Wind & Sky ProductionsWatching the World Change through Victoria’s Museums Parks and Gardens
22 May 2019
This month, the United Nations announced that nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history, driven in part by climate change.
Evidence of this is crystal clear in Victoria, with a new online story called Collections and Climate Change showing how the Victorian Government has been taking steps to understand climate change impacts through Victoria’s cultural and scientific treasures.
The documentary film and gallery, now live on the Victorian Government Culture Victoria portal, explores how the information gathered and stored by Museums Victoria, Parks Victoria and the Royal Botanic Gardens gives insight into local climate related shifts in human, plant and animal life.
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Collections and Climate Change
Info
Commissioned by: Creative Victoria
Produced: 2018
Length: 9.01 minutes
Dr Mark Norman, Chief Conservation Scientist, Parks Victoria. Photographer Jary Nemo. Courtesy of Wind & Sky Productions.
Beware Reef Marine Sanctuary. Photographer John Ariens. Courtesy of Friends of Beware Reef Marine Sanctuary.
Kate Phillips, Senior Curator, Science Exhibitions, Museums Victoria. Photographer Jary Nemo. Courtesy of Wind & Sky Productions.
Red Kangaroo, Murray Sunset National Park. Photographer Mark Norman. Courtesy of Parks Victoria.
Professor David Cantrill, Executive Director Science, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Photographer Jary Nemo. Courtesy of Wind & Sky Productions.
Ranunculus victoriensis Victorian Buttercup, National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria.
Underwater reef, Yap. Photograph by John Stevenson. Source: Flickr.
The Film
In Victoria climate change is already impacting our oceans and our landscapes and our cultural, social and political life.
The Collections and Climate Change Documentary Film explores how Victoria’s scientific and cultural collections, both the static material kept in museums and the living flora and fauna of our parks and marine reserves, helps us understand the change that is occurring and what sort of actions we need to take in the future.
The nine minute documentary features interviews with Mark Norman, Chief Conservation Scientist at Parks Victoria, Kate Phillips, Senior Curator Science Exhibitions at Museums Victoria, Professor David Cantrill, Executive Director Science at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Sione Napi Francis, Lead Curator Te Pasifika Gallery Redevelopment at Museums Victoria.
The film is part of a broader digital exhibition Collections and Climate Change.
The film can be viewed either
Via the Culture Victoria Collections and Climate Change exhibition at: https://cv.vic.gov.au/stories/land-and-ecology/collections-and-climate-change/documentary-story-collections-and-climate-change/
Or on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/YqAPK6QCDKI
The Story
The world is changing.
Change is a natural part of the Earth’s cycle and of the things that live on it, but what we are seeing now is both like and unlike the shifts we have seen before.
Anthropogenic change, meaning change created by humans, is having an impact on a global scale. In particular, human activity has altered the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the world’s climate to change.
Already in the state of Victoria we are seeing evidence of this change around us. In the natural world, coastal waters are warming and bringing tropical marine species to our bays. Desert animals are migrating to Victoria. Alpine winters are changing, potentially putting plants and animals at risk of starvation and pushing species closer to the margins. In the world of humans, island and coastal dwellers deal with the tangible and intangible impacts of loss as sea levels rise, bush dwellers live with an increased risk of life-threatening fires, farmers cope with the new normal of longer droughts, and we all face extreme weather events and the impacts of social and economic change.
Digital Exhibition
Collections and Climate Change is an online digital exhibition on Creative Victoria’s Culture Victoria portal, which is a free community resource. The exhibition explores how Victoria’s scientific and cultural collections help us understand climate change. It focuses on three Victorian institutions – Museums Victoria, the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Parks Victoria. It looks at how the information gathered and maintained by a dedicated community of researchers, curators, scientists, specialists and volunteers can help us understand and prepare for a hotter, drier, more inundated world.
The exhibition is made up of a short documentary film and twenty-one examples highlighting how botanical records, geological and biological specimens and living flora and fauna provide a crucial resource for scientists striving to map continuity, variability and change in the natural world. And it helps us rethink the significance of some of Victoria’s cultural collections in the face of a changing climate.
