“Its in our blood. I live it, all I do is music.” – Marco

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A simple backyard party with family and friends quickly becomes a heart-warming site of cultural resilience.

Join Marco for a song and a story about upheaval, struggle and an unwavering passion for music that has kept his family and culture strong.

Take the full journey and meet Marco director Guido Gonzalez on the CuriousWorks website.

Marco
Release: March 2012
Location: Fairfield, Western Sydney

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Director, Producer, Editor & Director of Photography: Guido Gonzalez
Sound: Saif Jari

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

“We are Martu. We got everything we need out here.”

Catch a slice of Martu life in these 2 minute videos.

Punmu Life – Where We Come From

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Punmu Life – The Country I Paint

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Punmu Life – Everything We Need Out Here

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Punmu Life
Release: December 2011
Location: Punmu, Pilbara, Western Australia

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Directors: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John, Carol Macdonald
Producer: Dave Wells
Directors Photography: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John, Carol Macdonald
Editors: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

Content by the Desert Stories crew is produced in partnership between CuriousWorks and Martu Media, a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.

Music
‘Marathon Man’ by Jason Shaw
Under Creative Commons License
freemusicarchive.org

“We tell the stories of how our country is important, so our young people can look after it.”

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Jukurrpa Ninti — Knowledge of Culture was filmed during a return-to-country trip across Lake Dora in Martu country in the Pilbara region of WA.

Jukurrpa Ninti
Release: December 2011
Location: Lake Dora, Rudall River National Park, Western Australia

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Directors: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John, Carol Macdonald
Producer: Dave Wells
Directors Photography: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John, Carol Macdonald
Editors: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

Content by the Desert Stories crew is produced in partnership between CuriousWorks and Martu Media, a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.

Music Credits
Song — The Sacred And Her Journey Home
Artist — Mirko Uhlig
Album — The Rabbits Logbook

A loving mum, a teenage son, a seemingly normal morning ritual. But what really happens before Mum wakes up?

Journey through Wake Up, a short film in three parts.

Part 1: 8:03

Part 3: 5:03

Learn more about filmmaker Shane here, or take the journey on the CuriousWorks website.

Wake Up
Release: September 2011
Location: Fairfield, Western Sydney

Producers: Guido Gonzalez and Eleanor Winkler
Director: Shane MacDonald
Director of Photography: Alan Lao
Sound (shoot and post): Saif Jari
Production Design: Lazare Nyembo
Soundtrack: Saif Jari

Special thanks to the MacDonald, Lao and Gonzalez families for all their support throughout the making of this film.

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthi Sivanathan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra and Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

With a history spanning more than 25,000 years, the Martu were one of the last Indigenous populations to come into contact with Europeans.

Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route exhibition is a joint initiative between The National Museum Canberra of Australia and FORM.

These three videos about Martu History were created by Curtis Taylor for the Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route exhibition housed at the National Museum of Australia, from July 30, 2010 – January 26, 2011. The exhibition bought to the fore the stories of contact, conflict and survival, exodus and return to traditional country and was created by Aboriginal artists and communities who call the area home.

The videos were displayed along with other digital media resources at the exhibition on the world’s first large scale mulit-touch LCD screen – the One Road Multimedia Interactive installation, a collaboration between Lightwell, FORM, National Museum of Australia. The exhibition will be open at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre from November 2 – 27, 2011.

Puntukurna Parna, Kuul and Nyiru are three short videos that give an insight into Martu history and culture. The Martu traditionally live in the Pilbara in the Western Desert – and are a collective of different dialect speakers that identify as a single group for social, political and cultural reasons.

With a history spanning more than 25,000 years, the Martu were one of the last Indigenous populations to come into contact with Europeans, until 1905 when the Canning Stock Route wells were being established. From this time onwards Martu were forcibly removed from their land onto missions or settlements like Jigalong. Some Martu did not make contact until the 1960s, most notably the small group of women and children who were tracked and “cleared out” in 1964 to make way for the Blue Streak missile tests fired from Woomera in SA.

The end of the 1970’s saw the missionaries leave Jigalong mission, and the Martu began resettling in their desert lands, establishing the self-autonomous communities of Jigalong, Punmu, Parnngurr, and Kunawarritji. It was not until 2002 that they were granted native title over their land. Today Martu continue to live in their desert communities as well as the surrounding regional towns of Marble Bar, Nullagine, Newman and Port Hedland.

