2011 December - Cowra NSW
5 short, experimental films produced with 18 artists from refugee background and Bell Shakespeare Company during a 5-day intensive art lab at Cowra.
It is said Shakespeare speaks to the core of the human condition, but what role does ‘Shakespearience’ play for young refugees far from home, war and their own influential storytellers and cultural heritage? This 3-year project provides a framework for them to create their own stories, engaging with a Shakespearean filter.
Change Media and Bell Shakespeare Company have collaborated with a selection of artists from recent refugee / asylum seeker backgrounds, and explored the creation of a cutting edge inter-artwork that speaks to the global issues of forced migration.
Located at the Corridor Project near Cowra, this laboratory trained all 18 participants in digital media while developing creative responses to the current refugee debate through Shakespeare and Shakespearean equivalents from other cultures. We explored what unites and divides us in a rapidly changing world. Forced migration means millions of people are displaced to somewhere else. This global phenomenon affects us all. How do we live and share these stories? What is our vision for the future?
Our key aim for this collaboration was to develop a high quality multi-art project in collaboration with Bell and various artists and mentors, most of whom have been refugees, to creatively re-frame the public discussion about refugee issues. It is in our interests that everyone collaborating in the Cowra lab has this as their core aim, and we will do everything possible to establish an inspiring, creative container to explore these ideas.
During the first stage of the project, we created a series of viral mock ads, short dramas, comedies and mini-documentaries, by exploring fun/ innovative/ disruptive ways to engage the public in the debate. The short films form part of a performance work that we are developing with all participants and partners, with the aim to develop a major cross-arts performance work by 2013-14 for national presentation.
Partners
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
Australia Council for the Arts
Bell Shakespeare Company – Mind’s Eye
Corridor Project Cowra
Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors