screening

2024 SOLID SCREENING:

The SOLID SCREENING to mark International Womens Day is being held in partnership with Lismore Womens Festival on campus at Southern Cross University in the Northern Rivers region, 11.45am 8 MARCH 2024.

 

- Eelemarni : the story of Leo and Leva by Lorraine Mafi-Williams 1988 featuring Aunty Millie Boyd.   

 

- Nguura Muruy 2023 by Sandy Greenwood featuring Gumbaynggirr Custodians and allies.   

 

- DURANGEN by Jenny Fraser 2023 also featuring Euphemia Bostock, Faith Baisden, Deidre Currie, Tania Marlowe and Jasmin Stanford

2022 SOLID SCREENING:

The SOLID SCREENING was held in partnership at Roxy Gallery Kyogle in the Northern Rivers region, to mark Dia De Los Muertos.

JennyFraser (@dot_ayu) • Instagram photos and videos

2019 SOLID SCREENING:

The SOLID SISTERS SCREENING took place at Lismore Womens Festival in the Northern Rivers region 2 March, 2019.  

The screening included:

- Aunty Maggie and the Womba Wagkun (10 min) by Angelina Hurley
- When Freedom Kissed Her: Blue (4 min 15 sec) by Paulsy Casely-Hayford 
- Starr (5 min 15 sec) by Michelle Blakeney
- The Ab-sorption Method (8 mins 10 sec) by Penny Evans
- Warruwi Basket Weavers (7 mins) by June Mills
- Cockatoos (1 min 35 sec) by Kyra Kumsing
- Solid Sisters Trailer (3 mins) by Jenny Fraser

Solid Screen is partnering with our Mayan cousins from the Kayche Festival in Mexico, to include some short films: 

- Los Hilos que nos Tejen (17 mins 30 sec) by Melissa Elizondo
- Martha Eugenia: La violencia sexual (11 mins 40 sec) - Yucatan Feminicida Documentary Series


The SOLID SISTERS RETREAT was held at Currumbin on the Gold Coast from 22 February 2019.

2017 SOLID SCREEN Festival:

SOLID SCREEN Festival 2017 took place at Nungeena in the Glasshouse Mountains on the Sunshine Coast in South East Queensland on the 29th April.

2016 SOLID SCREEN Festival:

SOLID SCREEN Festival 2016 took place at the Tallebudgera Beach Education Centre on the Gold Coast in South East Queensland on the 9th September and was open to the public.

local artist Madeline Hodge introduced the
short Documentary about her life and art from
the Good Medicine Series
screening at Solid Screen Festival Tallebudgera

6.55 minutes. Madeline Hodge : Good Medicine. A digital story about Madeline Hodge and her artwork towards healing. Madeline is a talented artist and a long time resident based on the Gold Coast. The story tracks her life, and contribution to the arts in South East Queensland. By Jenny Fraser 2014

local Kombumerri writer #JohnGraham
introducing his collaborative work at Solid Screen Festival

Christine Peacock introducing Boy and Moth,
the collaborative animation work at Solid Screen Festival 

3.35 minutes, The Boy Who Had The Magic Word And The Whispering Moth. This is a contemporary myth, or re-Dreaming, which works to reinforce existing ideas—about secret words and sacred knowledge—by connecting ancient storytelling traditions with contemporary animation and literary practice. Boy and Moth by animator Rebekah Pitt, Writer John Graham and Producer Christine Peacock.

Visiting #Mayan #FestivalDirector Zoila Jiménez introducing the#KaycheFestival #animation at #SolidScreenFestival

30 seconds. The Film and Video Festival "Kayche' Tejidos Visuales" or Visual Fabrics, is presented by the Kayche Collective. They present a window that evokes dialogue in order to promote self-representation and demand catalysts for change in an unequal world. Aside from the hands-on work that the Kayche Collective does, they also engage local artists such as Judzil Palma who produced the promotional animation for the 2015 Kayche' Tejidos Visuales. The Kayche Festival logo depicts an eye, which, for the 2015 award and their short animated promo, is based on a traditional Mayan story of a bird that was chosen as a custodian of the maize kernel. The Ts'iu bird went into the fire, and came out jet black, with red eyes.