Commissioned by Creative Victoria the project was produced by Wind & Sky Productions in partnership with Museums Victoria, Parks Victoria and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
The digital exhibition is free to watch, show and share at: https://cv.vic.gov.au/stories/land-and-ecology/collections-and-climate-change/documentary-story-collections-and-climate-change/
Awards and Nominations
Finalist, Best Science Movie, 2020 Vienna Science Film Festival
Credits
- Creative Producers:
- Lucinda Horrocks and Jary Nemo
- Commissioning Editors on behalf of Creative Victoria:
- Dimity Mapstone and Georgia Melville
- Production Company:
- Wind & Sky Productions
- Project Manager:
- Jary Nemo
- Digital Gallery Curator:
- Lucinda Horrocks
- Documentary Film Director:
- Jary Nemo
- Interviewees:
- Mark Norman, Chief Conservation Scientist, Parks Victoria; Kate Phillips, Senior Curator Science Exhibitions, Museums Victoria; Professor David Cantrill, Executive Director Science, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria; Sione Napi Francis, Lead Curator Te Pasifika Gallery Redevelopment, Museums Victoria.
- Documentary film additional appearances by:
- Friends of Beware Reef Volunteers, John Ariens, National Herbarium of Victoria Volunteers, Mary Ward, Sandra Whitty, Vicky Jaeger, Museums Victoria Staff, Mark Nikolic, Mohamed Nishath Mohamed Nizar and Chris Rowley.
- Story Contributors:
- Di Bray, Rebecca Carland, Liza Dale-Hallett, Katie Date, Catherine Forge, Sione Napi Francis, Casey Gibson, Megan Hirst, Lucinda Horrocks, Jane Melville, Stuart Mills, Andrew Nixon, Stephen Poropat, Dominique Potvin, Kate Phillips, Thomas Rich, Mark Rodrigue, Kevin Rowe, Rolf Schmidt, Stella Shipway, Neville Walsh, Parks Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Museums Victoria.
- Moving images in documentary film courtesy of:
- John Ariens, Friends of Beware Reef Marine Sanctuary, Mike Irvine, Don Love, NASA, Parks Victoria, VideoBlocks
- Moving images in Digital Gallery by:
- Julian Finn, Museums Victoria and Wind & Sky Productions.
- Photographs and artwork in documentary film courtesy of:
- CSIRO Science Image, Chris Hayward, Megan Hirst, Greg McCarthy, Museums Victoria, Mark Norman, Parks Victoria, David Paul, Mark Rodrigue, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Steven Wright, Wikimedia Commons.
- Photographs and artwork in Digital Gallery by:
- John Augier, Australian Network for Plant Conservation, Arthur Bartholomew, Tim Bawden, Tony Bowden, John Broomfield, European Space Agency, Catherine Forge, Marc Freestone, Lucinda Gibson, Global Environment Facility, Bob Hare, D. Harley, Chris Hayward, Megan Hirst, Lucinda Horrocks, Matt Kieffer, Anna Lee, Kaveman743, Andre Messina, Stuart Mills, Steven Moreton, Paul Morris, Museums Victoria, Mark Norman, David Paul, Thomas Parkes, Parks Victoria, Christian Pearson, Mark Rodrigue, Karen Rowe, Kevin Rowe, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Stella Shipway, David Staples, Rodney Start, John Stevenson, Jonathon Stevenson, Peter Trusler, Neville Walsh, Heath Warwick
- Story Advisors:
- Liza Dale-Hallett, Pina Milne, Andrew Nixon, Kate Phillips, Mark Rodrigue and Ken Walker.
- Camera, Sound, Editing and Post Production by:
- Jary Nemo
- Story Research, Interviews and Additional Digital Gallery Content Written by:
- Lucinda Horrocks
- Proofing by:
- Mrs Wordsworth-Bottling
- Produced in collaboration with:
- Museums Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Parks Victoria
- With Thanks to:
- Erin Batty, Di Bray, John Broomfield, Peter Dahlhaus, Julian Finn, Heather Horrocks, Don Love and the Friends of Beware Reef, Nuni Markito-Russen, the National Herbarium of Victoria, Nicole O’Brien, Anna Quinn, Nathan Robinson, Sally Stewart, Joanna Sumner, Danielle Walker, Genefor Walker-Smith, Maraika van Wessem, Peter Wilson, and Rob Zugaro.
