Africa On Screen
The first films of ICE’s Africa on Screen initiative are being launched by CEO of the NSW Film and Television Office Tania Chambers at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta at a free event, which promises to make big impacts on Sydney’s screen culture.
The films, Colour Blind and The Applicant tell two powerful stories about the experiences of African Australians living, working and settling in Western Sydney.
In Colour Blind, a young Sudanese woman leads a blind man through an urban Australian landscape littered with signs of fear and intolerance, posing the question, ‘Are you free of racism if you don’t see it?’
In The Applicant, a qualified and enthusiastic job seeker appears to be everything the employer is looking for when they speak on the phone. But ‘everything changes from the moment he saw me in the doorway’ says the applicant. Is this change of heart because the applicant is African? The Applicant’s narrative is cut with interviews with African Australians about their real experiences of discrimination in the Australian employment market.
Both shorts emerged from ICE and Fairfield Council’s Directing Drama workshop series, where 20 participants from the Sudanese Filmmaking Group were taught film skills, including camera skills, directing, storyboarding and performance skills.
Workshop participant and writer of The Applicant, Bernard Makeny says “The two films act as a catalyst to raise awareness to some of the issues that emerging communities are facing in their new home. ICE has been the champion and the voice of the voiceless, by instilling and empowering young people through digital media to express their feelings, views, talent and abilities.”
“African communities have a rich reservoir of stories that come from long traditions of storytelling. Africa on Screen is building on this storytelling culture, and creating the skills and capacity for these stories to be told on screen, and to be transmitted far-and-wide,” said ICE Director Lena Nahlous.
Africa on Screen is coordinated by Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE) in partnership with NSW Film and Television Office, and development support from ACL. The project used the facilities of Switch Multimedia and Digital Arts Access Centre, which is a partnership with Parramatta City Council. The launch sponsor is Riverside Theatres.
ICE is supported by Arts NSW and the Australia Council for the Arts and our organisational sponsor the AMWU.
View the article on the Sydney Morning Herald website
When
Tuesday 5 February 2008, 6.30pm for a 7pm start
Where
Parramatta Riverside Theatres
(Cnr Church and Market Streets, Parramatta)
To RSVP
RSVP is essential. Limited seating. Please contact Anique Vered on 02 9897 5744 or email Anique.vered@ice.org.au
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