Mapping My Debut

(Subtitle: Yesterday I Became a Poet)

I'm drafting a blog ... but I need to sleep 

And blogging and sleep deprivation are unlikely companions

So instead ... 

I'll

Just

Do

This ...

Abe Nuok, RikTheMost, Simon Illif, Soreti Kadir, Jamie Lea, Sue Gillett, Joel McKerrow, 
Sire Camara and Nicolette Jahn all helped me celebrate my spoken word poetry debut at 
Shepparton Festival's closing event on Sunday afternoon.
(Photo credit due to Abe's amazing selfie arm)


#sheppfest #mapping #latrobeuni #writersinaction 
#spokenwordpoetry 

Festival Gods

Even the Festival gods would never have 

dreamed up this one ... 

Poetry debut: check

Festival close: check

Drive to Tullamarine: check

Collects friends' unattended luggage in International Departures: check

Avoid airport lockdown: check

Sweet-talk check-in staff and secure leniency on over-weight luggage: check

Begin goodbyes to my Teresa and her beautiful precious family: check

Sob like a baby: check

Attempt goodbye selfie: check

Sob again: check

Uncontrolled sobbing: check

Abandon idea of goodbye selfie: check

Adieu to my Teresa and her beautiful precious family: check

Sob again: check

Final waves goodbye: check

More uncontrolled sobbing:check 

Drive home: pending

More sobbing: check

... arrival, departure, journey, travel, destination, 

home, family, connection, pathway, return ... 

mapping

❤️🌏

 #festivalgods #writersinaction #sheppfest #latrobeuni 

#mapping #spokenwordpoetry 

Shepp Shorts Maps Seventeen Years of Competition

Former Shepparton residents Jonathan Sumner, Georgia Kris and Andy Burkitt were among the winners at the 17^th Shepp Shorts, Short Film Festival screened at the MacIntosh Pavilion on Friday night.

Selected from 124 entries from sixteen countries, Sumner, Kriss and Burkitt won Best Open Film, Best Local Filmmaker and Best Junior Filmmaker respectively in rural Australia’s longest running short film festival.

She Sells* is a smartly written tragi-comedy profiling a fresh faced beach entrepreneur and received a warm reception on viewing night. 

Hound is a four-minute animation that randomly parodies long-tongued and smelly designer-bred and mongrel dogs. Accompanied by an original score by fellow Sheppartonian Matt Magill, this delightful short film is possibly best described by its naïve non-sensical joie de vivre that defies logic and reason. A frivolous romp through canine antics recognisable to all dog lovers, it will seduce even the grumpiest of viewers and enchant the rest.

Image from Georgia Kriss' Hound

Burkitt’s The Pirates is an allegorical tale exploring the immorality of movie piracy, featuring Matt Sneyd as the “five pirates of piracy: Horror, Comedy, Drama, Past and … Present” and Georgia Robinson as an unsuspecting girl. Cleverly written and edited, The Pirates shows Burkitt to be a particularly skilled filmmaker, a creative working well beyond his years.

Matt Sneyd featured in Andy Burkitt's The Pirates.

Other winners were Luke Wissell’s Grounded (Best New Filmmaker), Ehsan Massoum’s Impressions of Life (Best Animation) and Dave Wade’s Walter (People’s Choice).

* She Sells will be available on ABC iView until 2 am 08.04.2017.

#sheppfest  #writersinaction  #latrobeuni  #mappingshepp

Mapping A Past

I attended a Festival event today. 

At 9.38, my perpetual lateness had me arrive ... late. 

Formal introductions complete and Welcome to Country duly done and dusted, I recognised the silhouette of someone who used to be a significant person in my life. My SP avoided my gaze. I watched her laugh and chat easily with other attendees and flip in and out of the room like a bird.

At 11.07, she indicated the toilets to me as though we had never met.

At 1.39, I filled my cup with the plunger coffee she had made; it was weak, the same colour as the beige cups and saucers lining the wall. And smelled worse. 

She's not a coffee drinker.

In a former life, before she lost me, I cared for her and dried her tears. We talked 'til dawn and solved the problems of the universe.

She was my dear friend. 

In short, I loved her.

Today, we each pretended we were strangers.

And my coffee tasted like lost friendship.

#sheppfest #writersinaction #latrobeuni #mapping 

I'm Mapping My Festival

"'Festival as a Map' ... encourages connections to the environment, [and] challenges artists, community groups and organisations ... to be mapped by process and practice and share their outcomes."

(The Festival Board, Shepparton Festival Program, 2017)

Nature plus plasticine plus ink plus fabric ... 

plus needle plus thread ... 

plus process ...

                                                     makes map.            (Images: Donna Baldwin)

#theartpath   #mapping   #sheppfest   #latrobeuni   #writersinaction