- Acknowledgements:
- This project was created with the support of the Victorian Government through the Victorian Cultural Network Program and Creative Victoria. Project production and development took place on the lands of the Wadawurrung, Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri peoples. We acknowledge these Traditional Owners as custodians of country and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.
- Film copyright with:
- Wind & Sky Productions ©2018
- Digital Gallery copyright with
- Individual creators
Exile: Songs & Tales of Irish Australia
Info
Client: Goanna Arts
Produced: 2016
Paul Kelly, Exile Concert, QPAC, February 2016. Photograph by Benjamin Knight.
Still from visuals, Exile Concert. Wind & Sky Productions.
Shane Howard, Exile Dress Rehearsal, Hamer Hall. Photo by Tim Chmeilewski.
Still from An Gorta Mor visual segment, Exile Concert. Wind & Sky Productions.
Still from Ned Kelly visual segment, Exile Concert, Wind & Sky Productions.
Exile Visuals, Modernity segment. By Wind & Sky Productions.
Shane Howard, Exile Dress Rehearsal, Melbourne. Photo by Tim Chmeilewski.
Leah Flanagan, Exile Concert, QPAC. Photo by Benjamin Knight.
This stirring live musical celebration of the Irish in Australia featured specially commissioned documentary visuals and special effects by Wind & Sky Productions.
A CD/DVD recording of the concert is now available for download or order from ABC Music at the link https://abcmusic.lnk.to/Exile
The Exile Concert
Ireland’s greatest export has been her people and for centuries emigration and exile have been harsh, repeating themes of Irish history.
This live event celebrated the Irish impact on Australian life by bringing together an exciting array of music artists from Ireland and Australia. The enduring influence of the Irish on Australian history, music and politics was recounted through a combination of music, song, documentary film visuals, text and narration.
Almost a third of all Australians claim some degree of Irish descent. Through abundant literature, music, poetry and art, as well as a keen hunger for justice, the Irish spirit has stamped itself on the evolving culture of Australia.
The concert toured Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Queensland in February 2016 with performers Paul Kelly, Declan O’Rourke, Leah Flanagan, Sean Tyrrell, Shane Howard, Lynnelle Moran, Pauline Scanlon, John Spillane and Aine Tyrrell stirring sell out crowds in the largest concert venues in the country.
‘Exile’ was produced by Goanna Arts and Troubadour Touring and supported by funding from the Culture Ireland. The project was a fitting way to commemorate the centenary year of the 1916 Easter Uprising, the catalyst for Ireland’s nationhood.
There is no denying the contribution that the Irish have made to Australian life. It’s certainly varied but rarely dull.
Documentary Visuals and Effects
Artistic Director Shane Howard of Goanna Arts commissioned Wind & Sky Productions to produce the concert visuals. The ambitious combination of short documentary film segments, text displays and stills covered the history of Ireland and Australia from ancient times to modernity. Wind & Sky Productions producers Lucinda Horrocks and Jary Nemo worked closely with Shane to fine tune the documentary story segments, adding their signature qualities of simple, powerful visual storytelling combined with solid historical research, to the project.
Core documentary content covered Ireland’s golden age, the English conquest of Ireland, colonisation and oppression, convict transportation to Australia, the impact and devastation of the famine, the contrasting experience of Australian Aboriginal people, migration of the Irish to Australia, the influence of the Irish on core events such as the Eureka Stockade, the union movement, Federation, and World War 1 and the enduring legacy of the Irish on Australian society and politics.
The concert also emphasised the stories of three significant Irish Australian heroes: John Boyle O’Reilly the celebrated American poet and escaped convict, the spirited, rebellious Ned Kelly, and the Sisters of St John of God who fought entrenched government racism towards Aboriginal people of the Kimberley in the 1930s.
Each documentary segment, though short, had, in typical Wind & Sky Productions style, a lot going on under each seemingly simple narrative. The visuals provided a fitting and moving context for the live musical performances of traditional and contemporary songs performed by a celebrated line up of Australian and Irish artists.
These live performances intermingled with documentary to powerful effect to sell out crowds at Hamer Hall Melbourne, the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Factory Theatre Sydney and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane in February 2016.
Screenings/ Events
Port Fairy Folk Festival 2018, Friday 9 March, 2018.
