GENERATIONS OF MEN
Written by Judith Wright adapted by Joanna Joy
The Project
Generations of Men is a historical creative development project inspired by Judith Wright’s historical novel of the same name. It details the birth of the Australian nation and its history of pioneering, black-birding and immigration in Central Queensland.
With regional community interests at the forefront the project involves four stages aiming to foster and upskill local practitioners by providing placements and mentorships at each stage of creative development.
Stage 1: Regional industry workshops (part-funding approved through RADF - will facilitate opportunities for students and emerging talent to learn more about pathways to industry in the fields of directing, cinematography, sound design and storyboarding)
Stage 2: Proof of concept production (individuals interested in upskilling across departments such as cinematography, assistant directing, costume design, production design, art design and event management will have the opportunity to submit an EOI and work closely with professionals in each field)
Stage 3: Exhibition screening (jobs will be created for established and emerging artists and historians to contribute to the exhibition which will tour across metro and regional areas)
Stage 4: Development and delivery of the series (all film professionals and artists can expect employment with the production of the series in stage 4)
AMP application is to match funding for Stage 2 and 3 of the project.
Film concept provided in the Electronic Press Kit attached.
Community focus & Indigenous Relationships
GENERATIONS OF MEN in collaboration with Central Queensland has a community first focus with a priority to boost regional profiles through the popularisation of regional stories and voices in mainstream media. Particular attention is paid to previously unheard voices, from the women and multicultural communities of Central Queensland.
A series which honours Wrights’ activism and legacy through its focus on indigenous relationships, this includes the often unheard voices of the Torres Strait, South Sea Islander, Chinese and Indigenous characters from History.
It's because of this desire to connect that we are working with Wayne Blair. Wayne Blair grew up on Darumbal country and is returning with us as a key indigenous creative to help ensure the characters in the film can proudly speak their own dialect. Through Wayne's introduction to community we have connected with Aunty Nicky Hatfield who is working with us in developing a script that documents the Darumbal dialect of Rockhampton.
Our conversations with Aunty Nicky shares a mutual ambition for an authentic film that allows local actors to speak their local dialect on country. It is this attention to detail that will ensure our representation and inclusions of different indigenous languages is authentic and holds integrity. A process which is applied to all the cultures and languages of the characters in the series.
In order to achieve this goal we have organised a series of engagement initiatives that focus on creative and up-skilling opportunities for Central Queensland's youth.
We have partnered with the Darumbal Enterprises, Woorahbinda's Community Centre and the Rockhampton Dreamtime Centre to run creative workshops within the indigenous and Central Queensland community. These workshops allow us to engage with local talent interested in being involved in the production.
Partnerships with with CQ University in Rockhampton and John Pearson Consulting provide placements on our shoot where individuals interested in film can upskill and gain insight into the industry.
Generations of Men adopts a unique model where opportunities for these placements and mentorships will be facilitated all the way through development of the series. The aim is to align with the state governments Screen and Digital Games Workforce Development Plan 10-year roadmap (hyperlink) and work to bridge the metro and regional divide by facilitating pathways for those looking to establish successful film industry careers.
Audience
Team
Wayne Blair – project consultant
Wayne Blair is an acclaimed film, television and theatre director, writer, actor and producer.
Wayne’s debut hit feature film, THE SAPPHIRES, a musical comedy, had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. The film has since played at festivals including Telluride, Toronto, Aspen, Zurich and Hamburg, earning him worldwide recognition. THE SAPPHIRES was the highest grossing Australian film of 2012 and won eleven AACTA Awards, including Best Director and Best Film. In 2013 Wayne directed SEPTEMBERS OF SHIRAZ, which featured at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and opened the San Diego Film Festival, with
an impressive award winning cast including Salma Hayek and Adrien Brody. In 2015 and 2016 Wayne co-produced and directed CLEVERMAN series 1 and 2 – an innovative six-part futuristic action drama for US network ABC-TV, starring Game of Thrones’ Iain Glen, Frances O’Connor and Deborah Mailman. Wayne’s latest film, TOP END WEDDING starred Miranda Tapsell and was released theatrically in 2019. Other TV credits include BITE CLUB for Channel 10; LOVE CHILD for Channel 9; the iconic film DIRTY DANCING for Lionsgate TV/ABC US network, starring Abigail Breslin, Sarah Hyland and Debra Messing; REDFERN NOW for ABC TV, LOCKIE LEONARD Series 1 and 2 for the Channel 9; Australian- British children’s supernatural comedy TV series DEAD GORGEOUS for the BBC and Australian children’s TV series DOUBLE TROUBLE. Wayne wrote the episode 1788 of the MY PLACE series 2 for ABC-TV and an episode for the second series of THE CIRCUIT, which won an AWGIE Award for Best Original miniseries in 2009.
http://www.wayneblair.com/index.html
Thom Kellar - Sound Designer
Thom is an Emmy winning sound designer and mixer. As director of Folklore Sound, a boutique creative sound company in Brisbane, he seamlessly blurs the lines between composition and sound design, confidently approaching innovative technologies to push creative boundaries. Recent projects include Sweet Country (Warwick Thornton), Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg), Goldstone (Ivan Sen) and Netflix's Beat Bugs (Josh Wakely).
