA Director Paolo Cherchi Usai and Sounds of Australia co-patron Dr Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE, at Parliament House on 19 June to announce the 2007 entries to Sounds of Australia, the National Registry of Recorded Sound. The additions range from the sweet sounds of Harold Blair's Maranoa Lullaby (1950) and the ABC Radio news theme, to the iconic Dad and Dave from Snake Gully and The Easybeats' unforgettable Friday On My Mind. Full report. Read the feature article about Sounds of Australia in this issue.


• The AFC's partnership with the 54th Sydney Film Festival for the IndiVision Filmmaker Dialogues was a huge success. Filmmakers and industry figures packed out the two events. An industry breakfast was held on 15 June with the Oscar-nominated Danish producer Sisse Graum Jorgensen, who spoke about financing and developing at her dynamic company Zentropa. Her films After the Wedding and Red Road screened at the SFF. On 19 June in the AFC Theatrette, the up and coming American director Jeff Nichols spoke about his film Shotgun Stories (which also screened at SFF) and independent filmmaking in the US. Media release.


• The AFC is currently undertaking a survey of post-production, digital and visual effects (PDV) activity for feature film and TV drama in Australia. It's being conducted following significant interest in the growth of the sector, and gathers data from two years: 2005/06 and 2006/07. The AFC's next national survey of feature film and TV drama production, to be published in November, will include data on PDV for the first time. These findings will complement an industry-wide survey to be undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in August.

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• Complete Film Development Funding Guidelines and application forms for the 2007/08 financial year will be available on the AFC website after 16 July 2007. However, guidelines and application forms for all documentary strands are now available. Draft guidelines for all rounds closing in July and August are also available here.


• Revised Industry & Cultural Development (ICD) Funding Program Guidelines and application forms for the 2007/08 financial year will be available on the AFC website from mid-July 2007. These will replace the January 2007 guidelines and contain revised application requirements. For further info call Augusta Supple on 02 9321 6461.


• AFC funding deadlines - July & August 2007:
  
  FILM DEVELOPMENT:
  DRAMA
  Feature Drama Development (previously Strands A & D) -
  3 August
  Short Drama Production (Strand H) - 17 August
  
  DOCUMENTARY
  Shooting Time-critical Material (Strand L) - 13 July & 10 August
  Documentary Early Development (Strand J) - 10 August
  Documentary Development (Strand K) - 10 August
  Documentary Production (Strand N) - 31 August
  
  ANIMATION
  Short Animation Production (Strand T1) - 17 August
  Pilot/Trailer Animation Production (Strand T2) - 17 August
  
  PRACTITIONER SUPPORT
  Internships - 3 August
  Fellowships - applications accepted year-round
  
  INDUSTRY & CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT:
  New Projects Fund - 13 August
  ICD Interactive Media Fund - 13 August


• AFC funding approvals.

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• Arc, the NFSA's eagerly anticipated new state-of-the-art cinema, will open in August. Constructed within the NFSA's grand art deco north gallery in Acton, Arc features a projection booth fitted with cutting-edge 35/16mm changeover projection facilities, capable of presenting all aspect ratios and able to run silent film at correct speeds. The Arc screening calendar will include international works, Australian classics, NFSA- restored films and much more. To join the calendar mailing list email arc@nfsa.afc.gov.au or call 02 6248 2000.


• Lauren Thorpe, daughter of the late, great Billy Thorpe, came to the NFSA recently with a special donation. Her family had been presented with a demo pressing that Billy and the Aztecs had made for EMI back in the early 60s when the band was just beginning its career. Aware of the delicacy of the disc, Lauren had not played it. It was cleaned and then played by sound specialists Nick Weare and Mark Hogan. The bright, breezy rock 'n' roll on the disc indicates it was probably a test pressing of tracks for when the band was auditioning for their first LP with EMI. The NFSA will preserve the disc and make special copies on CD for Lauren and her family.


• On 20 July, American composer William Duckworth will present a special talk and demonstration at the NFSA. For the past decade, Duckworth and his wife Nora Farrell, a web artist, have been developing the ground-breaking internet project Cathedral, an interactive work of music and art. The talk will preview the next stages of his work - an internet version of the Orpheus legend on the banks of the Brisbane River on 31 August - and invite participation. All welcome. Details.