Although not unchanged, cultural practice remains strong with annual ceremonies involving participation from surrounding Indigenous groups from Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia. Martu continue to care for their country through recently established programs of Land Management involving Martu Rangers in each community and a collaboration with government and non-government organisations addressing a range of ecological and cultural issues including pest species management and cultural site preservation.

About the Director
Curtis Taylor, 21yrs, hails from Parnngurr Community, located 400 kms east of Newman. Curtis is an actor, emerging film writer/director and a young Martu leader. He is currently an undergrad at Murdoch University, completing a Bachelor of Culture, Communications and Media. After finishing school in 2008, Curtis worked as Community Coordinator and Youth Development Officer at Martu Media (a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa), where he also spent 18 months working on Yiwarra Kuju as a filmmaker and youth ambassador. Curtis was the recipient of 2011 Western Australian Youth Art Award and Westfarmers Youth Scholarship.

Warning: viewers should be aware that these videos include names and images of deceased people that may cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal people.

Puntukurnu Parna

We came from the Jukurrpa (Dreaming), we will obey the rules and laws of Jukurrpa for thousands of generations. No man or woman can change Jukurrpa because it’s Yulubyidi (how it is and how it will always be, until the end). We still practice and follow the Jukurrpa today.

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Kuul

The first buildings in each community were the schools. Martu wanted their children to learn English but also their own language. The schools in the Western Desert are remote independent schools; not state, not public. This gave the community more input on what their children should be taught. They created the schools to be bilingual schools, teaching English and Martu Wangka together.

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Nyiru

Wati Nyiru is the man who chased the seven sisters across Australia from the west, across the country to the east. This short movie only tells the story of the Warnman (a Martu dialect) part of the Minyipurru (seven sisters) story. It explains the creation of parts of Martu country around Parnngurr Community.

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Yiwarra Kuju | One Road Interactive Table

Click here to read more about Lightwell.

Twenty percent of Australia’s annual humanitarian arrivals call Liverpool home.

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Next? Hear the stories of two refugee mothers and their experience at Villawood Detention Centre.

Liverpool Current Population: 218,261 (2009)
Cultural backgrounds represented: 157

Liverpool’s first people were the Cabrogal people who spoke the Darug language. The Georges River provided a natural boundary between the Darug (wood tribes) and the neighbouring Tharawal (coast tribe). These tribes knew the area as Gunyungalung.

Then came the settlers in 1810; to make Liverpool Australia’s fourth oldest town; only predated by Sydney, Parramatta and Hobart, but decidedly different, as it was the first “free planned settlement” of the nation.

During the First World War, Liverpool became a military hub, and Holsworthy housed Italian and German Prisoners of War.

While migration was fluid in Liverpool from the late 18th century, the post World War Two influx of “New Australians” and those refugees who have come after now characterise this vibrant regional hub.

Liverpool welcomes refugees as a place free from fear and celebrates their contribution during Refugee Week 2011.

To get involved in Refugee Week this year, visit http://www.refugeeweek.org.au/. The Stories Project Villawood Mums will be screened at an event at Rockdale City Council, Thursday the 23rd of June, from 6 – 8pm. We look forward to seeing you there.

Portraits of Liverpool
Release: April 2011
Location: Macquarie Mall, Liverpool, Western Sydney

Director: Anna Lam
Producer: Saif Jari
Director of Photography: Guido Gonzalez
1st Assistant Director: Shane Macdonald
Music: Saif Jari
Sound: Lazare Nyembo

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

“This film, Mamu, it’s about right, it’s about wrong. It’s about the past and the future, the new and the old.” – Curtis

Need faster loading times? Click here to watch this video on YouTube.

Next? Catch a slice of Martu life from the Western Desert.

In September 2010 the Desert Stories crew embarked on their first professional short film project under the guidance of filmmaker mentor Platon Theodoris. Curtis Taylor speaks about his experience of directing his first narrative based short film, with some sneak peaks of Mamu in between.

The video is made up of interviews with Curtis during the post production phase of Mamu and was filmed on location in Newman and Lake Dora, Punmu Community.

Filmed by: Curtis Taylor & Dave Wells
Edited by: Mark Taylor
Mentored by: Platon Theodoris & Craig Anderson

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks

Content by the Desert Stories crew is produced in partnership between CuriousWorks and Martu Media, a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.

