This page relates to the Createability Project in 2015, for all things
Createability 2017 – CLICK HERE
Follow the Createability project on Instagram – go to www.instagram.com/createability_screenworks.
Follow the Createability project on YouTube – go to https://www.youtube.com/Screenworks09.
Project Update – 16 December 2015
Congratulations to Poppy Walker and Sophie Hexter, their #Createability film The Battle was selected to screen in the Documentary Competition at Flickerfest’s 25th International Short Film Festival, January 8 – 17th, 2016, Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia. The Battle will also be screening in the Byron All Shorts section of Flickerfest in Mullumbimby on Jan 23rd.
Project Update – 3 December 2015
Watch the second of our #Createability short films, ‘Peta Puppets’.
Head over to our latest news post to watch our second #Createability short films, Peta Puppets.
https://screenworks.com.au/member-articles/peta-puppets-createability-project/
Project Update – 22 November 2015
Watch the first of our #Createability short films, ‘Lydian’s Space’.
Head over to our latest news post to watch the first of our #Createability short films, Lydian’s Space.
https://screenworks.com.au/program-news/lydians-space-createability-project/
Project Update – 8 September 2015
CREATEABILITY Films shown on the big screen for the first time.
On Tuesday September 8, Northern Rivers Screenworks presented an invitation-only cast and crew screening of the 3 short films completed as a part of the Screenworks Createability project, to an audience of 50 people. Screen NSW’s Manager Development and Production, Mark Hamlyn travelled to Byron Bay to speak at the event, which is the first time the films have been shown on the big screen.
Each of the 3-minute short documentary films produced for the Createability project profile the work and life of an artist with disability living and creating in the Northern Rivers region and it was wonderful for each of the producer teams to have the opportunity to introduce their films prior to screening. All 3 films were as wonderfully diverse as the 3 feature artists.
Sebastian and Jonatan Lundmark from Rest Your Eyes Production produced the film ‘Lydian’s Space’, which provides a wonderful insight into the busy, creative and emotional life of Bangalow artist and musician Lydian Dunbar. Lydian’s fabulous ability as a professional musician and his all round sunny disposition shines through in this upbeat short film which showcases Lydian’s musical journey as a member of esteemed electronic band Tralala Blip.
In Your Face Productions’ Andy Bambach produced the film ‘Peta Puppets’ that profiles Ballina artist and puppeteer Peta Lipski is colourful, frenetic and leaves us wanting to know more about Peta’s amazing life. With over 500 handmade puppets in her collection, all with their own voice and character, and her dance performance and drawing talents, Peta certainly has an interesting story to tell.
Poppy Walker and Sophie Hexter’s short film ‘The Battle’ is a visual delight. The early morning shots filmed on a deserted airport runway are atmospheric, emotive and powerful. The stylistic depiction of Murwillumbah dancer Kayah Guenther shows a young man of strength who has a passion and love for his chosen creative field of dance. Working alongside esteemed Gold Coast based choreographer, Gavin Webber, the film explores themes of identity, vulnerability and power through collaboration and movement.
Dancer Kayah Guenther’s spoke about making the film ‘The Battle’
‘It made me feel strong and powerful. It changed my body. Something went down and I feel the passion! Gavin is a good teacher, a kind and passionate guy. Doing the film made me feel and be myself.’
General Manager, Ken Crouch is delighted with the outcomes of the project – “there were so many professional artists with disability working in the region, with so many unique stories, that just deciding who to profile was the biggest challenge! All three artists profiled in the films have been living and working in the Northern Rivers their entire lives and work in different artistic fields, which have made for a wonderfully diverse set of films.”
Createability is providing local artists with disability the opportunity to challenge community attitudes and misconceptions that form barriers to social inclusion, and also provides money and an opportunity for local professional screen workers to produce short films in our region.
Screenworks will call for expressions of interest for the second year of the Createability project in February 2016.
Project Update – 23 July 2015
Createability films nearing completion
Screenworks is so excited to announce that the 3 short films being made as a part of the Createability project are now nearing completion.