• The NFSA's radio specialist Nick Weare joined author and radio historian Wayne Mac to celebrate "the good old days of radio" in a special evening recently. For an enthusiastic audience, they shared colourful career stories, trade secrets and a little gossip, played some great 60s, 70s and 80s radio, and ran a radio quiz with prizes. Wayne is the author of Don't Touch That Dial, an encyclopaedic history of commercial radio during its disc-jockey era. Nick spent almost 35 years in radio before joining the NFSA.


• There are two new Centre for Scholarly and Archival Research (CSAR) Fellows currently studying at the NFSA and staying at the Residence in Canberra. Michelle Baddiley (an ABC Senior Researcher) is undertaking her project 1899-1930 home movie actualities from early Australia: mapping the memory grid. Toni Johnson-Woods, lecturer in Media and Communications at Uni of Qld, is researching the Carter Brown Mystery Theatre radio serials.

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• Several AFC-funded or supported films have won prizes at the St Kilda Film Festival. Warm congratulations to all the filmmakers: Extreme Makeover (d: Jonathan Daw, p: Vicki Sugars) - Best Animation; Sweet and Sour (d: Eddie White, p: Sam White, Barry Plews and Hugh Nguyen) - SBS Television Award; Booth Story (d: Edwin McGill, Kasimir Burgess, p: Jason Byrne, Kasimir Burgess, Edwin McGill) - Best Original Score and the Craft Award; My Brother Vinnie (d: Steven McGregor, p: Sarah Bond) - Best Documentary; Death's Requiem - Best Achievement in Cinematography (Carl Robertson); Stalled - Best Director (Stuart Moulds) & Best Achievement in Editing (Scott Alexander).


• AFC-funded short William won two awards at the Montreal First People's Festival - Terres En Vues recently. It took out the Teueikan Grand Prize and Best Photo Direction. Congrats to director Eron Sheean, producer Peter George and their team.


• Congratulations to director Paul McDermott and producer Justine Kerrigan on their win for Best Animation at the Seattle International Film Festival for the AFC-funded The Girl Who Swallowed Bees.


• Congratulations to the filmmakers whose AFC-funded / supported films have been selected for screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival: Punch, Fast Lane, Searching 4 Sandeep, Advantage Satan, Words from the City, and several films funded by the AFC Indigenous Branch - Nana, Custard, Jackie Jackie, Hush, Crocodile Dreaming and Nigger Lovers.


• Congratulations to the AFC-funded and supported films selected for the Brisbane International Film Festival - All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane, The Home Song Stories, The Jammed, Night, Donkey in Lahore, Words from the City, The Girl Who Swallowed Bees, William, Yolk, Custard, Hush, Jackie Jackie, Kwatye and Nana.


• Congratulations to all the writers nominated for AWGIE Awards this year. The AFC supported several of the film and TV projects including Little Things by Nathan Fielding (Monte Miller Award); Edgar & Elizabeth by Renee Webster (Short Film category); Double Trouble episodes by Danielle MacLean and David Ogilvy (Children's Television); and all the features in the Feature Film Original category - The Home Song Stories by Tony Ayres, Rogue by Greg McLean, Noise by Matthew Saville and Clubland by Keith Thompson.


• The Embassy Roadshow will be travelling to Warsaw and Buenos Aires in July. A weekend of Australian films in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will also screen in July and includes Opal Dream, Razzle Dazzle, The Dish and Elephant Tales.


• The film program for the Festival Quartier d'Ete in Paris in July has been confirmed and includes Strictly Ballroom, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Beneath Clouds and Jindabyne. This festival is presented by the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in partnership with the AFC.


• As part of Big Screen's tour to the north-west of WA, guest star Tara Morice will present Razzle Dazzle under the stars at the open air Sun Picture Theatre in Broome on 6 July. Karratha and Port Hedland have just had Big Screen, and Broome is coming up. The program includes Razzle Dazzle, Strictly Ballroom, Kenny, Ten Canoes, Bra Boys and Last Train to Freo.
  
  The national tour then continues to Gunnedah, NSW, with Noise, Clubland, the critically acclaimed documentaries In the Company of Actors and 4 and a special program of award-winning short films from AFTRS. Hunt Angels screens as a double bill with the NFSA's recently restored version of The Story of the Kelly Gang, screened for the first time in regional NSW on 35mm at 18 frames per second, a speed believed to be the closest to the hand-cranked projectors of 1906 when the film was first released. More info on the Big Screen website.


• School Screen is running free school screenings in remote areas of WA, NT and Qld in the coming month at Port Hedland, Broome, Thursday Island, Cloncurry, and also Gunnedah in NSW.


