From this challenging  journey with its share of pain, sweat and yes, a few tears, the enigma of Classical Ballet is demystified as the audience not only discover the human side of this remarkable process, but an understanding of The Australian Ballet in the global context.

Executive Producer: Rod Parker – Freemantle Media Australia
Producer/ field Director/ Interviews/ documentary cinematographer: Philippe Charluet
Producer/ Writer/ Post-Production: Chris Thornburn

Featured Video:
Slow-motion trailer (edited by Philippe Charluet)

Videos Tab above:
Creating Beauty for the Stage (trailer)
Small excerpt from the documentary (promoting Sleeping Beauty’s cinema release)

The full documentary was also broadcast online in April 2020

Kickboxing is a highly skilled, violent and sometime bloody sport. Men can justify this desire – the hunger to fight – and we accept it as a primeval male characteristic. But what of young women who have chosen to take up kickboxing competitively. Where does their courage come from? What motivates them to overcome their fear of injury and fight with the brutal anger of a man? Where do they find that “killer instinct”?

These are the stories of three fearless and determined women and their male trainer/promoter. Each must find their own way to balance the intense demands and ferocities of Kickboxing with society’s perception of femininity and humanity. Each must overcome the psychological and physical barriers on their quest to victory.

Not for the faint hearted, this fascinating underworld is charged with adrenalin, aggression, brute strength, blood, sweat and tears. The roar of the crowd as the opponents enter the ring, the dull thud of a kick aimed at the face of a beautiful woman. So controversial is this sport for women, that some states have banned it completely. Yet, despite its violence, Kickboxing can be gracefully athletic.

HOLLY, “The Wild Cat”, is a professional kickboxer; she’s a lean mean fighting machine who is determined to win the World Title and keep it. Striking the balance between being a mother of a one year old and a world class fighter will be her finest achievement but at what cost?

JAY owns a Melbourne gym where he trains both his sister Jale as well as Trish and several men. Immersed in the kickboxing scene, Jay is also an emerging and ambitious fight promoter, organising 4 to 5 big events a year. Jale is a vehicle for Jay to realise his dream of training a World Title holder.

JALE, “The Turkish Tiger”, was recently knocked-out while fighting for the Commonwealth Title; so distressed was her mother that she collapsed while the doctor tended her unconscious daughter. Jale’s ears are still ringing but she is determined to continue fighting, encouraged by her fast-talking charismatic brother, Jay.

TRISH is the youngest child in a large Italian family; they are horrified at her decision to take up kickboxing. Seeking their approval is the biggest challenge she has ever had to face. She is determined to prove herself in the ring but… does she have what it takes to win and is it worth the risk?

Killer Instinct examines the strength and weaknesses that cuts these people apart. Through the intimate portrayal of their family life, their unconventional relationships, opportunities, cultures and backgrounds, we discover the hidden agendas behind their incredible choice to fight.

See episode #1 in Videos Tab above

The long tradition of Persian literature, poetry and Art of the book, with stories of human and divine love, is showcased in an international exhibition curated by Susan Scollay, Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond, an exclusive collaboration between two of the oldest institutions in their respective countries, the State Library of Victoria (Australia) and the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford, UK (the exhibition was also shown there).

Travelling across the world for the first time, many rare manuscripts dating from the 13th to 18th centuries are put on display for us to experience the detail and beauty of Persian illumination, calligraphy and poetic stories that date back to antiquity, yet transcend time and place. Within this setting, a precious window is opened – and this documentary offers a unique opportunity to explore this extraordinarily rich cultural past and its dialogue with Western literature.

See also our beautiful film component which was part of the exhibition.

Featured Video: documentary trailer – Can also be downloaded as mp4
(also screened on Foxtel arts channel (Australia) and used as SLV online promotion)

Full documentary available as 7 episodes (after Medieval Imagination clips) on this PLAYLIST

Videos Tab above:

Poetry reading ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’
Extended section: the arrival of a precious Persian book at a Melbourne dealer
Celebrating the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford
30 sec Cinema Commercial promoting the exhibition
Full interview with Professor Charles Melville (Cambridge)
Full interview with Dr Mammad Aidani (Melbourne University)
Full interview with Professor Amin Saikal (ANU)
Documentary trailer with Farsi voice-over (as seen on BBC Persian)

We also have a stunning book + DVD offer

(book edited by Susan Scollay)

“John Friedrich wanted a life of action and adventure…

…only someone else had to pay for it”

A 55 min documentary script and TV pilot developed and funded by VicScreen (formerly Film Victoria)

Producer/ Writer/ Director: Philippe Charluet
Script Editor: David Tiley – Film Victoria Manager: Steve Warne

John Friedrich Hohenberger, aka John Friedrich, was a self-created man whose life and death were truly stranger than fiction. A leader and a hero, he built a rescue organisation that inspired a nation. Was he Australia’s greatest conman, a criminal mastermind who seduced governments and shook the banking system – apparently single handedly – defrauding it of hundreds of millions of dollars? For many decades, this story has been swept under the rug, almost forgotten. We probe answers to the questions that should have been asked.