“If we haven’t said anything, no one knows we even have a story. But now we’re gonna say it, so it makes a difference.” – Lazare

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Next? Watch Villawood Mums here.

The Urban Stories crew reflect on their first year together with CuriousWorks: learning skills, making films and forming their own media enterprise, Matta Media.

Filmed by: The Urban Stories Crew
Edited by: Mark Taylor

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

Finding his voice, Urban Stories crew member Saif Jari talks about his experiences of making and sharing Villawood Mums

Sleep is generally lost by a late, mismanaged dose of sugar. But in the early hours of November 19, Saif Jari, our sleepless sound man, was at the behest of a greater (albeit more sweeter) preoccupation. His mum.

Saif, whose mum appears in Villawood Mums, was asked to speak at the University of Western Sydney’s Engagement Exhibition, a showcase of digital projects in Greater Western-Sydney. The idea of speaking in front of a large crowd left him sleep-deprived, but the showcase, which also welcomed key speakers from Neighbourhood Stories and A Tale of Two, was a timely opportunity to talk about his mum and her experiences within the Villawood Detention Centre.

So he bit, licked and swallowed the bullet. And it paid off. He was commended on omitting “an energy which moved the room.” How metaphorically brilliant!

Saif admits that opportunities, such as the UWS Engagement Exhibition, has transformed more than his sleeping patterns.
“Ever since I started working with CuriousWorks, I’ve challenged myself to speak openly about my experiences. And now I talk much more than I normally do. It’s a change that I can tell.”

“But no more speeches. Please!”

Urban Stories Crew at UWS Exhibition Launch

His humble voice, and anecdotal approach to speech-making, has already caught the attention of 2ser’s radio journalist, Kimberly Tan. Saif stars in the latest episode of the 4th estate, a program which explores the issues impacting on media and communications around Australia and the world.

Along with Guido Gonzales and Anna Lam, he talks about Villawood Mums and The First Supper.

Saif Jari interview with Kim Tan on 2SER’s 4th Estate radio program

P.S. Saif gave his interview over the phone. He slept well that night.

Saif just couldn’t get enough of telling his story, so he gave another interview with Eddie Abd for SBS Radio’s Arabic language program:

Saif Jari speaks to SBS Arabic Radio

Saif also spoke with journalist Zilka Grogran from the Liverpool Leader. Click the article below to see it at full size or read it online here: http://liverpool-leader.whereilive.com.au/lifestyle/story/mums-view-of-reality/

Saif Jari's Interview with the Liverpool Leader

Perfecting the delicate roles and responsibilities of a dinner party host is, well, difficult.

According to Nightly Pleasures: The Ultimate Guide to Dinner Party Hosts* good dinner party hosts must create all-you-can-flirt menus. Flirt with sexy textures. Flirt with exotic tastes. No? You’re nothing but a MasterChef virgin. You’ve failed to plate up.

 Go home, son. And if you’re already home, go outside and go home again. Good.

This may sound radical, particularly for those who are foreign to etiquette in general (Guido, stop leaving the toilet seat up). But when your guests are flying from the Western Desert, there is no room for failure. The Urban Stories Crew did not give in. We’ll tell you why.

All good dinner parties start with guests. It was a good sign that the Desert Stories Crew arrived a week earlier. They were keen. Well you know what? So were we.

Our food safari began with a morning tea at the Fairfield School of Arts. It was a pleasure to meet the Desert Stories Crew, comprised of five young indigenous people from the Pilbara region. While munching over Eleanor’s raspberry and chocolate flavoured muffins, we welcomed Curtis, Morika, Jeremy, Cassandra and Owen to our end of Australia.

“Fairfield, and the areas within Fairfield City Council, are the most culturally diverse places in all Australia,” said Alan, Urban Stories Crew member. “Just look at the Urban Stories Crew.” The Desert Stories Crew gave a chuckle, as their eyes jumped gently, from face to face.

The Urban and Desert crews meet in Fairfield, Western Sydney

Over the next few days, that’s just what we did. We jumped from face to face, as we spoke about what it meant to be “Australian.” We jumped from face to face, as we explored the possibilities and challenges of the Australian mediascape. We spoke about following the journey of an Indigenous artist. We spoke about following the story of Guido and Saif’s mums.

There was so much jumping that by the last day, everybody was hungry (this is not an exaggeration. We really were). Elias, whose mind was suitably on dinner, suggested that the Urban Stories Crew throw a grand but intimate dinner party (at his mum’s place).

