SANE SCHIZOPHRENIA AWARENESS WEEK

I've been lucky enough to work with Plan for 5 years now as a contractor, offering my services in anything from video production / art direction / campaign strategy.  I first ran into the Plan team in East Timor in 2010, since then I've traveled regularly with their communications team to document Plan projects around the world, in truth it's one of the main reasons I remain a freelancer today. I'm proud of the work we've created but also the progression in technique from the early days of getting a Plan employee to stand in front of a water tank and expel brand values, to the latest cinematic short films playing in film festivals around Australia.  

“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.

In 2013 I worked closely with Plan Australia to create a series of 7 short films for the launch of a new campaign based on child rights.  We kicked it off in Ethiopia with the first brief being centred around the 'Right to Play,' and luckily we found just the kid to demonstrate how important play and interactive learning are in early childhood development.  

We had two and a half days with Hennock, and spent the initial time getting to know him, before writing a story and filming during the next two.  I actually ran the race with him six times, and he won 5 out of 6 of them (a sandle mishap cost him the first race). Here's the story of Hennock, more to come soon.