Friends of the Armchair Traveller

  Mike Kuchar This post comes from my friend Fred Harden who was one one the original people who set up the Melbourne Filmmkaer's Co-op.  I will also add some comments into this post with some of my own reminiscences of that time as Mike visited Monique and me when we lived at Canning Street, North Carlton. I think that was in 1973 when the world was wonderful, our lives were full of expectation. I'm sure those days were much better than the days we're living through now. I really enjoyed meeting Mike Kuchar. He had a lovely personal style, very gentle, great wit and most elegant. I also found the Kuchar programme which we presented at the Co-op to be ground breaking, a great gift from the US Underground. That programme was organised by the people at the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op and sent on to us, as they also did with a programme by Pier Farri. We were very lucky to have Pier visit us while he was in Melbourne for his season. Anyway, here's what Fred wrote about it all ...

Well, the truth is I love crazy films. I love films which go out on an edge. I love docos based on natural history. This one has everything for me. And guess what? I can share it with every one for free! All you have to do it to give it a few moments of your time... Here it is on Daily Motion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvccpd It's also on Vimeo but I think the Daily Motion version is better HD quality. Have fun! https://dai.ly/xv My Life as a Turkey  from  ASECIC_VIMEO  on  Vimeo .

 THE TIME WE KILLED Jennifer Todd Reeves Towards the end of this summer, in search of intriguing places for collecting some shots that I am taking with my mobile phone for a long time now since my last useful pocket cam broke, I have stopped many times at the several same nearby points to examine immediate devastating effects of carbonization of the environment (in the immediate vicinity of my apartment in Split; Croatia). Together with some personal reasons and feelings that I do not want to discuss openly, that carbo situation make me rethink of “carbon cinema” phenomena and some respectable authors that were “possessed” with analog (S8 - 16 mm) filming around hospitals and factories chimneys, unkempt parks, septic flats, unclean dumps and other (sub)urban rusty places so inspired for catching that strange, dirty but at the same time beautiful and subliminally unexplainable effect on analog film rolls. This was one of the agendas I wanted to discuss with recently deceased undergr...

  "The Stream"  A mix of thoughts about the passage of time - prompted by the passage of water running under our house and how in time, before and after, people would experience the stream in different and parallel ways. Hence the subtitle: "Maybe in a Thousand Years". Not far below this fireplace runs a river.                                                                THE STREAM.mp4 from Tom Cowan on Vimeo . M y last video   'RE-CALL',  was a dream about parallel time  also starring our house.                                                                                  Tom.

“Sooner or later, we will have to recognize that the Earth has rights, too. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans.” – Evo Morales .                              The Earth Without Us from Wheeler Winston Dixon on Vimeo . This video was created using footage and soundtracks in the Public Domain, or released as CC0 Public Domain materials, and is made entirely from recycled, repurposed and refashioned images and sounds. Copyright © 2022 Wheeler Winston Dixon. All rights reserved Forward this email to your friends and family so that they can watch the video too.

LOCAL VISIONS AND GLOBAL FIGURES IN VIRTUAL FUSION In a recent email to my dear friend from my "Facebook days", M. Woods, I briefly described Peter's invitation to continue maintaining this unique blog together with David: "It is nice, little, selective in a way, virtual space with well enough correspondents (it means more than several but not many).. slow one so to say if comparing with various concepts of slow cinema…”  I hope that I will be able (for the first few modest personal contributions and with the help from the other “Friends of the Armchair Traveller” maintainers - David, Peter, Bill - to present the previously announced material about web project of online interviews with some of the most interesting proactive actors of global experimental cinema DIY scene which was conceived by the independent international (Italy, Greece, USA) association of artist named “PVH” and led by Pasquale Palladino, Angelina Voskopoulou and Matt Helme. Then, one of my future p...

Over the past few months my friend Richard has been experimenting with his new camera, filming the wildlife he encounters on the walks and rides near his home in MITCHAM, suburban Melbourne. This image will give you an idea of some of the lovely creatures which can be found in his neighbourhood.   Silvereye Many emails have passed between us over the past few months concerning new cameras, editing platforms, upscaling , all the pros and cons . Richard bought his new camera kit specifically to follow and develop his photographic and filming interests. I've been buying things like Topaz Photo Enhance AI, dabbling with Photoshop, and every new item either of us purchases requires us to come to terms with new procedures, a steep learning curve. One of Richard's objectives was to own a camera which would give super results for filming wildlife. His suburb is a nature wonderland rich in birdlife from the tiniest creatures like the Silvereye and Pardalote up to Magpies, Rosellas, Lor...