Sebastian and Jonatan Lundmark’s film ‘Lydian’s Space’ is a wonderful insight into the busy, creative and emotional life of Bangalow artist and musician Lydian Dunbar. Lydian’s fabulous ability as a professional musician and his all round sunny disposition shines through in this upbeat short film which showcases Lydian’s musical journey as a member of esteemed electronic band Tralala Blip.
As well as being a fabulous and quirky glimpse into the world of this professional touring musician it is great to see visual artist and Tralalablip band member Mathew Daymond come on board with Jonatan and Sebastian Lundmark in creating some wonderful illustrations for their short film.
Mathew joined Tralalablip in January 2008 and plays sine wave synth, white noise machine, audio cubes and vocals. Matt is also a visual artist and his quirky illustrations and drawings have appeared on posters and record covers for the band. Matt and Lydian have had a very close, long standing friendship through their involvement with Tralalablip and many other projects over the last few years so it is fitting to see Matt’s portrayal of Lydian in illustrative form during the film’s opening scenes.
According to filmmaker Jonatan Lundmark Matt’s animated illustrations add a whole new element to the short film. “We are really happy with the final cut, the animated graphics really help give it a good artistic flare” explained Jonatan.
Andy Bambach’s film ‘Peta Puppets‘ profiling Ballina artist and puppeteer Peta Lipski is colourful, frenetic and leaves us wanting to know more about Peta’s amazing life.
With over 500 handmade puppets in her collection, all with their own voice and character, and her dance, performance and drawing talents, Peta certainly has an interesting story to tell. As well as documenting the process that Peta goes through to construct her wonderful handmade puppets, the film also documents Peta’s hand drawn family photograph albums, her love of dance and performance and her love of life in general. Andy spent hundreds of hours with Peta in the making of the film, much of which is now documented by Peta in a series of drawings depicting Andy in filmmaking mode in various settings such as outdoor dance performances, op shopping in and around Ballina, in the Alstonville dance studio. This film is a testament to Andy’s expertise and experience as a filmmaker.
When asked about his experiences, Andy explained “I have had a wonderful time making the Createability film ‘Peta Puppets’ about Peta Lipski and her art, particularly her puppet making.
“A memorable day whilst filming Peta was scouring the op shops in Ballina looking for puppet parts and clothes to dress her puppets in. As well as taking many of her puppets with her, Peta found a toy horse large enough to sit on and proceeded to ride her new horse around the streets of Ballina and into shops for the rest of the filming day. Peta is a great story teller and I felt privileged to capture her stories, particularly when filming Peta talking about her life from a baby until now, illustrated by her in hand drawn pictures in photograph albums. Peta enthusiastically enjoys performing with her puppets as well as singing and dancing. A highlight for me was seeing the joy Peta had while performing at the Alstonville family show.”
Poppy Walker and Sophie Hexter’s short film is a visual delight. The early morning shots filmed on a deserted airport runway are atmospheric, emotive and powerful. The stylistic depiction of Murwillumbah dancer Kayah Guenther shows a young man of strength who has a passion and love for his chosen creative field of dance. Working alongside esteemed Gold Coast based choreographer, Gavin Webber, the film explores themes of identity, vulnerability and power through collaboration and movement.
When asked about the process of making this film, Poppy and Sophie had this to say…
“The Createability film project has been a wonderful opportunity to profile the work of talented dancer, Kayah Guenther. Working with Kayah to bring his story to life has been rewarding, both creatively and personally. In realising our vision, we were lucky to have the support of a dedicated and professional local crew. Choreographer, Gavin Webber, helped us navigate creative hurdles; working closely with Kayah and ourselves, to best represent his story through dance. This documentary project has been a true collaboration between all of us, and we are excited about its completion.”
This stylistic, emotive and powerful film showcases a passionate young man for whom dance is an important part of his life and work. This short film is set to an original score by composer, Ben Ely and sublimely traverses the complex and passionate nature of Kayah’s story, as expressed through his art.
