Friends of the Armchair Traveller

  This morning I awoke to another lovely gift from Aeon It's a very fishy story about a shop in London which sells little fishies for the aquariums of its slightly eccentric customers. This short film has  a most appropriate title... "Bubble" Director :  Eleanor Mortimer      30 August 2021   Sadly I can't download the whole film but you can see it by hitting this link: https://aeon.co/videos/what-do-tropical-fish-make-of-the-strange-creatures-who-love-them-so?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=98c2400055-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_08_29_11_29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-98c2400055-69414985 For some reason it brought back the Pink Floyd song "Wish you were here" I guess that was because of these lines: "We're just two lost souls Swimming in a fish bowl Year after year" There's also a trailer available on Youtube or Vimeo but what's the point of viewing a trailer when the film is only 14 minutes long? Hope you like, ...

David King sent me this response to "Pigs  May Fly" which I posted earlier today. "Following Peter's post on space junk orbiting the planet, I thought of Wheeler Winston Dixon's work " Debris " which takes the idea of junk orbiting the planet to a whole new level."  "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. We may not have some of this stuff orbiting the planet...yet. But just wait." Debris from Wheeler Winston Dixon on Vimeo . David introduced me to Wheeler's work about a year and a half back.  For those who are interested to know more about Wheeler and his life work:   The James Ryan Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Wheeler Winston Dixon is a teacher, filmmaker, the author of more than thirty books, and over a hundred articles. As a film and video artist, Dixon's works have been screened at The Whitney Museum of American Art, Anthology Film Archives, The Museum of Modern Art, Th...

  PIGS MIGHT FLY Saturn has its rings and we now have a ring of our own flying at 28,000 km/h around the Earth, a relatively orderly procession of space things, most of it is debris, but as yet no flying pigs . An artist's illustration of humanity’s space junk ringing the Earth   Many scientists around the world have turned their attention to reducing the growing mass of space junk in orbit. This image was created by artists at MIT to demonstrate what sort of items are included in that ring around our planet.   In this article posted in the Smithsonian Magazine recently some experiemental effotts are being tested designed to capture and remove some of these objects which are collectively known as "space junk". https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-worlds-first-space-sweeper-make-dent-orbiting-debris-180978515/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210825-daily-responsive&spMailingID=45517378&spUserID=ODExMTAyNDM4MTIy...

Many years ago when I started making films, about 1962, I met Tom Cowan. We worked on each other's very early films... 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm. We shared our experiences of the new movies we were discovering from all around the world.  Tom got a job at the Comnmonwealth Film Unit in Sydney, I  also got a job there and stayed for about a year.  Tom remained with the CFU for a few years and then moved on to travel widely and shoot films in the big wide world.  The other day Tom sent me these notes about a film he shot in India: When I was 26, I had an amazing adventure. It was the era of the hippie trail to the East. I arrived in India via Afghanistan and Pakistan and met Pattabhi Rama Reddy and shot a feature movie for him: 'Samskara'.  Steve Carthew, a mate from our days at the Commonwealth Film Unit, was also in India at the time. He introduced me to some artists who lived in a sort of commune on the beach near Madras and I stayed there. One of those art...

 A letter to my sister...                                                         which I have not sent to her. My sister Chris sent me a link to a documentary series of a British journo travelling through Arabia. https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/arabia-with-levison-wood I viewed the first 20 minutes of the first episode and I gave up in the ruins of Mosul. https://www.facebook.com/DiscoveryUK/videos/mosul-old-city-arabia-with-levison-wood/1195704027274361/ Then I wrote this to my sister Chris Tammer: I tried to view it Chris.   I started with Ep 1. I got as far as the ruined city of Mosul, but I have reached my limit with "people"??? I can't take any more people. I am very lucky, most fortunate, to be here so far away from so many people. Yes, there are a few to be concerned about, but hopefully I can ...

Our friend David King has just scored a most impressive first among all my fellow filmmakers. All of David's experimental films are now playing on  The Screening Room.  They  are  av ailable to view online  at   Salto 1TV, The Netherlands via this link : The Screening Room As David mentioned on his Facebook page, it's quite rare that his films get an outing like this - a whole hour's program. The last time they were screened  in toto  was during the Screened exhibition at The Project Space gallery in Geelong.  I would like to add to this: it is extremely rare in my own experience than any of my filmmaker friends score such an event showcasing many pieces of their work, let alone ALL of it. Some these pieces may have been seen via Vimeo or You Tube but there may yet be a surprise or two in store.  For example, David's award-winning long-form short experimental work  EXIT   (27 minutes) is included in the progra...

About forty years ago I was just starting out as a lecturer at the Swinburne Film and TV School. I was approached by Solrun Hoaas, one of the Post. Grad students I met there and she asked me if I would look at and comment on some films which she had made prior to enrolling. “Effacement” is one of those short films. It's a film which entranced me. What is it with words? I was fascinated by this minimal poetic film which was made by woman who considered herself to be a "beginner" who thought she needed to enrol in our film school to learn more about filmmaking. Solrun died in 2009. She and I were friendly but we were never what you would call close friends. She had the most engaging gentle smile and a wonderful quiet repose . This very short film she made so long ago reflects all the qualities I found in her whenever we met. At the time Solrun showed me this film I had very little experience of Japanese theatre traditions except through films I had seen at the Melbourn...

Afg hanistan and the US and us! What a terrible mess the mighty US, assisted by our various lapdog governments, have landed us in with the Afghan situation. I'm not normally given to making political statements on this site... I avoid it like the plague, like Covid, like racism, like anything too contentious. One reason for my stance is that I wanted this blog to be dedicated to issues of creativity rather than news, current affairs and  politics . But today is somewhat special.  Here we are after 20 years of warfare in a foreign country, all for the very best of reasons, 41 of our soldiers died there, many more were wounded, many atrocities were committed "in our name",  after all most Afghans would see us as invaders of their homeland, and countless soldiers have suffered deep emotional wounds which will be with them for the rest of their days... some have already taken their own lives... and we walk out on it ? We did exactly what was set up by the Trump administration...