Still / Open Forum

Notes from my opening statement as Chair of the ANAT Still / Open Forum held at Digital Harbour, Docklands, 5 September 2007.

A caller to Radio National the other morning was dismayed at the lack of humanity displayed in the security measures employed in Sydney at this time for that spectacle known as APEC… they compared it to the Olympic games where security was extremely high, but wasn’t in your face. It was discreet, as the caller pointed out, protecting the humanity of the event…

I don’t know if one could frame security within the context of humanity, but it is no doubt clear to me, as I am sure it is to many of you, that we are dangerously close to losing our precious dreams and that essential of all human qualities, hope, in the media we so voraciously consume… But the consumed, as we know, are bighting back, as they have done since it was possible to share stories from one person to the next.

To sustain open, frank, collaborative and independent debate in our societies we need open, frank, honest, clear and an independent media… Just as the South Korean Unions were encouraging their members to purchase computers and modems in the mid-90s, a means to support an independent media in the face of a homogenised global voice, so to have artists in collaboration with technologists explored communication tools for free expression and independent discourse from the printing press to the telex, from the fax to shortwave radio, from community broadcasting to the internet where all communications tools are shaping and reshaping the way we consume and produce information…

How do we ensure the means by which we may use these tools to are protected, are not legislated against, are not owned by a minority of stakeholders? We are honored to have with us this evening four practitioners of independent media practice who, through their own projects and organisations, work towards the protection of these rights, to ensure we may dream and hope for a world where difference is not abused, but celebrated.

Our guests, and Facilitators of the Still / Open lab are publisher and media artist Alessandro Ludovico (Italy) editor in chief of the online and print publication Neural; free software hacker and new media activist Andy Nicholson (Australia) who is part of the Engage Media collective; interdisciplinary artist and researcher Beatriz da Costa (USA), and Elliott Bledsoe from the Australian Creative Commons Clinic.

Speech: OC Launch

Prepared for and presented at the OPEN CHANNEL Launch, SHED 4, celebrating just over 3 decades of public access video and independent film production and development in Victoria.

Questions on ICT Policy

I was recently interviewed on my thoughts on ICT policy advocacy and the work of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). Extracts from this interview, conducted by APC, refer more to my political views than that of ICT policy itself.

Love Your Work! 2006

Prepared by Melinda Maillard and myself for OPEN CHANNEL’s Love Your Work! Short Film Audience Choice Awards, 20 Dec, 2006, Cinema Nova.

Welcome! My name is Andrew Garton. Im the Program Director at OPEN CHANNEL and I would like to thank you all very much for joining us here tonight at our annual members short film festival and audience choice awards, Love Your Work!

RAW NERVE 2006

Introductory speech, 15 November 2006, Raw Nerve screening event, hosted by Popcorn Taxi, Greater Union Theatre, Melbourne. All up, 159 attended, of which 38 were comps.

Graeme Sward is a gentle hearted, blustery and passionate man in his mid-50s. Graeme grew up in Tasmania and began working in TV around 1974. He went on to become a Director and Producer finally settling into his present position as CEO of the Film and Television Institute, OPEN CHANNEL’s sister screen development agency in Perth.

Graeme was standing on the streets of Perth one afternoon as skateboarders fanged their boards across footpaths, weaving through passers-by and he thought how great it would be if he could offer these kids the opportunity to make a film… a short film with a small budget, mentoring and equipment… This was the genus of Raw Nerve, a production support initiative funded by the Australian Film Commission and managed by the five screen development centres spread around the country.

Raw Nerve provides entry level filmmakers with the resources to realise their first government funded film. Graeme doesn’t like to use the term emerging… as he asks, emerging from what?

Raw Nerve encourages experimentation, team building and collaboration to filmmakers who have often come from unlikely sources to find expression in the moving image in a rigorous production environment, tight budgets and tight schedules and the obligatory addled nerves and sleep deprivation… good, wholesome, natural ingredients found in every great film… including stock standard Raw Nerve sweat, tears and angst, pride, passion and determination… and you will see all this in the 5 shorts we will screen here tonight.

Of 72 scripts, of the 72 applications (I’m told far more than any other SDA in the country) Alice Daley, Nicki Johnson, Natalie Faulkner, Paul Anderson and Anthony Noack, along with their Producers and crews, have completed a compelling body of work… a body of work that would not have been possible without the support of OPEN CHANNEL staff, in particular Supervising Producer and Mentor, Suze Houghton. They would not have been chosen were it not for our script readers and assessors: Jan Sardi, Chris Ryan, Natascha Stellmach, Suze Houghton and Ness Alexandra.

We would also like to thank LEMAC, Music & Effects, Kodak, Digital Pictures, Complete Post and Popcorn Taxi.

The call-out for Raw Nerve 2007 will be made in December… so drop in on site at Docklands, visit us online at openchannel.org.au and cast your eyes on screen as we introduce Raw Nerve 2006, so hot off the hard-drives of some are as fresh as a few hours ago!

Thank you…

Speech: Love Your Work!

Opening speech prepared for my first public appearance as Program Director of OPEN CHANNEL. Love Your Work was held at ACMI, 28 November 2005. Audience members were invited to vote for the best film

Photo: Boris Eldagsen