Project Update – 22 June 2015
Captioning and Audio Description workshop
Byron Bay SAE, 17th June, 2015
On Wednesday, the 17th June Ballina based disability advocate Michael Lockrey facilitated a Captioning and Audio Description workshop for Northern Rivers Screenworks for 10 filmmakers at the Byron Bay SAE Institute. Michael is profoundly deaf and is a passionate advocate for correct captioning across all media and has been involved directly in advocacy to promote inclusion and accessibility across free to air TV, Social media etc. He has developed an app, “nomoreCRAPTIONS” to easily transform Google’s auto-captions into correct closed captions and has won a national award for his advocacy work with captioning. Michael was assisted in the workshop by Lyn Lockrey and Barnaby Lund who have also been advocates for inclusion of people with disabilities for many years and were able to assist in the hands on aspect of the workshop.
This workshop was offered as a part of the Createability project to allow the filmmakers involved in the project the ability to caption and audio describe their short films. The workshop was then opened up to others in the film industry, who were interested in learning more about Captioning and Audio Description.
Some of the items that were covered in the workshop included:
- introduction to Audio Description and Captioning
- what is it?
- why do we do it?
- what are the standards or guidelines?
- how does captioning assist in accessing a new audience and how do we actually do this?
- how to do Captioning and Audio
Attendees then created captioning for a 15 second video using the captioning toolset on UTUBE. The feedback from the workshop was overwhelmingly positive with participants saying that they would definitely apply the knowledge they gleaned on captioning and audio description to future projects.
“I will help to spread the word about captioning with future films as I would love to see captioning used across the industry as a whole”
Given that from June 30, all content for sale on iTunes and Netflix Australia & New Zealand must have closed captions included so this workshop was both timely and important for Northern Rivers film industry professionals.
Northern Rivers Screenworks would like to thank Hilary McPherson was providing an Auslan Description service at the workshop.
BIOGRAPHY of workshop Facilitator
Michael Lockrey, B Bsc. Michael has a background in accountancy. He is profoundly deaf and has for many years been a passionate advocate for inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities. For 6 years he was Chairman of the Australian Communication Exchange, a not-for-profit organisation providing access for the deaf and hearing impaired through TTY and Captel. Michael is a passionate advocate for correct captioning across all media and has been involved directly in advocacy to promote inclusion and accessibility across free to air TV, Social media etc, and has developed an app, “nomoreCRAPTIONS” to easily transform Google’s auto-captions into correct close captions. He has won a national award for his advocacy work with captioning.
Project Update – 4 June 2015
May has been a busy month of filming for all of the filmmakers engaged in the Createability project.
Over the last month filmmakers Jonatan and Sebastian Lundmark have been spending a lot of time ‘hanging out’ and getting to know electronic musician, artist and performer Lydian Dunbar as well as filming Lydian in his familiar environments of home studio, around town in Bangalow, rehearsing and performing with his band Tralalablip and as a result have completed a rough cut of their three minute film.
Jonatan and Sebastian travelled to Brisbane last week to film one of Lydian’s gigs with electronic music band Tralalablip at the concert venue Trainspotters. Lydian joined Tralalablip in October 2010 and performs rhythmic samples, beats, kaossilator, iPad and vocals with the band. Tralalablip have performed in Australia and overseas and will travel to Germany to perform later in 2015.
The band rehearses every Wednesday in Lismore at the Seespace arts venue, which has also been the venue for filming over recent weeks.
Tralalablip band member and visual artist Mathew Daymond has come on board to create some of his wonderful quirky illustrations to be used in the short film. Mathew joined Tralalablip in January 2008 and as well as performing vocals, audio cubes, white noise machine and sine wave synth Mathew is passionate about drawing. He has designed t-shirts, posters and record covers for the band over the last few years. The use of Mathew’s illustrations adds another element to an already fabulous musical narrative.
Filmmaker Andy Bambach has been getting to know some of Ballina artist Peta Lipski’s 270 puppets over the last month as well as hearing more of Peta’s fascinating life story. Andy and Peta have been filming at her home, out and about in Ballina visiting local op shops as well as at Alstonville Dance Studio in Alstonville.