WEBSITE: https://folkloresound.com/
Joanna Joy – Workshop Organiser & Creative Producer
Recent recipient of the Creative Young Leaders Fellowship from Create NSW, Joanna Joy is a Sydney based multi-disciplinary artist.
Her work blurs the boundaries between experimental film, theatre & performance art. Through her practice Joanna uses research to explore ideas of origin, connection and counter narratives. Joanna has recently returned from the LungA School in Iceland to see her film ‘Pane Di Vita’ screened at Sydney’s For Film’s Sake Festival, the Melbourne Women in Film Festival and ATOM Awards. Joanna’s last production with the House that Dan Built toured both Sydney Fringe and Newcastle’s TiNA festival. As part of her fellowship Joanna is now being mentored by directors Wayne Blair and Danielle O’Keefe in the development of her next project ‘Generations of Men’.
Ashley Barron - Cinematographer
Ashley is an international, award-winning Director of Photography Accredited by the Australian Cinematographers Society. Selected as 1 of 28 Cinematographers in the world to train at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Hollywood, the youngest in her class. She was chosen by Academy Award winning Director of Photography Dion Beebe (ACS) to work as his apprentice on Green Lantern. Her work has earned a number of awards, including a coveted Gold Award from the Australian Cinematographer's Society (ACS), a Nomination for the National ACS Awards, and one of the earliest memberships of the International Collective of Female Cinematographers (ICFC). Ashley's first feature film One Less God had its World Premier at the 20th Dances With Films where it took away both the Industry and Jury Prizes, the first film in the festival's history going on to win Best Film at the 2017 Byron Bay International Film Festival. Covered by VARIETY, IndieWire, Moviemaker and IF Magazine ONE LESS GOD's trailer has over 1 million views and has been picked up for international theatrical distribution.
WEBSITE: http://www.ashley-barron.com/
Elizabeth Simard – Creative Producer
Elizabeth launched her career with 4 time nominated international short film, Paladin which premiered at 168Film Festival, Los Angeles. In 2014 she worked as 2nd AD on independent feature, Rise which secured international distribution and then went on to produce Australia’s first anthology feature, On The Move; a cross cultural collaboration between China, South Korea and Australia premiering internationally at the Cannes Film Festival, Beijing Int. Film Festival, and the Brisbane Int. Film Festival.
Other credits include Rider (2016), Fitting (2017, Lexus Film Fellowship® recipient), Freudian Slip (2018, Best Australian Comedy Melbourne Web Fest® , Gold Coast Film Fest®) and Aquaman (2018). In 2019 she cast Australia's first ever vertical video comedy series Content (starring Charlotte Nicdao and Gemma Bird Mattheson) for Brisbane based Ludo Studio which went on to be nominated for Best Scripted Online Video at the AACTA® Awards.
Other works include historical feature, An Antarctic Affair based on the life and love of arctic explorer Douglas Mawson. Elizabeth is completing her Master's thesis at Griffith University exploring best practices for cross-cultural collaboration.
Peter Sheehan - Story Board Artist
Peter Sheehan (APDG) is a freelance storyboard artist, illustrator, designer and writer. He has some 25 books to his name and has been drawing professionally since 1982, most notably for the oldest children’s literary magazine in the world – The School Magazine. Film credits include The Drover's Wife, Breath, Buoyancy, The Sapphires, Beneath Hill 60 and The Hunter. His animation work includes, Berry Bees, Lexie and Lottie, F is for Family and Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs. He was accredited as a designer by the Australian Production Design Guild in 2017. Peter has been awarded a CBCA Honour Book prize, an APDG Award for Drawing, a Stanley Award for Best General Illustrator, 3 FACTS Awards, 2 Art Directors and Writers Awards and has been nominated twice for a Walkley Award. His artwork is held in the collections of The Australian National War Memorial, the State Library of NSW and the Australian National Maritime Museum.
WEBSITE: https://www.petersheehan.com/
Letters of Support
Thank you.
For more information:
Elizabeth Simard - Producer
e. elizabethsimard@gmail.com
m. 0405914306