As part of Harmony Day celebrations and It’s About Us 2006, during March Launceston City Council supported three Harmony Film Screenings. It’s About Us 2006 not only marks 200 years since the establishment of Launceston, but 35,000 years of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people whose home is the Tamar area.
Over 300 people attended the first screening, featuring a series of six locally made short films. Six different cultural groups in Launceston prepared short films that offered viewers a rare insight into the way diverse cultural traditions perceive and experience food.
Over summer, workshops were held with representatives of the Sudanese, Afghani, Sierra Leonean, Indian and Chinese communities. Each group prepared a film script for a three to five minute film about food from their cultural perspective. In January, the scriptwriters were matched up with local film makers to bring their stories to life. The challenge for the film makers was not only to make the film on a shoestring budget, but also to create a film that was as true as possible to the script and the culture they were portraying.
“The project aimed to give Launceston residents with diverse backgrounds a voice in the community and to give us a window into their way of seeing the world,” said Project Coordinator, John Swindells.
The film makers are all students or graduates of the Screen Course at Launceston TAFE. Film maker, Matt Caldar, made two different films with two different cultural groups. He said the biggest challenge was working with people who had no acting experience.
“Once I understood what the groups were trying to achieve, things fell into place and I managed to make two very different films,” he said. “The experience has been incredibly challenging and very rewarding. The films are surprisingly consistent in their celebration of the process of preparing and eating food.”
TAFE Tasmania, the Northern Tasmania Migrant Resource Centre and Launceston City Council supported the project. The National Gallery in Canberra has now offered to screen the films, with negotiations currently in progress for this to happen.