We jumped at the idea (pun intended). We called this the The First Supper (pun intended). Elias then called his mum, to ask for her permission (it was awkward).

She agreed.

We pressed record.

The camera lens took over, framing our faces, and our stories.

Each member of the Urban Stories Crew brought a meal, which held personal or cultural significance. Judging by the reactions of the Desert Crew, it was an “all-you-can-flirt menu” of empanadas, rice vermicelli, date cookies, thai sweets, durian and malaki. We took no effort sourcing foods with “sexy textures” and “exotic tastes” – we brought food, which were simple to our palates, but so foreign to the Desert Stories Crew.

We are yet to meet again, for dinner.

Until then, we will be sharing our stories here. Until we stop making films (are you joking?), our dinner conversations will never be bland. Until then, our food will never be bland.

Until then, watch this space.

Watch Part One of The First Supper here.

–
*Book may or may not exist.

Ever heard that one before? I bet you haven’t! You are invited to meet the storytellers behind The Stories Project:

URBAN STORIES ENTERPRISE LAUNCH
Friday 3rd December 2010, 8-10pm
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (1 Casula Road, Casula)
RSVP essential, please direct to Eleanor by Monday 22nd November on 02 9281 2570 or el@curiousworks.com.au

CuriousWorks would like to invite you to meet our Urban Stories crew from Western Sydney. The Urban Stories crew is made up of some seriously diverse Australians, many of whom came to Australia as refugees from different corners of the planet.

Watch two of their short films from 2010 and learn about the Western Sydney production house they’ll be launching in 2011. Meet people like Shane MacDonald, first time director, who wants to share his story to prevent teen crime in Western Sydney to anyone who’ll listen.

The Stories Project is proudly supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, Westpac Foundation, BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Scanlon Foundation, Fairfield City Council, Casula Powerhouse, Liverpool City Council and Martu Media, a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.

The groups shared remarkable similarities but also the expected sense of bewilderment when a group of young Martu flew to Sydney earlier this year.

We met them at Fairfield, Western Sydney. We joked with each other – are we still in Australia?

Listen to Curtis Taylor, Desert Stories crew member, speak about his time in Sydney and the projects on the Desert Stories slate.

Curtis Taylor interview with Rachel Fountain on ABC North West WA radio

Guido Gonzalez (Urban Stories) and Curtis Taylor (Desert Stories)

There are a few things that separate the arrival of Maria and Zahoor at Villawood: ten years, a few policy reforms and two very large fences.

Need faster loading times? Click here to watch this video on YouTube.

Next? Catch a slice of the life that Maria and Zahoor now have in Western Sydney.

“For Australia to become like this – to have Villawood transformed into that is painful.” – Maria

A well-known end point and starting point for those who leave their country seeking asylum in Australia is Villawood Detention Centre – formerly known as Villawood Hostel. Two women who were faced with the choice to flee share their story with their sons.

Villawood Mums
Release: October 2010
Location: Villawood Detention Centre, Western Sydney

Producers: Guido Gonzalez and Saif Jari
Directors: Guido Gonzalez and Saif Jari
1st Assistant Director: Alan Lao
Directors Photography: Guido Gonzalez and Saif Jari
Editor: Anna Lam
Sound (Shoot): Shane MacDonald
Sound (Post) and Music: Saif Jari
Production Assistant: Lazare Nyembo

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

You’ve seen them in slow motion, in reverse… then you see them on the train. Do you say hello? Urban Stories editor, Anna Lam, decides where to draw the line.

They were grippingly masculine, size 10, male feet. I could never forget a pair of feet like that.

Today, they were laced up in black leather work shoes. I undressed them with my eyes. “Where are his soccer cleats?” I wondered.

“Maybe they’re on the porch. Blast. I hope he hasn’t left them somewhere silly. ”

Mr. Sizeable 10 was on the train, on the way home from work. I was making conversation with his feet. Unashamedly.

That’s the strange thing about filming. You capture a moment on film, watch it a few times, and feel like you know them. Every part of them. It becomes etched into your unconscious. Hung upon the walls of memory.

Then comes the moment when that object, or person, walks back into your life. You feel like you deserve a second glance. A hello. A pat on the back.

“We met on the 29th May 2010 at Fairfield High School.”

“You were playing soccer at the Afro-Latino festival. Remember, the African team were horribly late for the soccer match.”