• Black Screen is supporting NAIDOC celebrations starting in July with Indigenous shorts screenings in Indigenous communities, Government departments and community organisations, with local councils, and internationally through Australian embassies and posts. Check the Black Screen Film Access page for info about accessing films for screenings.
  
  Black Screen and School Screen join forces to screen two separate programs of Indigenous shorts at Redfern Community Centre, for NAIDOC celebrations, for primary and secondary school students on 20 July.
  
  The Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival National Tour screens in three communities in the Torres Strait in late June and early July. The islands of Waiben, Boigu and Saibai will host filmmaker Aaron Fa'aoso and DOP Murray Lui at screenings of short films produced by the AFC Indigenous Branch's Bit of Black Business initiative. Check the Black Screen What's On page for venues and dates.


• Cherie Nowlan's new feature Clubland, starring Brenda Blethyn and Khan Chittenden, will screen across the AFC's Regional Digital Screen Network in July. Check the RDSN web pages for venue details.


• Sichuan Television in China invites Australian institutions, independent filmmakers, associations and educational establishments to submit their animations or documentaries to the Gold Panda Awards, which are part of the 2007 Sichuan TV Festival, 28-30 October. Deadline: 31 July. Check their website for details.


• The Australian film Clubland opened on 28 June. West, Lucky Miles and Gone all open in July. Romulus, My Father and Noise are still screening so keep an eye out for them at your local cinema.

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• 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.


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

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• Welcome to Matthew Sheedy, Collections Information Officer, NFSA; Matthew Hewatt, Mail/Services Officer, NFSA.


• Farewell to Bettina Martinez, MAVIS Support Analyst, NFSA.


• Positions vacant: for current vacant positions at the AFC.

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• In the AFC Theatrette on 19 July OZDOX hosts Tom Zubrycki, presenting his latest feature-length observational narrative Temple of Dreams, which recently screened at the Sydney Film Festival. Includes a discussion: 'Representation of the Other'. 6.30 - 9.30pm. Details on the OZDOX website.


• If you have made an Australian film screened at an IF-accredited film festival since 16 September 2006 then your film should be on the Inside Film Awards website. If you would like a still with your film listing to jolt the audiences' memories, email ifawards@if.com.au with 'Update Listing: [film name]' in the subject line. Check out the website for a list of accredited festivals.


• The AFC's Industry and Cultural Development Division proudly supports the following upcoming festivals and events:
  
  Melbourne International Film Festival
  25 July - 12 August
  
  Revelation Perth International Film Festival
  12-22 July
  
  d/Art/2007 (d/Lux/MediaArts' annual showcase)
  13-29 July
  
  15/15 Film Festival
  Until 19 July
  
  Events running July 2007 - June 2008:
  Sydney Travelling Film Festival
  
  Australian Directors' Guild (ADG) Events Program
  
  Adelaide Cinematheque (MRC)
  
  Melbourne Travelling Film Festival
  
  Melbourne Cinematheque


• This year's SPAA Conference is on 13-16 November at the Gold Coast and the website is now live for registration with Early Bird rates. The site will be progressively updated with speakers and sessions.


• OPEN CHANNEL's 2007 Short & Sharp Pitching Competition is now open for entries. Deadline: 5pm, 3 August. Calling for 10-min projects within the Festival's themes of Freedom of Expression, Right to Livelihood, Right to Life, Liberty and Security, and Human Rights in Australia. Winner receives: funding to complete the film project & a screening at the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, Melbourne. Check the website for details.


• For the ACT Filmmakers' Network, AFTRS's Centre for Screen Business and the Australian Directors Guild will be presenting a seminar in Canberra - Business Models for Digital Distribution. Thursday 19 July, 11am - 5pm. More info.


• Check Metro Screen's website for details of all their programs. Certificate IV in Screen: Five months full-time, 16 July - 7 Dec. Subjects: directing, screenwriting, cinematography, sound, editing, producing with storytelling a major focus. Cost: $6,500. Winter Film School: 10 days, 2-13 July. Write, shoot and edit your own short film. Cost: $990/$1165 non-members.


• Check out Popcorn Taxi's new website, which includes video podcasts of recent events. 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.


• 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 run the PAC Script Lab initiative, 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 2007 calendar is now available as a PDF on the AFC website.


• Other AFC-supported activities and events.