Exile Concert with special guests the QPAC Choir, QPAC, Brisbane, Monday 29 February 2016.
‘A Special evening With…’, Factory Theatre, Marrickville, Wednesday 24 February 2016.
Exile Concert, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, Sunday 21 February 2016.
Exile Concert, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, Saturday 20 February 2016.
Reviews
John Dexter, The Great Australian-Irish Songbook: Shane Howard’s Exile, The Adelaide Review, February 4, 2016.
Bronwen Caple, Exile: Songs & Tales of Irish Australia @ Adelaide Festival Centre 21/02/2016, Amplify, Australian Music Network, 22 February 2016.
Honey B, Exile: Songs & Tales of Irish Australia, Adelaide Festival Theatre, Sunday, February 21, Entertainment Hive.
Mark O’Connor, Exile: Songs & Tales Of Irish Australia @ The Factory Theatre Review , scenestr, Friday 26 February 2016.
Audience Reactions
“Fantastic concert…worth the drive from Cairns,” Lisa O’Mara, Facebook
“Fabulous show.. Very touching, and such amazing talent”, Suzanne Clark, Facebook
“Wonderful, wonderful show in Adelaide on Sunday night. Very touching, fabulous music, great but sad stories that need to be told. Far more than I was expecting”, Chuck Wainright, Facebook
“Saw Exile last night in Adelaide, loved every bit of it, so interesting as well as great music and all the artists were awesome”, Shirley Snelling, Facebook
“A wonderful event. A revelation of the sadness of the past. And also celebration of the joy, and the music, in the hands of true artists.” Kevin Rooney, Facebook
“It was magical night. Worth every penny! Would go to it again.” Gerard Tuffield, Facebook
Further Information
‘Exile’ concert was produced by Goanna Arts and Troubadour Music with funding from Culture Ireland.
The concert visuals and special effects were produced by Wind & Sky Productions.
Exile Project Credits
- Feature Artists (in order of appearance):
- Pauline Scanlon, Declan O’Rourke, John Spillane, Lynelle Moran, Leah Flanagan, Shane Howard, Sean Tyrell, Aine Tyrell and Paul Kelly
- Fiddle/Mandolin:
- Ewen Baker
- Harp/Piano:
- Michelle Doyle
- Pipes/Whistles:
- Nick Martin
- Flute/Whistles:
- Lynnelle Moran
- Drums & Percussion :
- Greg Sheehan
- Bass/Mandolin/Guitar:
- John Hudson
- Button Accordion:
- Paddy Fitzgerald
- Guitar/Didjeridu:
- Shane Howard
- Mandocello/Banjo:
- Sean Tyrrell
- Produced by:
- Teresa O’Brien, Fran Daly and Alicia Massey
- Musical Director:
- Ewen Baker
- Production Manager:
- Sarah Liversidge
- Stage Manager:
- Brock Brocklesby
- Tour Manager:
- Austin Fogarty
- Audio Engineer:
- Brett Doig
- Lighting Design:
- Matt King
- Consulting Historian:
- Edward Ryan
- Traditional Music Consultant:
- Paddy Fitzgerald
- Assistant Artistic Director:
- Steven Richardson
- Original Concept by:
- Shane Howard.
Film Production Credits
- Produced by:
- Shane Howard, Lucinda Horrocks, Jary Nemo and Teresa O’Brien
- Directed and Edited by:
- Jary Nemo
- Written by:
- Shane Howard with Lucinda Horrocks
- Music Direction and Sound Production:
- Shane Howard
- Narrated by:
- Aine Tyrell and Shane Howard
- Irish Translations/Aistriúchán le:
- Edward Ryan/ Éamonn ÓRiain
- Visual Effects by:
- Jary Nemo
- Script Editor:
- Lucinda Horrocks
- Archival Research by:
- Lucinda Horrocks, Teresa O’Brien, Edward Ryan
- Film Music:
- ‘Bean Dubh an Ghleanna’Liam O’Flynn feat. Irish Chamber Orchestra © 1998 Tara Music Company Ltd. Traditional & Original songs performed and arranged by Nick Martin, Ewen Baker, Shane Howard.