“Oh, and your dribbling skills are positively genuis!”

I wanted to say these things, but I didn’t. At what point do you distance yourself from your work (or Mr.Sizeable 10)?

Alas, filming Candombe has fashioned an obvious, but useful answer. Filmmakers capture moments. Envelop them. Shuffle home. Then, after periods of passionate screaming and love-making (and by love-making, I mean making them into films that can and will be loved by many, many people), filmmakers send those moments back to the Mr. Sizeable 10′s out there.

While it would be pleasant to know where Mr. Sizeable 10 lives, I do not, and perhaps asking him on the train was the most simple solution to that matter. So here I am, mid-way through a foot-related castration.

I would hope that he is reading this. He’s the man with size 10 feet, 12 seconds into the episode, wearing the 13 numbered jersey. What is your name?

Does anybody else know? Surely somebody knows? Should I put an ad in the MX? He needs to know this video exists.

Click here to watch Candombe.

Urban Stories crew member, Anna Lam, attempts to progress beyond the traditional “community vs mass media” battlelines.

Canberra’s tempestuous breeze greeted Shakthi and I on the morning of Saturday 14 August 2010. While it was superbly enticing to drive by Parliament and watch the slow march of suits campaign to and fro, left (wing) to right (wing), it was by the grace of Walter Burley Griffin that we were ten minutes and five traffic-free streets away from our destination.

We arrived just in time.

Shakthi and I were invited to speak at the National Radioactive Youth Media Conference, hosted by the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcaster’s Council. Aimed at young people with an interest in community media and media career pathways, it was the perfect time and space to highlight the successes of the Stories Project thus far, and more generally, our opinions of the community media landscape.

Ambitious people, with equally ambitious minds, littered the room, exalting their opinions about community leadership, the importance of self-expression, and the intricacies surrounding media democracy. In particular, journalist Saeed Saeed spoke about local media makers holding the “passport to local stories.” Political Editor Paul Bonjiorno shared his views on professionalism, the importance of ethics, and blogging in the 21st century.

As the conference kicked into full swing however, I found myself rewriting, altering and nearly obliterating my original speech. It was difficult to hear deeply simplistic binaries including the “community media verses the mass media” extrapolated as though it were an objective truth. Speakers who preached this line of reasoning appeared highly antagonistic about any form of mass media, the structures that supported them, and the dire and ultimate threat the commercial mass media presented to any form of community media. While I stretched the limits of my mind, to concede that some arguments may possibly be valid from both a political and economic perspective, I found it almost necessary to provide an alternative, perhaps even quasi-postmodern, semi-intelligible, Gen-Y, take-it-if-you-will, lens.

Put simply, I offered a competing approach in lieu of the sappy, polished speech I had in mind.

“I hope to challenge how new media makers approach their work in what is arguably a highly cynical, paranoid and complex media landscape.”

“To some extent, and of course, this will prove different over time, mass media messages are mediated by the structures and flows of local opinion.

“Unfortunately, these local opinions belong to those who can express themselves in a language, a style, and a form, that appeals and is recognised by those who set the media agenda.”

“…understand how visual and audio codes such as sound fx and so on, naturalise meaning. Only through doing so can you enable others, who may not understanding this language, to engage with the power structures that limit their ability to tell their stories, more importantly their personal stories, in the media.”

“It is not about representing people in the community, as many have discussed today. It is about finding the best way to represent the community. And it’s about being ethical, conscious and strategic while doing so.”

“Media practitioners need to be savvy. They need to create an autonomous, culturally diverse mediascape that will help them reach their social outcomes. It’s not about competing against another system which, quite clearly, has succeeded in meeting its own specified outcomes.”

While my speech was not groundbreaking, it was humbling to see it well received by many young participants at the conference. With this in mind, it will be enchanting to see how these young media filmmakers, and more generally active media makers such as the Urban Stories Crew, shape the local media. What is the future of community media in local areas such as Fairfield and Liverpool? What defines a successful, selfless, and sustainable media system?

Judging by the Crew’s ambitious fire, I remain confident that our skills, opinions and ethics, will define and advance this arguably premature landscape.

A warm thank you to the good people at the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcaster’s Council for treating us so kindly. It is without question that such conferences, including the National Radioactive Youth Media Conference, play a defining role in shaping and provoking the minds of young media makers.

Country, music and painting stories. Take a 2 minute break and catch a slice of the great desert life!