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When management and staff of the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) began ruminating on the idea of gathering together a formal inventory of significant pieces of Australia's rich audio history, it didn't take long for the concept to take shape into a national registry of recorded sound, officially known as Sounds of Australia. The result is a public list of recordings in which the contents are as diverse as the people, politics, music and culture they represent across the decades. GABRIELLE BONNEY spoke to the NFSA's Senior Curator MATTHEW DAVIES about the process and the results.

Earlier this year, a foundation list for Sounds of Australia was selected by the NFSA Director Paolo Cherchi Usai and the Recorded Sound team led by Davies. The list spans almost 100 years and includes key audio treasures from the first half of the 20th century, such as Dame Nellie Melba's first commercial recording (1904), the landing of the Australian troops in Egypt (1915), and Peter Dawson's legendary 1931 recording of Along the Road to Gundagai. Whitlam's 'Kerr's cur' speech from the steps of Parliament House also sits on the foundation list - a seminal piece of Australian oratory on a day of unprecedented political events. But there are also gems in the registry that most Australians would not have heard, such as the earliest known Australian recording, in which a Warrnambool businessman imitates a chook - quite apt given that the humble hen is about as quintessential backyard Aussie as you can get.

The registry was then thrown open to the public to nominate the audio treasures they felt should join Sounds of Australia as the ten 2007 additions. A panel was formed, again spearheaded by Cherchi Usai and Davies, to determine the next selection. It consisted of such audio heavyweights as John Spence of ABC Radio Archives; musicians Les Gock and Kavisha Mazzella; broadcaster Angela Catterns; Kevin Bradley from the National Library of Australia; Grace Koch from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies; Belinda Webster of Tall Poppies Records; and Stuart Waters of the Australian Independent Record Labels Association.

But how did the selection panel approach the task of determining what constitutes Australia's 'identity' when it comes to sound? Davies explains: "Both Australian identity and Australian recorded sound heritage are characterised by diversity, so rather than trying to define what that identity is we tried to ensure that the make up of our panel would bring a range of different views to the table. Even between the different institutions represented on the panel there was a diversity of views about what aspects of sound heritage best represented the Australian identity, and when you add the industry and creative people into the mix I think we had a good spread of views on this matter."

Davies says that the panel members all understood the need to balance the list in terms of genre and period, so rather than arguing for or against the inclusion of one particular item they were looking at various scenarios. "We needed a blend of radio, spoken word and music, and also a spread from the late 19th century up to the 1980s," he said, "so if, for example, we had a choice between a piece of music or a historic speech from one era, then depending on which of those we selected that would influence another part of our selection. The group looked at the whole package."

From the call to the public, a lively collection of nominations flowed in. "We did have vigorous discussion when we came to choosing the final recommendations," says Davies. The resulting Top Ten is a bumper list: from 60s and 70s pop and punk hits (The Easybeats' Friday On My Mind and The Saints (I'm) Stranded/ No Time) to the familiar fanfare that still heralds in the ABC radio news, and from the iconic Dad and Dave from Snake Gully to the little-known Fanny Cochrane Smith's 1899 recordings of Tasmanian Aboriginal songs.

But what can capturing choices about seminal recordings now (that highlight aspects of our politics, pop culture, Indigenous culture and song, warfare and more) provide for future generations? "The choices we make now say as much about present times as they do about the past," says Davies. "Scholars in the future may be quite interested to know what we in the early 21st century thought was significant enough to include on a national registry of sound. The prominence of Indigenous sound recordings within the registry is just one example of this."

The significance of this idea was reinforced by the fact that in the same week that The Warumpi Band's Jailanguru Pakarnu (1983) was announced as part of the 2007 list, the band's charismatic lead singer was buried back in his homeland of Elcho Island in the Northern Territory. His band's legacy, the first rock song to be released in Indigenous language, lives on now as part of the National Registry of Recorded Sound.

The endurance of Sounds of Australia beyond being a reference tool is an important aspect of a project such as this. The NFSA is looking into producing CDs of the listed recordings as a resource for schools and also for promoting Australian culture. They'll continue to build the backgrounder information resources on the NFSA website and link this to other resources such as Wikipedia - so that anyone looking for information about Australia's sound heritage will be able to make use of the registry.

Davies sums up: "Imagine in 100 years time, when the Sounds of Australia registry will have grown to 1,000 entries … all the material from the 20th century and earlier will still be accessible, and we'll have added much more. We could easily have a collection of over a million sound recordings by then. What a fabulous resource."

Listen to the recordings from the foundation and 2007 lists on the NFSA website. Nomination forms for the 2008 registry are also available there.

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