Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible (The Dressmaker)

‘Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible’ focuses on the life and work of one of the world’s leading film artists, Academy award nominated film editor Jill Bilcock. Iconic Australian films ‘Strictly Ballroom’, ‘Muriel’s Wedding’, ‘Moulin Rouge!’, ‘Red Dog’, and ‘The Dressmaker’ bear the unmistakable look and sensibility of Bilcock’s visual inventiveness. But it was her brave editing choices in ‘Romeo + Juliet’ that changed the look of cinema the world over. With a back-story as colourful and surprising as her films, and featuring commentary from Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, Shekhar Kapur and Fred Schepisi, this documentary is a wonderful insight into the art of editing and the profound impact it has on storytelling.

CURRICULUM LINKS:

‘Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible’ is relevant to the following curriculum:

• VCE Media, especially Units 1, 2 and 3 in Victoria
• Years 11 and 12 Media Arts and Film, Television and New Media in Queensland
• Years 11 and 12 Media Production and Analysis in Western Australia
• Media Arts in the Australian Curriculum- Years 9 and 10 Content
• English-Year 10 Language and Literacy
• International Baccalaureate Diploma Program – Film – Textual Analysis, Film Theory and History.

‘Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible’ and is available to download and a study guide is also available.

Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible (Romeo + Juliet)

‘Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible’ focuses on the life and work of one of the world’s leading film artists, Academy award nominated film editor Jill Bilcock. Iconic Australian films ‘Strictly Ballroom’, ‘Muriel’s Wedding’, ‘Moulin Rouge!’, ‘Red Dog’, and ‘The Dressmaker’ bear the unmistakable look and sensibility of Bilcock’s visual inventiveness. But it was her brave editing choices in ‘Romeo + Juliet’ that changed the look of cinema the world over. With a back-story as colourful and surprising as her films, and featuring commentary from Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, Shekhar Kapur and Fred Schepisi, this documentary is a wonderful insight into the art of editing and the profound impact it has on storytelling.

CURRICULUM LINKS:

Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible‘ is relevant to the following curriculum:

• VCE Media, especially Units 1, 2 and 3 in Victoria
• Years 11 and 12 Media Arts and Film, Television and New Media in Queensland
• Years 11 and 12 Media Production and Analysis in Western Australia
• Media Arts in the Australian Curriculum- Years 9 and 10 Content
• English-Year 10 Language and Literacy
• International Baccalaureate Diploma Program – Film – Textual Analysis, Film Theory and History.

Cultural Competence Program – Module 4: Unconscious Bias

The Cultural Competence Program (CCP) is a range of online multi-media training courses and resources designed to help organisations maximise the benefits of cultural competence, diversity and inclusion. The CCP was developed by SBS, Multicultural NSW, and International Education Services – leading organisations in addressing the needs of multicultural Australia. It was developed to:

• Help organisations manage an increasingly diverse workforce
• Better service diverse communities within Australia by providing relevant training and information to service-based organisations
• Create competitive advantage for organisations operating in increasingly diverse marketplaces both locally and globally
• Promote social cohesion through fostering a better understanding of diverse cultures

MODULE 4: UNCONSCIOUS BIAS:
Upon completion of the module Unconscious Bias, you will be able to:

• Recognise and describe different types of biases
• Recognise and give examples of workplace practices affected negatively by unconscious bias
• Explore how decision-making is affected by unconscious biases, in and outside of the workplace
• Recognise that you have unconscious bias and it affects your decision making
• Recognise the distinction between stereotypes and generalisations

Note on video interviews:
All participants in the interviews tell real stories around their own experiences. Part of their story is which culture they identify with, and we asked each participant how they wanted to be represented. Some chose to be represented as just Australian, some chose to be a combination of Australian and some other cultures, and yet others chose their culture of origin. We respected their choices.

ATOM STUDY GUIDE:
ATOM has produced a study guide for ‘Cultural Competence Program – Module 2: Cultural Differences And Similarities‘, which is available to download for free.

full program is also available.

Cultural Competence Program – Module 1: Diversity Works

The Cultural Competence Program (CCP) is a range of online multi-media training courses and resources designed to help organisations maximise the benefits of cultural competence, diversity and inclusion. The CCP was developed by SBS, Multicultural NSW, and International Education Services – leading organisations in addressing the needs of multicultural Australia. It was developed to:

• Help organisations manage an increasingly diverse workforce
• Better service diverse communities within Australia by providing relevant training and information to service-based organisations
• Create competitive advantage for organisations operating in increasingly diverse marketplaces both locally and globally
• Promote social cohesion through fostering a better understanding of diverse cultures

MODULE 1: DIVERSITY WORKS:
Upon completion of the module ‘Diversity Works’, you will be able to:

• Define core concepts relating to culture, diversity and inclusion
• Understand why organisations invest in diversity and inclusion management
• Understand how diversity drives better business outcomes
• Understand the benefits of improved cultural competence

Note on video interviews:
All participants in the interviews tell real stories around their own experiences. Part of their story is which culture they identify with, and we asked each participant how they wanted to be represented. Some chose to be represented as just Australian, some chose to be a combination of Australian and some other cultures, and yet others chose their culture of origin. We respected their choices.