Need faster loading times? Watch this video on YouTube.

Next? Catch a slice of Western Sydney life in 90 seconds.

For family, woman, man and child, going back to the land they know. – Billy Landy aka Butler

Catch a slice of Martu life in 2 minutes.

On a return to country trip to Durba Springs in June this year, Martumili artist Yankura paints his traditional home Puntawarri. The backing track, performed by Butler is also about Puntawarri, a longing to return to their ancestral home.

Puntawarri
Release: August 2010
Location: Western Desert, Western Australia

Producer: Dave Wells
Directors: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John, Carol Macdonald
Directors Photography: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John, Carol Macdonald
Editors: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John

Sound: Anthony Gibbs
Music: courtesy of Billy Landy aka Butler, “Puntawarri”, recorded live

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

Content by the Desert Stories crew is produced in partnership between CuriousWorks and Martu Media, a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.

Soccer, drums and dance meld in this 90 second romp through the Afro-Latino festival in Western Sydney.

Need faster loading times? Watch this video on YouTube.

Next? Catch a slice of Martu life from the Western Desert.

Candombe is a very emotional experience … you feel your ancestry when you play.
- Leo Santalucia, Urumbe

Catch a slice of Western Sydney life in 90 seconds.

The candombe drums hold cultural importance for both the Uruguayan and African communities in Fairfield. Just as it provided relief for the African slaves who brought this rhythmic drumming from Africa, it continues to remind South American migrants of the difficult social, political and economic hardships that caused their families to migrate.

On 29th May 2010, Fairfield saw its very first Afro-Latino festival that celebrated the shared cultural heritage of African and Latin American communities. A love of soccer, music dance and food was shared by all who attended the event.

Candombe
Release: July 2010
Location: Fairfield, Western Sydney

Producer: Guido Gonzalez
Director: Lazarius Nyembo
1st Assistant Director: Alan Lao
Director Photography: Anna Lam
Editor: Shane MacDonald and Elias Nohra
Sound: Saif Jari
Music: Urumbe Drumming Group (recorded live at the AfroLatino Festival)
Thanks to festival organiser Laura Luna

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

Listen to OJ, a desert busker, serenade Sydney at Central Railway Station.

Need faster loading times? Watch this video on YouTube.

Next? Watch African rhythms meld with Latino passions.

The strangest thing is to walk on concrete. We normally walk on soft sand. – OJ

Within days of arriving in Sydney, the Desert Stories crew began lamenting their distance from home and rueing the pace of the city.

Inspired by the buskers he saw everyday at Central Station, OJ brought a song about his desert home and his people to the endless parade of city-folk moving through the Railway Square tunnel. He made $20.

OJ On Broadway
Release: June 2010
Location: Surry Hills, Sydney CBD

Directors & Cinematographers: Morika Blijabu & Curtis Taylor
Performer: Owen Gibbs
Sound: Cassandra Nanudie
Boom: Jeremy Sammy
Editors: Desert Stories crew

Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Supervising Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

Music: Living in the Desert by OJ & the Punmu Lakeside Band

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

Content by the Desert Stories crew is produced in partnership between CuriousWorks and Martu Media, a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.

Meet the people behind the camera, as the Urban and Desert Crews exchange food and stories.

Need faster loading times? Watch this video on YouTube.

Next? Listen to a desert busker serenade the patrons of the Railway Square tunnel in Surry Hills.

You don’t know us. You’ve never heard our story. And we want to tell you. – Curtis

Over a few days in June 2010, the Urban Stories and Desert Stories crews met for the first time. They shared a meal. They interviewed each other. They began to understand how different the desert was to the city; and yet how similar their feelings and aspirations were.

The First Supper videos are your chance to meet the crews; to get to know a little bit about where they come from. The First Supper: Part Two will be released in August, in which Anna asks Lazare what exactly what will happen if someone other than a mother cooks that dish…

The First Supper
Release: June 2010
Location: Bankstown, Western Sydney

All Roles (interviews): Urban Stories and Desert Stories crews
Producer (supper shoot): Urban Stories crew
Music: Punmu Lakeside Band featuring Monkey Marc and Ozi Batla (Part One)

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks.

Content by the Desert Stories crew is produced in partnership between CuriousWorks and Martu Media, a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.

The abundance of untold local stories… highlight the need for locally-grown, cutting-edge media-makers. – Guido

Click here to view the article on the Fairfield City Champion Website.