ABC TV Highlights Black Swan Production Jandamarra

21 May 2008

The epic play includes animation created in association with the KEYFRAME Program out of FTI's Animation Centre.

Animation Centre

Over the next two weeks Artists At Work joins the Black Swan Theatre Company and Bunuba Films as they prepare to bring the epic theatre production Jandamarra to the stage for the first time as part of the 2008 Perth International Arts Festival.

The animation in the play was developed through a collaboration with ‘Black Swan Theatre Company as part of the KEYFRAME program. Animator Clancie Shorter worked with traditional indigenous artists in the state’s far north to develop techniques for capturing traditional dreamtime stories in an animated form.

Inspired by true events, this is the story of one of Australia’s great Indigenous heroes – Jandamarra. For Jandamarra’s people, the Bunuba of the central Kimberley, it is a vibrant legend that they are determined to share with Australians and the wider world. Jandamarra was a young Indigenous warrior in his mid-twenties when he was hunted down and shot in North Western Australia in 1897. In his short life he was renowned as the leader of the most successful Indigenous resistance campaign against the police and an ever encroaching white settlement.

The KEYFRAME program is free to participants and aims to create projects that provide developmental opportunities for early career animators and assist in the overall development of the animation industry in Western Australia.

Artists At Work: Jandamarra traces the rehearsal and production period of the play through until opening night. It also follows the writer, Steve Hawke, as he visits the spectacular Kimberley country where Jandamarra’s story unfolded. Performed in three languages – Bunuba, Kimberley Kriol and English – there are great challenges for the actors and production team alike. The script has to be translated, the languages have to be learnt and finally, the English subtitles need to be projected onto the set. The end result for the audience is a real sense of being immersed equally in the black and white worlds of the Kimberley frontier.

FTI is currently accepting project applications for the next KEYFRAME project. Expressions of Interest must be submitted by 5pm June 3rd 2008. More information

ARTSCAPE – Artists At Work is produced by ABC TV.

ARTISTS AT WORK: Jandamarra
Two-part series starts
ABC1 Tuesday, June10 2008 at 10pm
ABC2 Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 7pm