Traces Films

Mameloshn – Jewish Museum films

admin — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:27:40 +0000

Nearly one year ago, we were commissioned by Anna Epstein at the Jewish Museum of Australia to produce some film content for the current 12 month long exhibition ‘Mameloshn: How Yiddish made a home in Melbourne’.
Below is a short teaser extract from one of the films which explores the community and political aspects of the post WW2 Yiddish speaking community in Melbourne. It was a fascinating and enlightening project to work on. Thanks to Anna and all involved…

Here’s some more info on the actual exhibition:

Curated by Anna Epstein in consultation with a dynamic Yiddish committee including writer Arnold Zable, historian Andrew Markus and Freydi Mrocki, Mameloshn – How Yiddish made a home in Melbourne documents the journey of Eastern European Jews who came to Melbourne to recreate their lives. With over fifty percent of the
exhibition from the Museum’s Collection, Mameloshn will showcase the complexities, the controversy, the theatre, music and politics of the Melbourne Yiddish community, and the lasting contribution of a language and culture that has been woven into what is now multicultural Melbourne. A story of migration and integration, Mameloshn is at once a universal and distinct social history tale.

Links
Jewish Museum of Australia

Adelaide – Art Nation TV spot

admin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 01:53:32 +0000

Our infamous appearance on ABC TV’s Art Nation with some very gratifying words from Paul Grabowsky.

MODERNIST DOCUMENTARY PROJECT

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:28:02 +0000

Several years ago we visited the Heide II gallery in Bulleen. When we realised this amazing building was originally a house designed for the art patrons John and Sunday Reed, our fascination with Modernist domestic architecture was unleashed. We soon contacted Neil Everist (the surviving partner from the firm McGlashan Everist) and a friendship began. We made a small film on a house that the firm designed back in the sixties, which can be viewed here on the Traces site. The house is now Neil’s holiday home.

Over the following years, fuelled by a continuing love for Modernist design we slowly gathered research on Australian domestic Modernism. The architects, their houses and clients etc. This culminated in us applying for and gaining a creative fellowship at the State Library of Victoria in 2008. We were given our own room and unlimited access to the great Australian design journals from the era (spanning the late 1940s to the mid 1970s) and other collections such as the amazing slide collection by the late photographer Peter Wille.

Soon-after we applied for development funding from Screen Australia and were successful. With that money we were able to travel to Sydney and Canberra and conduct in depth interviews with many architects from the period as well as some original clients. This also included filming many interviews in Melbourne too.

This was an inspiring experience. A majority of the architects we interviewed still maintained their passion and fiery ambition to create a new way forward in residential architecture. Despite their advanced years (most of them are in their eighties and beyond) their passion and spiritual sensibility had by no means faded. Their love for nature and their respect for their craft was vibrant and alive.

We found the clients equally engaging, they appeared to be a mix of mostly educated people who had an appreciation and understanding for the modern ethos and were bold and brave enough to enter a rather unknown territory.
The fact that they still resided in these homes after fifty years speaks volumes.

We are now at the point were the plan is to create a short teaser which will impress both Screen Australia for production funding as well as the ABC to agree to be the broadcasters of what will likely become a three part documentary series on this subject.

Philip Goad from Melbourne Uni and Doug Evans (ex RMIT) are acting as our unofficial content consultants (ie: experts on this subject) and have both been incredible wells of knowledge.

The architects we have interviewed:

MELBOURNE
Neil Everist
Peter McIntyre
Neil Clerehan
Graeme Gunn
Phyllis Murphy
Philip Goad
Doug Evans
Peter Burns
Rex Patrick
David Chancelor
Naomi Fooks
Mary Featherston
Don Fulton
Geoffrey Woodfall
John Kenny
Daryl Jackson
Helena Holgar

SYDNEY/ NSW
Colin Madigan
Penelope Seidler
Peter Muller
Ian McKay
Stan Symonds
John James
Bruce Rickard
Cyril Smith
Ross Thorne
Ken Woolley
Philip Cox

CANBERRA
Bert Read
Enrico Taglietti
Derek Wrigley
Neil Renfree
Noel Potter
Laurie Virr

Links:
Doug Evans
Heide
Boyd foundation
Canberra houses
Modernist Australia
Boyd Homes Group
Docomomo
Brisbane Modern
Butterpaper
Studley Park Modern
RAIA

Modernist documentary images

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:21:11 +0000

Modernist images (click to enlarge)

Bert Read

Boyd

Bruce Rickard

Enrico Taglietti

Helen Holgar

Laurie Virr

Neal Clerehan

Neil Everist

Peter Burns

Peter Muller

GLOBAL HOME MOVIE PROJECT

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:52:20 +0000

Our work on the 2003 ACMI installation and the current Adelaide Festival commission has made us think very seriously about a similar project that could span the entire planet!! Yes it sounds crazy and massive and ambitious. But we also think it feels like it could have very powerful resonance for thousands of people all over the world who shared in the creation of domestic home movies. Underlying this idea is the notion that there are some strands of personal creative nostalgia based memory that are ultimately totally universal. Sort of like a United Nations of collective Super 8 memory. Yes folks, the idea that we really are ALL THE SAME. Well, time will tell. We are currently researching what countries had 8mm film available throughout the 20th century. This is our first step and should help inform how big the scope for this project will be. The final work could be hosted and installed at some of the great public museums simultaneously. Ambitious but valid.

DESIGN COUPLES TV DOCUMENTARY

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:44:35 +0000

Ages ago we came across some interesting info on the internet about two very fascinating Australian designers/artists/filmmakers named Geoffrey and Dahl Collings. It seems that they single handedly introduced modern design to Australian society and we’d never ever even heard of them!!?? Some further research led us to the fact that Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum holds the Collings archives/collection, so we began a dialogue with some of the archivists and curators there. What has emerged is the development of an eventual TV series exploring significant Australian creative couples. The Collings will represent the earliest phase dating way back to the 1930s (although their careers spanned many decades beyond then). The Collings two daughters have given us their blessing and cooperation to pursue this project. Thanks to our Modernist doco project, we met and interviewed Mary Featherston about her wonderful Robin Boyd designed home in Ivanhoe. Mary has also agreed that an episode of the creative couples project be devoted to her and her late husband (Grant Featherston) and their incredibly huge contribution to Australian modern design. We are still deciding on which other couples will eventually feature in one or two more episodes. Stay tuned…

Links
Powerhouse Museum
Featherston link here

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL FILM INSTALLATION

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:17:41 +0000

Thanks to the success of our home movie installation at ACMI in 2003 as part of the Remembrance and the Moving Image exhibition, we were commissioned earlier in 2009 to produce a similar but longer visual piece for the 2010 Adelaide Festival. The festival director Paul Grabowsky came to our studio, had a brief look at some clips from our ACMI work and decided then and there to confirm the commission. Needless to say we were very excited to be part of what will be one of the most memorable Adelaide fests of all time – being the 50th anniversary! Adelaidians were asked to submit their 8mm home movies and we’ve been editing this amazing material for the last few months. The final work will appear at the Elder Park rotunda on multiple screens wrapped around the skeleton of the rotunda. It should look like a beautiful giant glowing lantern.

Links
Adelaide Festival website

Installation images (click to enlarge)