Peta has been collecting from local op shops to find materials and bric a brac to create her amazing puppets for over 2 decades and to see a selection of her puppets in situ at Alstonville Dance studio last week was incredible! 
Last Sunday Andy spent the day at the Family Fun day in Alstonville filming Peta as she performed with her puppets, talked with the Ballina Mayor, walked her ‘puppet’ dog and generally dazzled the crowd in her sequined top and silver glitter hat.
The challenge for this 3 minute short documentary style film is going to be condensing Peta’s amazing story down to 3 minutes! As time goes on and more of her life story comes to light it begins to look more like a 30 minute documentary.
Last Tuesday at 4am in the morning a small crowd gathered at Ballina airport for Poppy Walker and Sophie Hexter to film the dance sequence ‘The Battle’ with dancers Kayah Guenther and Gavin Webber. The sun coming up over the horizon, a drone buzzing overhead and these two dancers battling it out on the runway of Ballina airport created a dramatic backdrop for this highly visual, stylistic film in the making.
To make way for aircraft taking off and landing, the film crew then moved to one of the aircraft hangers where filming continued for the rest of the day. Watching the trust, interactions and intuitive movement develop between Gavin and Kayah as they performed their dance sequence over and over throughout the day was wonderful. Poppy and Sophie’s visual film explores themes of identity, vulnerability and power through movement, which is Kayah’s chosen mode of communication when it comes to art.
Poppy and Sophie have been spending time with Kayah’s family in Murwillumbah, filming Kayah in rehearsal with mentor and dancer Gavin Webber and generally getting to know Kayah and his hopes, dreams and aspirations. Last week Poppy and Sophie conducted interviews with the family and are now well on their way to developing the rough cut of their 3 minute film.
Spending time on location with both filmmakers and artists has been a fantastic experience for project coordinator Julie Barratt.
“ to watch these talented filmmakers at work and to see the relationships and trust grow between artists and filmmakers has been an absolute privilege. This is a brilliant project and I’m really excited to be able to watch these films develop. I’m sure the end result is going to be 3 incredible short films”.
Project Update – 12 May 2015
ABC Open Meetings
On Wednesday, the 6th May, Createability hosted meetings between the participating filmmakers in the Createability project and ABC Open’s Jeff Licence.
Jeff spent an hour with each of the filmmakers discussing the three minute short films being produced for the project and going through the parameters of the ABC Open Makers and Creators video project, showing some examples of videos, hearing about the filmmakers ideas for the video and offering any ideas or suggestions that he thought might help. Makers and Creators celebrates the artists and crafts people in our communities and invites the public to make a short video showcasing their talents, inspiration and methods. Each of the three short films produced for the Createability project will be uploaded onto the Makers and Creators site upon completion.
Jonatan and Sebastian Lundmark from Rest Your Eyes productions presented a three minute rough cut of their film to Jeff and were very happy to have the opportunity to receive constructive feedback. “Its great to get feedback from external sources”, said Jonatan, “usually it’s just the two of us at Rest Your Eyes throwing ideas back and forth.”
Jonatan and Sebastian recently spent a day with Bangalow based Lydian Dunbar on whom their film is based. They spent time in his familiar environments of home and study space and in and around the town that he has lived in all of his life. Jonatan said that it was a real pleasure working with Lydian “he wears his heart on his sleeve and is very in tune with his emotions. So we bonded really quickly and by the end of the day we had laughs, tears and love stories on camera.”
Poppy Walker and Sophie Hexter discussed their ABC Open Story Plan with Jeff as well as the challenges of making a dance film in just three minutes. Their story follows Kayah Guenther, a 20 year old artist who is exploring his strength and masculinity through a collaborative, arresting dance duet titled “The Battle” with choreographer Gavin Webber. This highly stylized, visual film explores themes of identity, vulnerability and power through movement, which is Kayah’s chosen mode of communication when it comes to art.
“Unlike other aspects of Kayah’s life, dance holds no limitations…Kayah wants the world to know that he is strong, he is masculine, and he is sexual. He also wants people to know that he is vulnerable and ‘not always happy’”. Dance can do this for him.
