MY WORK: Urban Cultures - Welcome "The Narcycist" and Sundus Abdul Hadi from Canada!

After two months of planning a prep, ICE's international artists in residency hip hop rapper/ MC "The Narcycist" and his partner, mixed media and visual artist, Sundus Abdul Hadi have finally arrived in Australia. I must admit, my frame of mind of the last few days has been a little run down and clouded, nevertheless, it was refreshing to finally meet and also anticipating working with these two. These two are about my age, and yet their progressive minds, boundary pushing works inspire me a little bit more to engage and grow as as a little gungho activist in my very own ways.

It captivates me how these two speak with such clarity and an understanding of who they are, where they are going, how they are developing and their impacts on own cultural identities and also abroad. Narcy's sound tracks all have some rationale, incited incidents, that people just usually don't think about. Personally, I never dig the hip hop scene, I always thought it was music about "pimps and hoes" and autotuned noise with the sporadic "yeah babies". Another thing, prior to working with ICE, I had a fear of Arabs (a common view shared by my closed off parents who relied on mainstream media 6pm reports) as well as the ocassional debate with a very old school ocker who kept on warning me that the "Asians will be taking over, so be careful".

Speaking of fear of Arabs, Narcy will also be releasing his published book "Diatribes of a Dying Tribe" based on the concept of the Fear of an Arab Planet. On the same note, I did get the chance to meet the boys from "Fear of a Brown Planet" - comedian Amer & Nazeem from Melbourne. Check out my quest clip.

So where does this leave me? Fear of an Asian Planet? Let's help me brainstorm...

Fear of A Slant Eye Planet

Fear of A Gook Planet

Fear of Riceeaters Party

I know, I know. So where does the white (wo)man who really have this fear stand? The Australian Protection Party of course. They seem to be quite a media saavy bunch with all sorts of backups (from academia, politics, businesses etc...) who truly have a major concern with the potential "invasion" fears. Be slightly surprise. There's this fear of "White genocide" and the "minorities" taking over.

Then I thought for a further minute, is the term minority/ majority relative? What if you are a whitey living in China? Wouldn't you be a minority and Asians becoming a majority? Ok, I'm tripping out now and some of the issues and "parties" just wouldn't make sense in another context.

EVENT: 2011 Tropfest

This year was the first time I attended the Tropfest Short Film Festival - the world's largest of short film festival. I had accompanying me, my trusty film intern protege - Thuy Ng and newfound friend Quang Nguyen - who is currently a dedicated barrister, but possibly a future media maker. We had a good spot amongst the other 10,000 people on a patchy grass and in full view of the 3 sided screen.

But then when you look at Tropfest, even though it has come a long way, it hasn't been the platform for films made by people from culturally diverse backgrounds even though 40% of the population are born overseas or to parents born overseas. Despite the films being quite "watchable", I still yet to see the day more films from the "other" make it to the top finalist on their own terms and telling the stories they want to tell and watch.

But that in itself is filled with complexities. In one lecture that I crashed at the Sydney International Film School, I recall Ray Lawrence saying that "filmmaking is for the privileged". To some extent, I agree, as the "privilege" have access to such equipment and vast knowledge, experience and expertise.

In addition, culturally diverse communities, are more often focused on making a living than storytelling through the digital medium. I know for a fact, that if I turned back time and asked my Vietnamese parents if I could do film, I'll probably be kung fu whacked across the head for the thought of it.

But the times are changing, and 2012 Tropfest Short Film Festival Signature item is the "lightbulb" so it looks like I may be submitting something next year....Perhaps.

This year, the 16 finalist that made it were quite good.

Here are the winners...

1ST PRIZE - Animal Beatbox - Damon Gameau

2ND PRIZE - The Unspoken - Jason van Genderen

3RD PRIZE - The Maestro - Adam Anthony

BEST MALE ACTOR - SIlencer - David Collins

BEST FEMALE ACTOR - Y2GAY - Kate Worsley

WOMEN IN FILM AWARD - Things To Do - Ana Maria Belo

BEST EDITING - A Desperate Deed - Matt Bird

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - The Maestro - Tony Gardiner

BEST SCREENPLAY - Missing Her - Michael Weisler

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - A Desperate Deed - Jared Underwood