ATOM has produced a study guide for ‘Cultural Competence Program – Module 1: Diversity Works‘.

For the full program, click here.

Australia’s Lost Impressionist: John Russell

Australia’s Lost Impressionist – John Russell” tells the fascinating story behind the only Australian artist at the centre of the Impressionist movement in France and how his famous friendships forever changed the way the world sees colour. A close friend of Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse, John Peter Russell was himself a great vanguard painter, as well as a magnetic personality and long-term inhabitant of Belle Île, a gorgeously wild, picturesque island that has had an outsize impact on the development of modern art, from Monet and Matisse through to Ellsworth Kelly. Russell is one of the most interesting figures in Australian art, and a crucial figure in the story of Impressionism and post-Impressionist art in general.’
– Sebastian Smee, Australian-born art writer and critic.

John Russell was handsome, wealthy, debonair and being Australian, quite exotic in nineteenth-century France. Yet despite his own artistic accomplishments and his pivotal role in the development of modern art, his name and his art have been largely unrecognised outside rarefied art circles. This documentary explores his enormous legacy on twentieth-century art through his paintings and his friendships. It also provides a vivid picture of what it was like to be an Australian expatriate living and working in Europe in the 1880s.

CURRICULUM LINKS:

Australia’s Lost Impressionist – John Russell would be an excellent film to show to secondary and tertiary students of visual arts and art history. The documentary is also a fine example of a filmed biography, drawing on a range of sources, both contemporary and from the archives, to create a vivid picture of an Australian who chose to study, work and live in Europe.

While it is always most satisfying to see an artist’s work firsthand in a gallery or other exhibition space, this is not always possible. However, documentary films offer a way of seeing not only the range and style of an artist’s work but also the context of the artistic development, with a number of people helping tell the story. The film raises questions about how an artist’s work becomes known and appreciated. How does one artist become famous, their work highly valued and their legacy secure while others languish in the margins of history until someone is prompted to tell the story and gather together the work to exhibit? Is originality and newness of creative work always the only criteria by which we judge an artist’s success, whether in painting, writing or music? What part does fashion and newness play in the way an artist’s work is regarded over time?

Curriculum areas relevant to this documentary include:

Art History:
Where does the work of this artist fit into Australian and European art movements? What makes his work important in art history?

Visual Arts: Painting, Colour and Design:
What does Russell’s work bring to our understanding of representing colour and light in nature through his brushwork? All Visual Arts studies include responding to the work of other artists. This includes exploring, responding to, analysing and interpreting artworks. In both making and responding to artworks, students consider a range of viewpoints or perspectives through which artworks can be explored and interpreted. These include the contexts in which the artworks are made by artists and experienced by audiences. The world can be interpreted through different contexts, including social, cultural and historical contexts.

Australian Biography:
Identifying and understanding the many resources available to a biographer.

Australian History:
What access did artists in the nineteenth century have to international developments in the visual arts?

Artistic Movements:
Context, place and time as key elements in composition and developing style of an artist.

Film Studies:
Utilising a range of written sources such as letters, the expertise of enthusiasts and scholars and the artworks themselves to create a comprehensive picture of an artist and the worlds in which he lived and worked.

STUDY GUIDE:

‘Australia’s Lost Impressionist: John Russell’ study guide is available to download.

Glenn Murcutt Spirit of Place

‘Glenn Murcutt: Spirit of Place’ explores the life and work of Australia’s most famous living architect. Murcutt’s extraordinary international reputation rests on the beauty and integrity of his buildings. With a swag of international awards (including the prestigious Pritzker Prize) Murcutt has literally put Australian architecture on the world map. Murcutt’s focus has been the creation of energy-efficient masterpieces perfectly suited to their environment and his breakthrough designs have influenced architects around the world.

Yet he’s an enigma.

By choice, he has never built outside his own country. Murcutt believes one must understand a place intimately before good design is possible. He has no staff, no computer and no email. He insists good design comes from the hand, not the computer.

In the words of the Pritzker jury: ‘In an age obsessed with celebrity, the glitz of our ‘starchitects’, backed by large staffs and copious public relations support, dominates the headlines. As a total contrast, Murcutt works in a one-person office on the other side of the world … yet has a waiting list of clients, so intent is he to give each project his personal best. He is an innovative architectural technician who is capable of turning his sensitivity to the environment and to locality into forthright, totally honest, non-showy works of art.’