1.45 min Murakami.  “We take so many photographs. How do we know which ones are important, which ones matter?” Japanese photographer, entrepreneur and inventor Yasukichi Murakami was the talk of the town in Broome and Darwin in the early 1900s, until the outbreak of the Second World War saw him and his family, like all Japanese in Australia, interned as enemy aliens. Murakami’s photographs were impounded and subsequently lost. Using photographic projections, video, original music, soundscape, and dramatic action, Japanese-Australian photographer and writer Mayu Kanamori goes in search of Murakami’s lost photographs. Uncovering a fascinating story of unlikely friendships, thwarted ambition and unrequited love,Yasukichi Murakami stirs our collective amnesia about the history of the Japanese in Australia. Yasukichi Murakami is a meditation on love, truth and, in a digital age where cameras proliferate, the nature of photography.  By Mayu Kanamori 2013

#Bundjalung #Yaegl artist Michelle Blakeney introducing
her Experimental Moving Image work :
A Lot of Lost Survivors 2013 at Solid Screen Festival

3.45 minutes.  A Lot of Lost Survivors : In 2008, the 100 Year Anniversary of The Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home was held for the families. Michelle Blakeney held an exhibition combining contemporary artwork and old photographic slides from 1950-1970’s. Aboriginal families are only now recovering members from forced separations; photography provides a link from the past to the present that is immediate and powerful. It’s sharing a family history and re-connecting a lost bond. Photographs have been an amazing tool in the reuniting of family members keen to re-establish ties broken so many years prior. Blakeney recognized the power these images would have for the families of the children raised in the home.  By Michelle Blakeney 2013

Bundaberg based Colleen Johnson at Solid Screen Festival 2016

5 minutes. Bachelors of Batchelor : Dorothy Oldmaid arrives in Batchelor township in the Northern Territory. She is convinced that with a name like Batchelor this is where all the available bachelors are living. She visits specific locations in Batchelor and shares local history and with the hope of meeting a bachelor. The journey to finding one takes Dorothy down a different road.  Directed by Colleen Johnson.

visting Cree Filmmaker Jules Koostachin
introducing PLACEnta at Solid Screen Festival

In this short film 'PLACEnta' Jules sets out to find a place for her Cree Nation traditional placenta ceremony. PLACEnta is the sharing between a mother, her daughter and a midwife of the re-discovery of First Nations traditional childbirth teachings. This film was made as part of the Commonwealth Shorts project, a capacity building scheme to give emerging writers/directors the opportunity to make a film which highlights issues affecting them and their communities. The initiative is a partnership between Commonwealth Writers, B3 Media and CBA Worldview.

Samoan Australian artist Chantal Fraser introducing Framed
a collaborative video with Dance Group Polytoxic

Dance company Polytoxic collaborated with visual artist Chantal Fraser to create a live installation, 'framed', in the window of Raw Space Galleries. The work presents an interaction between object and performer to create evolving and constantly moving images within frames. Exploring the idea of framing - objects within the space are framed and re-contextualised by the performers, who are themselves framed within the confines of the window. This positioning creates a sense of the tangibility of the objects presented, highlighting the detail of these objects and engaging one with the process of their creation. Drawing on a range of sources, the work merges aspects of the Pacific islands with references to contemporary cultures and subcultures. Picture frames connoting 'high art' from a western cultural perspective are juxtaposed against visual and movement motifs drawn from the islands. Intricate hand gestures combine with the held stature of european court dance, and costuming created from traditional 'fala' mats become stiff bustled skirts. This juxtaposition is echoed and reinforced through the presentation of objects created by Chantal Fraser, also incorporating a contemporised take on traditional motifs.

30 mins. Stingray Sisters is a dramatic real-life series set in a remote community. For the first time, this eye-opening documentary will give audiences unparalleled access to life in a remote Indigenous community, through the lens of three contemporary sisters. Noni, Alice and Grace are navigating their twenties while moving - as they always have - between two cultures and two homes. Facing constant challenges that most of us will never know, join the Eather sisters and their extended family as they prepare to take on their biggest battle yet.  By Katrina Channells 2016

lucky to have Semah Mokak Wischki join us for Solid Screen Festival and present her Short Film at solid screen healing retreat. Semah Mokak-Wischki is a Djugun woman who was born in Broome and raised at Adelaide River in the Northern Territory.  She wrote and directed Through Our Eyes, a documentary which explores issues being brought up Aboriginal and Muslim (selected West End Film Festival 2011). Semah works in disability and currently lives in Brisbane.

Festival Director Jenny Fraser speaking to the Solid Screen Festival audience.
Tallebudgera, Gold Coast. 2016 

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SOLID SISTERS will be screened at the SOLID SCREEN 2016 private retreat for Native Christmas.

Documentary 45 minutes, Directed by Jenny Fraser > We get an insider perspective of the lives and screen work of the SOLID SISTERS from when they gathered at Innot Hot Springs in Far North Queensland for a healing retreat and festival. SOLID SCREEN was set up as an effort toward the maintenance of screen arts culture from the ground up, and also to recognise and acknowledge the historically important greatness in the field of work made by and for the screen.  2014 saw the birthing of the inaugural SOLID SCREEN gatherings. This was a very unique proposal and it provides audiences with a snapshot of the niche artform areas of experimental screen practice and storytelling by Indigenous Women Internationally. Short films from SOLID Sisters also to screen alongside the feature documentary. 

