On the evening of Wednesday 20 June, 2012, a steady stream of people arrived at the Westgarth Theatre in High Street Northcote…
They climbed the ornate stairway and they gathered in the first floor foyer…
Had a drink or two, read comics from the Readings table which was ably womanned by Christine Gordon, and then they filed into Cinema Two to meet two blokes who wanted to tell them a story about a documentary that they are making…
There were visual stories up on the screen: one about a snail climbing Mount Fuji (a kamishibai with pictures and narrative by Bernard, music and singing by Martin Martini), the other about Walking to Japan (from the remarkable newspaper format comic by Ben Hutchings, published by Milk Shadow Books). And then there were auctions:
which were made fairly hilarious by the presence of children in the audience who became active bidders, most of the time driving the prices up (happily for us), but occasionally bidding under the previous bid! A form of barter-auction, maybe.
And then… then it was time to show the 12 minute short that Daniel has edited together from the footage that we have thus far:
Which went down very well indeed: there was laughter, applause and delighted hooting. Then it was time to hustle out as the next film was about to start, and we tumbled into the cold Melbourne night and into the various eateries and drinkeries of Westgarth, continuing a night of celebration.
It was a great celebration, a great night, and the funds that were raised will allow us to work on the film part-time throughout July. Thank you to all who came and contributed so generously, in money and in spirit. It was a great vote of confidence in the project, and Daniel and I have been really buoyed up by it.
For those who would still like to support the making of this film, please keep your eyes on this our website and our facebook page, as we will make a crowdfunding venture in July to finance our work on the film throughout August.
Cheers m’dears!
(pictures in this post are stills taken from footage filmed on the night by Steve Elliott, who’s been a great help on several shoots. Thanks, Steve!)