- Featured Visual Artists:
- ‘My Australia My Journey’ Series (2015), ‘We R You’ Series (2014), Solo Portraits (2014, 2015), Photographs, by Aldona Kmieć. © Aldona Kmieć. ‘Spirit Ark – Navigation by the Stars’, Linocut (2010) by Arone Meeks. © Arone Meeks. ‘Mount Warrenheip and Eureka Stockade’, Acrylic on Canvas, (2013) by Aunty Marlene Gilson. © Marlene Gilson. ‘Famine’, Sculpture, (1997) by Rowan Gillespie. ‘Portrait of Refugee’, Photograph, (2009), by Alex Proimos. ‘Women and children among Syrian refugees’, Photograph, (2015), by Mstyslav Chernov. Additional stills photography by Teresa O’Brien (2015).
- Film Footage Featured:
- ‘Man of Aran’, 1934, directed by Robert Flaherty, written and edited by John Goldman (Monck), produced by Michael Balcon. Gainsborough Pictures. ‘Story of the Kelly Gang’, 1906, directed by Charles Tait, written by Charles and John Tait, produced by William Gibson, Millard Johnson, John Tait and Nevin Tait.
- Stock Footage, Photographs and Archival Images Courtesy of:
- Adele Howard, Albert Kahn Museum, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Australian War Memorial, Ballarat Gold Museum, Big Stock, Bodlean Library, British Library, Broome Historical Society, City of Sydney Archives, Corey Leopold, Geraldine Ryan, Envato, Flickr, Friends of St Brigids Association Inc., Gareth Wray, Graeme Churchard, Internet Archive, Imperial War Museums, Jamie McKew, The Kelly Family, Library of Congress, Luke Durkin, Lynnelle Moran, The Maggie Diaz Collection, Melbourne Diocesan Historical Commission, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, Museum Victoria, National Film and Sound Archive, National Library of Australia, National Library of Ireland, Nicolas Raymond, Norman Archive, Northern Territory Library, Oughterard Heritage, Patrick Fitzgerald, Powerhouse Museum, Public Record Office Victoria, Rijksmuseum, Rob Hurson, Sisters of St John of God Heritage Centre, Broome, Sitomon, Sodacan, South Dublin Libraries, State Library of NSW (Mitchell Library), State Library of Queensland (John Oxley Library), State Library of Victoria, State Library of Western Australia, Toby Hudson, TimJN1, Teresa O’Brien, U.S. Department of State, VectorStock, Vecteezy, Views of the Famine, Video Block, Western Australian Maritime Museum, Western Australian Museum, Wikimedia Commons, Wind & Sky Productions.
Project Acknowledgements
- With Grateful Thanks to:
- David Anderson, Lauren Bourke, Basil Cook, Steve Cooney, Snjez Cosic, Gwendolen De Lacy, Martin Flanagan, Rowan Gillespie, Aunty Marlene Gilson, James Griffin, Sister Pat Jacobs, Judi Keneally, Aldona Kmieć, Arone Meeks, Ian Lovell, Rachael Naughton, Uncle Bryon Powell, Tracey Manallack, Sarah Mangan, Julie McLaren, Helen Mary Martin, Bernie Ní Mhuirteagh, Stephen Pigram, Simon Raynor, Mossie Scanlon, Jane Smith, Cíaran Walsh, Aunty Joy Wandin-Murphy, Penney and Logan, Melbourne Arts Centre, Adelaide Festival Centre, St Brigids, Crossley, Alphington Grammar , Ard-Chonsalacht na hÉreann (Consulate General of Ireland), An Roinn Gnóthaí Eachtracha agus Trádála, ( Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) , Sisters of St John of God Heritage Centre, Broome, Wathaurung Aboriginal Corporation, QPAC and the QPAC Choir. ‘Exile’ production and performances took place on the country of the traditional owners of the land in which we work and live. The producers acknowledge their ancient custodianship and pay respects to their elders, past and present.
- Films produced by:
- Wind & Sky Productions
- ‘Exile’ concert produced by:
- Goanna Arts and Troubadour Music
- Proudly supported by:
- Culture Ireland.
Wind & Sky Productions on Culture Victoria
27 June 2014
Wind and Sky Productions has launched two stories on Culture Victoria: ‘Bull Allen’ and ‘Savoy Ladies Group.’
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