THE SONG KEEPERS (2017)
Role: Director of Photography
Director & Producer: Naina Sen
Composer:
Morris Stuart
In early 2015, I got a call out of the blue from the talented filmmaker Naina Sen, who had been working with communities in Central and Northern Australia for many years. She was working on a new project to film the recently reformed Central Australia Women's choir. I met Naina at the airport in Alice Springs to start the journey a week later as cinematographer. It was a brilliant trip, following the conductor extraordinaire Morris Stuart who travels to remote communities to run practice sessions with small groups, who eventually meet in Alice Springs to form a choir of around 40. After the first trip filming visuals for their stage show, the project snowballed into a feature documentary launching at MIFF.
Review of the film on the Guardian
PRODUCTION STILLS
TIMELAPSES
PROJECTION VISUALS FOR THE TOUR
RELATED WORK
“This is Reality” is an abstract exploration into the lasting impact of conflict, set in the independent nation of East Timor. East Timor endured a brutal 24-year Indonesian occupation from 1975-1999 in which around 200,000 people were killed or disappeared.
Few carry these scars more distinctively than Osme Gonsalves, a celebrated artist, singer, poet, actor, and prominent ex-resistance fighter, who struggles to find peace despite the goal of sovereignty being reached. Frustrated by his nation’s perceived apathy, Osme creates a fake reality television show to travel the districts and interview the population about the contemporary reality of their lives.
I was thrilled to get the call from my good friend director Naina Sen to shoot this SBS Food series in Darwin in 2019. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Darwin’s vibrant food community each day, particularly the main man Jimmy Shu, the gentle, humble and (and hilarious) host with the most. Premieres on SBS Food at 8:30pm Thursday, April 23rd 2020
In August 2014, the Animatism project lead us into an involvement with East Timor's first ever public art festival named Arte Publiku. The festival was a combination of music, art, dance, performance and all things creative, encouraging nation building and creative exchange through a week of workshops and performance opportunities. I was lucky enough to hold a camera to the event, and collaborated on two projection pieces for the festival.