Filmmaker Andy Bambach is making a film with Ballina based artist Pieta Lipski. Peta is a prolific creator of art who creates her own world through hand drawn memories in photograph albums to mountains of handmade puppets made from recycled materials, each a unique character with a story to tell.
The challenges that Andy discussed with Jeff Licence were how to tell Peta’s extraordinary story in just three minutes! With every meeting between Peta and Andy more and more of Peta’s incredible life story is coming to the fore and knowing which bits to keep in and which to leave out in this short film is the challenge. After lengthy discussions it was decided that this will be a journey of ‘making’, the story of how a puppet comes to be and how this impacts on Peta’s life and surroundings.
Andy says “ Peta Lipski is a fascinating artist who through her own words will describe her prolific art generation”
Screenworks is very grateful to have had the expert advice of Jeff Licence at ABC Open to assist all of the filmmakers involved in the Createability project. Jeff said that it was exciting to see such a fantastic group of filmmakers working on the Createability project
“I’m familiar with the filmmakers involved and am excited by what these talented folk will come up with. I think this is a project that will have excellent outcomes for both filmmakers and artists with disability in the region”.
Project Update – 29 April 2015
Screenworks announces Createability artists with disability
Screenworks is thrilled to announce the following artists with disability who have been chosen to tell their stories as a part of the Createability project –
- Bangalow based electronic musician and cross media artist, Lydian Dunbar
- Contemporary dancer Kayah Guenther from Murwillumbah
- Ballina based artist, performer and puppet maker Peta Lipski
All three artists chosen to work on the Createability project have been living and working in the Northern Rivers their entire lives.
Lydian Dunbar
Bangalow-based electronic musician Lydian Dunbar has been selected to collaborate with Jonatan and Sebastian Lundmark from Rest Your Eyes productions in Byron Bay.
At just 20 years of age Lydian has been making waves in the world of electronic music as a member of inclusive electronic experimental pop band Tralalablip and as a performer and cross platform artist. He is currently studying music production at SAE in Byron Bay and looks set to have a great future in the music industry having recently been invited to perform in Germany later this year, again with Tralalablip.
Lydian joined the inclusive electronic experimental pop band Tralalablip in 2010 and the band continue to perform nationally and internationally. Lydian performed in the NORPA production My Radio Heart in 2014, which was staged in both Sydney and Lismore and will see a second season in September 2015.
When asked about working on the Createability project Lydian said “Music makes me happy, it’s my passion and making a movie sounds like a lot of fun” He is very excited to be collaborating with Byron Bay filmmakers Jonatan and Sebastian Lundmark.
Click here to read Lydian’s bio.
Kayah Guenther
Bangalow filmmakers Poppy Walker and Sophie Hexter are excited to be filming contemporary dancer Kayah Guenther. 20 yr old Murwillumbah based dancer Kayah is currently undertaking a dance residency with Australian choreographer, teacher and performer Gavin Webber. Kayah will be instrumental in choreographing the 3 minute dance film in collaboration with Gavin who is based in Coolangatta and works between Australia and Europe.
From their first dance lesson together three years ago, Kayah has loved the physicality of Gavin’s work and has always wanted to perform with Gavin. Gavin teaches Kayah about going within, being small and then expanding out, being big. He has shown Kayah pathways to the floor and to the sky. He has taught Kayah dance “phrases” that follow a random story, helping him to remember the choreography. As the story builds, so to the dance.
Kayah is excited to be filmed “I want the world to know I’m strong and I’m masculine but also that I am vulnerable and ‘not always happy’. Dance can do this for me.”
Click here to read Kayah’s bio.
Peta Lipski
Peta Lipski is an accomplished artist based in Ballina who has been designing and creating unique puppets for over 20 years using a variety of mixed media techniques. Each of her puppets has their own distinctive character, which includes specific voice and movement patterns.
Peta enjoys writing stories about her puppets and says “it makes me happy seeing my puppets come alive. It’s a focus for me and I also like to perform with the puppets and make others happy too.”