Travelling on a German passport, Hohenberger arrived in Australia in 1975. According to the records, he left the country two days later. Who remained behind was a man without a past and a brand new identity – John Friedrich. Four years later, the National Safety Council employed the charismatic young man. He found in its Victorian Division a sleepy association, printing safety brochures and relying on volunteers. He quickly became its CEO.

When catastrophic bushfires swept the State of Victoria, Friedrich saw his opportunity: to create the best, biggest search-and-rescue company that would save lives and combat disasters across this vast continent – and ultimately the world. He began an extraordinary expansion program. By 1989, the NSCA had become a dynamic semi-paramilitary organization complete with 450 highly trained personnel – some ex-SAS – its own airport and an array of aircrafts, helicopters and boats, even a submarine, all painted in snazzy yellow.

But Friedrich was concealing something – the NSCA was desperately short of money. He courted the military and security system, making the Council available to the Defence Forces, Federal Police and even a top secret US military base located in the Australian desert. Stationed in three Defence bases, the NSCA looked after Australian Air Force’s front-line fighter jets rescue operation. By all accounts, all were very happy to use his services.

To fund all this, Friedrich set about an ever-growing deception by borrowing from banks, using, amongst other things, shipping containers full of rescue equipment as collateral. What did they really contain? Like a consummate poker player, a gambler in the highest of stakes, he remained confident, inspiring and calm, always chasing that elusive contract.

When finally pressured to answer questions in 1989, Friedrich vanished. While the police chased him, and the media played a wonderful game of speculation – was he linked to intelligence? – his creditors realised how badly they had been had. At least $300 million was missing. The police also realised he had no name, no identity. He was finally caught in Western Australia. Meanwhile, indefatigable detectives discovered his true German identity. How was this possible?

We have interviewed dozens of former NSCA staff, who remember him with affection. To them, he was a visionary. He built the NSCA ‘to do good’ and save lives. The members of that organization, courageous and committed, called themselves “The Thunderbirds”, the first privatised organisation of its kind in the world on such a scale.

We have secured the cooperation of his lawyer, the forensic psychologist, and the police detectives. As far as the law is concerned, he was a crook with delusions of grandeur. How could this young man manage to con the highest offices in the land, over 25 banks and all levels of military, police and intelligence, in Australia and in the US, within a decade of his arrival, all on his own?

His empire was swiftly dismantled. Three days before his day in court, Friedrich allegedly took his own life, near his house in country Victoria. Case closed. Yet not everyone is convinced the body was Friedrich’s… Thirty years on, of the many questions, one belongs to the present: are these kinds of dealings still happening today? What of his men… have they carried on his vision? One has.

Featured Video (top of page): documentary trailer (filmed and edited by Philippe Charluet)

See menu Videos Tab (top): Episode samplers or Playlist – Associated Social Media Network

OUR STATEMENT on recently released SBS documentary (News)

]]> https://www.stellamotion.com.au/wordpress/john-friedrich/feed/ 0 https://www.stellamotion.com.au/wordpress/dances-of-life/ https://www.stellamotion.com.au/wordpress/dances-of-life/#comments Thu, 14 Nov 2024 22:55:43 +0000 @smp http://www.stellamotion.com.au/wordpress/?p=177 55 min Documentary directed by Emmy Award winner Catherine Tatge, director of photography Philippe Charluet, produced by Dominique Lasseur for PBS (USA) in conjunction with Pacific Islanders in Communications.

Four years in the making, this documentary looks at the resilience and strength of Pacific cultures as represented by their traditional dances. For nearly 50,000 years, dances and songs have been an expression of Pacific Islanders’ origins, their journeys, their struggles – their very existence. These are their dance stories. The program journeys to five cultures: Maori (New Zealand), Samoan, Palauan, Chamorro (Guam), Kanak (New Caledonia) with glimpses from Salomon and Cook Islands – to reveal the cultural history and diversity of the Pacific Islands.

At the Festival of Pacific Arts in Palau, male dancers from Kiribati, clad in shell necklaces, traditional skirts, and brandishing colorful spears, dance to ancient drums and chants. They are on a stage fringed with gelled spotlights, amplifiers, monitors, and stand-up Cerwin-Vega speakers.

It’s a moment in Dances of Life that captures the dichotomy between Pacific Islanders’ earliest cultural traditions and the modern world in which they live today.

“We are very fragile,” Togna Octave, general director of the Tjibaou Cultural Center in New Caledonia, says in the film. “They always say modernity is like a steamroller. And in all the small societies like ours the steamroller has already rolled over us. If we can come out of this with a toe unscathed, well, that’s the greatest victory we could have.”

Videos Tab above
Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture excerpts
Màori Women section
Kanak section
Full performance of Kanak dance (Wetr Company)
Dances of Palau
Dances of American Samoa
Màori Haka (short version)

Make the earth tremble
As hard as we can
I am doomed! I will die!
No I am alive! Life is mine!
I will be defeated! I will die!
No! I take back my life. Life is mine!
I am born of distinguished people
Whose legacy shines on me like the sun.
Keep abreast! Keep abreast!
In your ranks hold fast! Into the shining sun!

Māori Haka War chant

Antarctica. In an unprecedented action, seventy scientists working at McMurdo station downed tools and walked off the job. On the vast ice sheet they linked up like synchronized swimmers to make an enormous peace symbol. In Rome, 3000 extra buses and trains had been chartered to move the protestors, but rally organiser and union leader, Rafaella Bollini, was shocked to realise that this was not nearly enough. Across the Atlantic, Tim Goodrich, a US service officer fresh from Saudi Arabia and US intensive bombing of Iraq, prepared for a new mission. To get to New York and join the half a million Americans who would soon rally in near the United Nations to echo activist Danny Glover’s call to protest – “not in my name”.

Meanwhile in Australia, an environmentalist and an astronomer, armed with a bucket of red paint and giant rollers, looked around for the best site to paint their NO WAR slogan. For them, there was but one – The Sydney Opera House.

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Celebrating International Day of Peace, a virtual screening followed by a live panel Q&A event occured on Sept. 21st 2020

plus LIONHEARTS Profiles

Executive producer Associate Prof. Jake Lynch, produced & directed by Amanda Hickey, cinematography by Philippe Charluet

A series of short biographies /stories on significant Australian Peace Activists for the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (University of Sydney) as an educational resource.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Video Tabs above: ‘Swords of Peace’ micro-doco (4:20 min – part of Lionhearts series)
‘Opera House shot’ – short reflective moment
‘Lionhearts’ micro-doco (12:45 min – part of Lionhearts series)
‘Director Amir Amirani’ – Premiere Interview
Link to Vale Dr Hannah Middleton – leading Australian peace activist

We Are Many is also available on iTunesandPrime Video

This 54 min documentary directed by Philippe Charluet follows the adventures of four very different Australian women as they tread through the labyrinth of introduction agencies and single services in search of that elusive partner at a time when dating apps were not even conceived.

KATE – a single mother with one child, is struggling to improve her social life while balancing the demands of motherhood with an unconventional career path;

WEN – sweet, stubborn, ambitious and Chinese, is under pressure from her parents to settle;

ANGELA – an outgoing hairdresser with Christian values is saving herself for ‘the right man’;

CATHERINE – an ageless Opera singer, has dedicated most of her life to her career;

Catherine, Wen, Kate and Angela

What do these independent women have in common: they are single, lonely and searching…

In spite of the incredible sophistication of our communication tech, introduction agencies and single services – even fortune tellers in some circles – are gaining more prestige in taking on the role of match-maker. Through documenting the experiences of these four courageous women, we discover the common problems and social expectations in our modern society. So Simple So Hard challenges the ideas we have about love; a contemporary and universal look at interpersonal relationships in Australia.

Videos Tab above: the full documentary segmented in 7 further episodes…

Produced with the assistance of Film Victoria.
Broadcast: SBS TV (Australia), Carlton TV (UK), RTSI (Switzerland & Italy), WTN (Canada), etc…

Two 26 min specials were also produced, Imagine Japan, looking at the Arts, drama and comedy in contemporary Japan.

Featured Video: On February 3 1967, Ronald Ryan became the last man to be hanged in Australia. ‘Remembering Ronald Ryan‘ is a story about a fabulous play celebrating the man behind the execution by Melbourne playwright, Barry Dickins (he has released a book, ‘Last Words: the Hanging of Ronald  Ryan’ (hear it on Audible).

Teacher resourceon Ronald Ryan (from Reading Australia)

Videos tab above:

Hitomi-za, Japanese Puppet Theatre

Bacchae – Burning by Water
(in between few arts stories, Artbreaks were created to visually interpret a performance. This is an IRAA theatre representation of the Greek classics, The Bacchae, dramatising the archetypal struggle between the rational, orderly Pentheus and the liberatory, anarchic dangerous Dionysius)

Jiutamai, traditional Japanese dance with an Australian perspective

Vali Myers, artist extraordinaire

Bird Artist

The Car as .. Art

Is Synchronised Swimming Art or Sport?

The Perfumer

Bangarra’s Ochre

Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre – Possessed

Roger Pulvers, Australian writer based in Japan

Bangarra’s Ninni (TVC base + 2 x Artbreaks)

Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre – AURORA

See also our special documentary made under the banner of Imagine Arts Series:
Bill Henson: Dreams of Darkness

Part of the series 3 ‘Arts du Mythe’, this documentary features Ningura Napurrula (1983-2013), one of the great Australian indigenous artists that is featured, amongst others, at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. We follow the stories behind her work and culture, right back to the Australian centre where she describes mythical places linked to a time of dreams, when the ancestors of each clan created the landscape.

FRENCH: La peinture aborigène à l’acrylique héritée de la peinture sur sable, représente les lieux et les itinéraires initiatiques empruntés par les ancêtres mythiques qui ont créé le monde. Ces peintures sont compréhensibles par les seuls initiés. Les Aborigènes parlent de ‘Temps du rêve’  Ningura Napurrula, femme peintre, commença à peindre pour la coopérative de Papunya Tula en 1996.

Ningura Napurrula’s paintings

Videos Tab above
English trailer (additional footage, ie the finished program features this footage in a different way)

DVD (in French) available for purchase or online rental on Arte