2014 & 2015 SOLID Screen Festival

short works from international and local screen makers, including :

Eagle vs Sparrow  10.10 min
Michelle Derosier

Eagle vs. Sparrow is based on a traditional Anishinabek legend used to teach ‘humility’. A colourful cast of half-humans half-animals brings to life this unique high school drama as an embattled Eagle is pressured into racing the over-confident Sparrow.


The Ab-Sorption Method  8.09 min
Penny Evans

Set in 1950’s Sydney, the main character Violet is depicted whitening her skin with talcum powder to mask her Aboriginality and pass for white. She awakens into a dreamscape whereby she reconnects with her long lost Gamilleroi sister and undergoes a ritual cleansing. A re-establishment of family connection serves as a metaphor for the regeneration of culture.


This fella my memory  4.47 min
Lily Shearer

Produced by Moogahlin Performing Arts this work celebrates the lives of three older women and their tenuous relationships with their friends, family and each other; ultimately leading to an enduring connection to people and country despite the odds.  Take a road trip across Aboriginal NSW where the boundaries, kinships and songlines are invisible to the eye, but felt deep within. This Fella, My Memory draws upon these rich and deep connections to people and place.



A LOT OF LOST SURVIVORS  3.45 min
Michelle Blakeney

In 2008, the 100 Year Anniversary of The Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home was held for the families. Entrusted with the collection, Michelle Blakeney put together an exhibition combining contemporary artwork and old photographic slides from 1950-1970's. Aboriginal families are only now recovering members from forced separations; photography provides a link from the past to the present that is immediate and powerful.  



Madeline Hodge  6.25 min
Jenny Fraser

a digital story about Madeline Hodge and her artwork towards healing. Madeline is a talented artist and a long time resident based on the Gold Coast.  The story tracks her life, and contribution to the arts in South East Queensland.   Filmed by Jenny Fraser, edited by Helen Kassila and music by Jay Mogis.
- you can see also Madeline's artwork and more info on the new Good Medicine series website here: http://www.goodmedicine.net.au 


Target Girls  7.15 min
Ariel Smith

Target Girls employs symbolic representations of woman as sacrifice in order to illustrate correlations between misogyny, self hatred and heartbreak. Drawing inspiration from early 20th century circus/carnival iconography, melodrama, expressionist cinema and surrealism, the magician’s lovely assistant is used as a dark metaphor to explore just what it, means to give it all up for your man.



PolesApart  6.54 min
r e a

PolesApart – is a poetic, lyrical work that has the qualities and virtues of silent film. Each beautifully constructed, black-edged, sepia-tinted frame acts as a window through which we bear witness to the mysterious woman’s unfolding drama... such re-animation of the past itself constitutes a kind of memory. 

Native in Nuhaka  5.51 min
Hiona Henare

NATIVE IN NUHAKA is a forthcoming documentary profiling Maori and indigenous film making and the place of the Wairoa Maori Film Festival over the past decade in promoting this kaupapa.  A film crew was at the entire Wairoa Maori Film Festival in 2014, documenting the event and interviewing the many esteemed NZ and international guests.  

Two Bob Mermaid  15.25 min

Darlene Johnson 

The year is 1956 and Aboriginal Australians are not allowed to swim in public swimming pools. A fair-skinned Aboriginal girl who passes off as white goes to the local pool.  A story about Aboriginal identity during a period of cultural conflict and racial tension. 

VEXED  13 min
Fiona Foley 

This poignant production deals eloquently with the displacement of Australia’s indigenous peoples and the impacts that continue to plague them today. VEXED notes the breakdown of “promised marriages” as a result of theft of Aboriginal women by white men, a practice which interfered with both traditional kinship structures and people’s lives.

Unpacking the Whiteman!  10.14 min
Lori Blondeau

 

In Unpacking the Whiteman, Blondeau teaches, seduces and sets her white capture free. By gutting fish, smashing berries and waltzing in red stilletous the character she portrays (partially based on Pocohontas and the old Lakota woman in a  Man Called Horse) Blondeau demonstrates to the captive sheerly through actions and gesture the skills needed for survival - food preparation and romance!

Bachelors of Batchelor  5 min
Colleen Johnson

Dorothy Oldmaid arrives in Batchelor township in the Northern Territory. She is convinced that with a name like Batchelor this is where all the available bachelors are living. She visits specific locations in Batchelor and shares local history and with the hope of meeting a bachelor. The journey to finding one takes Dorothy down a different road.



more of the screening program updated soon