Murcutt has long eschewed publicity and has preferred to let his work speak for itself. But over the past few years he has allowed documentary filmmaker Catherine Hunter to follow him as he embarked on his most challenging project to date – a mosque for the Newport Islamic community in Melbourne.

CURRICULUM LINKS:

‘Glenn Murcutt: Spirit of Place’ would be a valuable resource to show to middle and senior secondary students across a range of curriculum areas, as well as to tertiary students working in the areas of art and design, building, architecture and sustainability in relation to building design.

STUDY GUIDE:

An ATOM Study Guide has been created for ‘Glenn Murcutt Spirit of Place’ and is available to download here.

Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible

Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible‘ focuses on the life and work of one of the world’s leading film artists, Academy award nominated film editor Jill Bilcock. Iconic Australian films ‘Strictly Ballroom’, ‘Muriel’s Wedding’, ‘Moulin Rouge!’, ‘Red Dog’, and ‘The Dressmaker’ bear the unmistakable look and sensibility of Bilcock’s visual inventiveness. But it was her brave editing choices in ‘Romeo + Juliet’ that changed the look of cinema the world over. With a back-story as colourful and surprising as her films, and featuring commentary from Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, Shekhar Kapur and Fred Schepisi, this documentary is a wonderful insight into the art of editing and the profound impact it has on storytelling.

CURRICULUM LINKS:

‘Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible’ is relevant to the following curriculum:

• VCE Media, especially Units 1, 2 and 3 in Victoria
• Years 11 and 12 Media Arts and Film, Television and New Media in Queensland
• Years 11 and 12 Media Production and Analysis in Western Australia
• Media Arts in the Australian Curriculum- Years 9 and 10 Content
• English-Year 10 Language and Literacy
• International Baccalaureate Diploma Program – Film – Textual Analysis, Film Theory and History.

An ATOM Study Guide has been created for ‘Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible’ and is available to download here.

Australia says yes

Packed with drama, high emotions and cliffhanger moments, Australia Says Yes is the intimate and personal history of five decades of struggle and perseverance that propelled Australia to finally say Yes to marriage equality.

Through personal reflections from the heroes and pioneers of the movement; behind-the-scenes moments revealing heartache, strategy and determination; and archival footage featuring key moments in the historic struggle, the film records the decades-long battle to create a more equal nation.

From the history of facing arrest, imprisonment or even the death penalty simply for being gay, to the nail-biting, life-changing results of the Marriage Equality Survey, the film reveals what has been at stake for so long for the LGBTQI+ community.

Curriculum Links

Australia Says Yes (Study Guide) can be linked to the following subject areas within the Australian National Curriculum:

  • Civics and Citizenship
  • English
  • Health and Physical Education
  • History

Please note: There is occasional course language in Australia Says Yes, with the documentary recommended for study in Years 9 and above.

Year 9 Civics and Citizenship curriculum content descriptions relevant to Australia Says Yes:

  • The key features of Australia’s court system and how courts apply and interpret the law, resolve disputes and make law through judgements (ACHCK077)
  • The key principles of Australia’s justice system, including equality before the law, independent judiciary, and right of appeal (ACHCK078)
  • How and why individuals and groups, including religious groups, participate in and contribute to civic life (ACHCK079)
  • The influence of a range of media, including social media, in shaping identities and attitudes to diversity (ACHCK080)

Year 10 English curriculum content descriptions relevant to Australia Says Yes:

  • Evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in texts (ACELT1812)
  • Create literary texts with a sustained ‘voice’, selecting and adapting appropriate text structures, literary devices, language, auditory and visual structures and features for a specific purpose and intended audience (ACELT1815)
  • Create imaginative texts that make relevant thematic and intertextual connections with other texts (ACELT1644)

Year 9 and 10 Health and Physical Education curriculum content descriptions relevant to Australia Says Yes:

Personal, Social and Community Health

  • Evaluate factors that shape identities and critically analyse how individuals impact the identities of others (ACPPS089)
  • Investigate how empathy and ethical decision making contribute to respectful relationships (ACPPS093)
  • Plan, implement and critique strategies to enhance health, safety and wellbeing of their communities (ACPPS096)
  • Plan and evaluate new and creative interventions that promote their own and others’ connection to community and natural and built environments (ACPPS097)
  • Critique behaviours and contextual factors that influence health and wellbeing of diverse communities (ACPPS098)

Year 10 History curriculum content descriptions relevant to Australia Says Yes:

The Modern World and Australia: Depth Study 2 Rights and Freedoms 1945 – Present

  • The US civil rights movement and its influence on Australia (ACDSEH105)
  • The continuing nature of efforts to secure civil rights and freedoms in Australia and throughout the world, such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) (ACDSEH143)

Australia Says Yes can also be used as a supplementary text when studying a range of senior school subjects, including:

  • Ethics
  • Legal Studies
  • Health and Human Development
  • Politics
  • Psychology