STA and Landcare premiered five locally produced documentaries about real people working to create a more sustainable future in our community.
These five short stories focused on the local landscape and environment in the Upper Lachlan and Yass regions, working with local citizen scientists who have been regenerating the land, preserving and protecting native species and developing solutions to improve the land and ecology.
Each documentary focuses on a story of environment, hope, and community members doing amazing work across the STA region. These environmental heroes are regenerating the land, preserving and protecting native species and developing solutions to improve the land and ecology.
The emerging filmmakers attended workshops with acclaimed filmmaker Brian Rapsey in Crookwell to create a short environmental documentary especially for the Champions of Change Film Festival. Participants learnt story board, filming techniques and editing skills throughout the program. Each filmmaker was paired with a local citizen scientist to create their short documentary. The skills learnt will help establish new film skills in our community such as story development, editing and more.
Local people. Local stories. Environmental heroes in our community…
Waste Not Want Not by Heidi McGeoch
Waste Not Want Not by Heidi McGeoch
Street Trees for Bees by Vivian Straw
Street Trees for Bees by Vivian Straw
Finding Nanno by Rhian Williams and Kim Morrison
Healthy waterways are the beating heart of healthy ecological systems. Southern Pygmy Perch were once found throughout the 440 000km of the Murray Darling Basin rivers, creeks and streams. In NSW, they are now only found in about 44 kms of the upper reaches of creaks in three locations, where the introduced carp and redfin have not been able to reach. However this tiny fish has some big champions – like Gunning Landcare member Janet Heffernan – who shows that listening to the health of an ecosystem is just as important as seeing what is there!
Finding Nanno by Rhian Williams and Kim Morrison.
Toe Prints by Elizabeth Goodfellow.
Live well, use little, grow lots. On a journey to discover what her home in the Yass Valley in NSW may look and feel like like in the future, local Landcarer Elizabeth Goodfellow learns some home truths and returns with a bigger story share. Elizabeth has been an active member of both the Bowning and Bookham Districts Landcare Group and the Yass Area Network’s Climate Ready Revegetation Project since they began. This is her first short film.
Toe Prints by Elizabeth Goodfellow
Paddock Regeneration by Sue Mackenzie.
“The champions of change program was an incredible opportunity for me to learn about visual story telling from the inspiring Brian Rapsey. It was an amazing experience and a fabulous group of participants.”
“My film aims to showcase local landcarers who have all embraced Greening Australia’s ‘Whole of paddock rehabilitation’ program. I hope it will inspire others to consider large scale reveg programs to benefit both production, biodiversity and the environment.”
Paddock Regeneration by Sue Mackenzie.
Filmmaking workshops with Brian Rapsey.
The documentaries premiered in the Champions of Change film festival were created by local emerging film makers. They attended creative film making workshops with Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Brain Rapsey from Rhapsody Films.
Brian is a photographer and filmmaker who has worked for 20 years in TV, documentary, corporate, educational & film production.
“Every year – before the pandemic – I’ve done one of the best gigs going: making travel films and mentoring the winner of the international World Nomads Travel Film Scholarship.”
“I’ve filmed short documentaries and assignments in Rio De Janeiro for Carnivale, New Orleans for Mardi Gras, Mexico for Day of the Dead, the remote pacific coast of Colombia, the stunning Sapa region of Vietnam, the remote Solu Khumbu region of Nepal, Kerala – India, & Tanzania.”
Brian’s travel films revolve around his passions: healthy communities, the environment, sustainable travel and social enterprises that benefit all of the above.
To learn more about Brian you can visit our Stories from the Studio Page, and visit his webpage Rhapsody Pictures.
This project has been made possible with funding from Inspiring Australia and will feature topics such as regenerative farming, soil health, conservation and threatened species.
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