In 2014 Peta received funding from the Accessible Arts NSW Delineate program to create a production to be shown at the Byron Bay Community Centre as a part of the IDPWD celebrations in December, 2014. Apart from scouring op shops for recycled materials to create the puppets Peta also constructed the set for this production, wrote the script and performed with her hand made puppets.
Peta will work with Byron Bay based filmmaker Andy Bambach who is keen to see some of Peta’s incredible puppets come alive through film.
Click here to read Peta’s bio.
Project Update – 2 April 2015
Following a difficult selection process from an impressive range of submissions to Screenworks’ Createability project, three Northern Rivers Producer / Director teams have been selected to each produce a short documentary film profiling the work and life of artists with disability living and creating in the region.
After hours of assessment and deliberation, the successful filmmakers / production teams selected for the Createability Project are:
- Jonatan Lundmark and Sebastian Lundmark from Byron Bay (Rest Your Eyes Productions),
- Bangalow-based Poppy Walker and Sophie Hexter, and
- Andy Bambach from Suffolk Park (In Your Face Productions).
All three teams have extensive experience in producing broadcast quality films.
Having worked as a filmmaker since the early 1980’s, Andy Bambach is looking forward to working with local artist, Peta Lipski. “I am really excited to be involved in the Screenworks Createability project. It’s a fantastic opportunity to work with Peta Lipski and showcase her amazing hand-made puppets, each an original character with a distinctive story. Peta is an inspiring artist and performer living with a disability who follows her artistic passion and dreams.”
Jonatan and Sebastian have established themselves as popular local filmmakers having worked on many high profile local productions including the Youtube viral hit, I’m Happy. They are looking forward to profiling young local musician, Lydian Dunbar. Lydian is an electronic music artist who also works in theatre and cross platform work that has been exhibited in Regional Galleries in Australia. Lydian joined the inclusive electronic pop band Tralalablip in 2010. Tralalablip have recently been invited to undertake a residency in Germany later in 2015.
Poppy and Sophie are currently in discussion with several Northern Rivers based dancers for their film. “We are thrilled to have been given this opportunity to create a short documentary for Createability. In collaboration with Screenworks and a small team of dynamic artists we will be creating a highly-cinematic dance film illuminating the work of a gifted, local performer”. Full details about Poppy and Sophie’s film will be released in the coming weeks.
To read the full media release, click here.
Short films showcasing Northern Rivers artists with disability.
CREATEABILITY is a new Screenworks intitiative which will allow up to three Producer / Director teams to be selected to each produce and deliver a 3-minute short film documentary profiling the work of an artist with disability living and creating in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.
Each Producer / Director team will work with the Screenworks team, including the Project Coordinator, to best profile each artist selected for the program. Each team will be connected with a local artist with disability to profile for the 3-minute short film, with each artist being allocated by the Screenworks team after consultation with the successful Producers / Directors.
Expression of Interest Process
Screenworks recently called for expressions of interest from Screenworks members, to find suitably experienced filmmakers living and working in the Northern Rivers region that are available and able to deliver high quality short films within the time period available.
Please note that CREATEABILITY is not an entry level initiative. All applications must first meet eligibility criteria in order to be competitively assessed for funding through the Expression of Interest process.
Before submitting an application, applicants were required to read the CREATEABILITY GUIDELINES AND INFORMATION KIT.
Each Producer / Director team were required to complete an online application form. All relevant questions in the Expression of Interest application form must be completed.
Submitting an application
All application materials had to be submitted by 8:00am (AEDST), Monday 2 March 2015. An application receipt was emailed to applicants within two business days of submitting their application. If you did not receive a receipt email, you should contact Screenworks on (02) 6687 1599 to confirm that your application has been received.
If you have any questions about the expression of interest process, please contact Screenworks General Manager, Ken Crouch on (02) 6687 1599.
Media releases
2015 Apr 02 – Screenworks announces who will produce short films about artists with disability
2015 Feb 03 – Screenworks secures funding to invest in locally produced short films
About the Program
CREATEABILITY is a Screenworks initiative funded and supported by Screen NSW and the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.
