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I mentioned a couple of days ago that I had recently repackaged "The Smooth Move", the multimedia package from the Ucan2 Country-City Transition Project.
As a tribute to late Kirk Robson, the writer and director of the feature film, I'm going to post one of each of the five episodes each day. At the moment it feels like a fitting way to honour this great piece of work.
The project was initiated by David Parker who was the minister at Warracknabeal Uniting Church at the time, and gained funding from the Synod of Victoria and two of the regional the School-Focused Youth Service networks. The aim was to give schools and community groups a way to help rural school leavers and their families through the transition involved in moving to the city for study or work. Kirk's partner Kylie was also involved, working as the Project Officer at the "city" end.
I was part of the steering group and later the Project Officer (at the "country" end) and had the privilege of recruiting Kirk and overseeing his work on the film. "The Smooth Move" is a five-episode mini-series that tracks two young adults as they move from the country to the city. Kirk interviewed students in the city and parents in the country to hear and record their stories about the whole transition experience. A number of those interviewed later became cast members in the film, which contains only two professional actors (one of the lead actors and one of the minor roles.)
Kirk managed to weave an authentic, humorous, moving, open-ended narrative from the stories told to him. It has an appropriately laid-back Australian feel to it. The 35 minute mini-series raises a range of issues about parents' feelings, loneliness, getting along with flatmates, negotiating uni life, finance, drugs and alcohol, relationships and more - in a way that is designed to open up conversation, not make judgement. It is shot in a hand-held doco style.
Kirk was a delight to work with on this, not only in his creativity, but in the way in which he drew in a huge group of people as volunteers in order to meet a shoestring budget. But his strength was the way in which he engaged people in the story-telling process, just as he had done so skilfully and sensitively with "The Torch" Reconciliation Project.
So here is Episode 1: d-day.
It is a 240x180 Quicktime MP4 file that runs for 6 mins 34 secs. It's a 27.4 mb file.
Epsiode Two tomorrow.
in memory of kirk
This Photo Search Browser is very cool. You type a word to start and it comes back with a montage of images, such as I did here by typing "alt worship". You can then click on any of the images to see it larger, or click "more" to see the next screen. I found this nice Grace candle thing.
But here's the fun part - type something more generic like "church", and as well as the montage, you get a circle of related words. Move the mouse around and you should zoom out from the montage and see the related words.
Click on it and it brings up a big circle of other related words. You can click on any of them to branch out with your search.
So after clicking on "Church" I clicked on "Jesus" and now have an even bigger circle of related words.
very excellent and fun.
Here's a classy looking photographers wesbite with very neat interactivity:
Thanks to a recommendation from a mr baker, I've just bought The Book of Probes by Marshall McLuhan and David Carson. I've had Carson's "The End of Print" for some time and love his work. The combination with McLuhan's piercing, puzzling and provocative quotes is brilliant (you thought I was going to say "perfect", didnt you?)
jonny has a nice little movie of some of the pages and I'm just trying to find out where i downloaded it from.
I picked up this gorgeous book on labyrinths and mazes yesterday. It comes from Woodlake Books in Canada who are the publishers of Seasons of the Spirit all-age Christian education curriculum. At one level its a lovely "coffee table" book with great photos and design (although I don't know anyone who has a coffee table any more).
The book looks at labyrinths and mazes around the world, and the photos and designs of these are worthwhile in themselves. The book delves into the history of both labyrinths and mazes, but then examines the relationship between symbol and meaning. The author speaks of places and spiritual responses, rather than simply giving a theoretical or theological treatment.
The book is experiential. There are a number of labyrinths and mazes that you can traces with finger or pen, along with reflection questions. There are also 3 maze journeys that you can take through the book, with instructions at the bottom of each page on where to go next.
The book includes a "how to" on making a labyrinth. But more than that, it has been deisgned to taken the reader on a spiritual journey and enable you to be a participant, not just a receiver. I think it's wonderful.
We've been running our annual Winter School of Prayer over the weekend. About 30 people attended at it was an excellent experience on the theme "Take Back Time". We started the weekend with 5 stations that people could experience/explore:
1. Matthew 6:25-34 on "consider the lilies of the field" with a clip from Microcosmos of slow motion plants blooming and insects. People were invited to take a seed bulb and invest it with their worries for tomorrow and then to plant it in a pot of soil, putting aside these concerns for a time and inviting God to do God's work with it (thanks Cheryl, this idea just keeps coming back.)
2. The "Time" sequence from the 1 Giant Leap DVD.
3. The amazing Hand Clock with Psalm 39:4-7, 12-13. The reflection was about memories - that our lives are more than fleeting moments. People were invited to write significant dates from their lives of slips of paper, to cut out a picture that symbolised the event (from a pile of stock photo books) and to place both in a bowl, offering a prayer of thanks, for healing, etc. They took a blessing from A Book of Blessings by Ruth Burgess.
A Blessing
May you stop and see
the way light falls and rocks glow
and may God bless you with
little, big moments that make your heart dance.
Moments when you suddenly become aware of all the
overwhelming beauty and wonder and richness and love
living in the middle of where you are standing already.
Moments when you gaze around understanding:
the kingdom of God is now.
4. The clip I made for U2's "Stuck in a Moment" with Psalm 40:1-3. People were invited to reflect on a part of their lives that felt stuck. They were invited to choose a scrap of fabric and glue it to a canvas. As with the seed activity above, we invited them to sit with the stuckness over the weekend and allow God the opportunity to work with it. They were invited to say this blessing.
A Blessing
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless God’s holy name,
who raises us each morning to a new day
bestowing on us its freshness, its promise,
that we may not be captive to the past
but walk in the assurance of forgiveness, which proves
as dependable as is day succeeding day.
5. I shortened my syrup time poem and linked it with Song of Solomon 2:10-13. People were invited to eat some syrp on fresh bread and then to write their own poem of praise using magnetic poetry. If I did it again I'd add some late harvets riesling and apple cider and chocolates to the table.
We then headed over to the chapel for a gathered worship time. I wanted a "cosmic" feel so I draped fairy lights over the round communion table like a tablecloth, along with candles and some purple cloth that Ann provided.
As people came in the lights were dimmed with Geoff's White Lady clip playing and music from Angels of the Universe. I have to say it was pretty stunning and I don't have a photo. Here's a sample of the White Lady as a DivX Avi - 6.9 mb and as a Quicktime MP4 - 6 mb.
We used the latter part of Isaiah 40 as the text while the video clip and music were playing, along with some prayer and a Taize song.
Anyway the input sessions were good as was the other worship led by Ann and Geoff, who incorporated the Signposts cards into a series of stations on the Saturday morning. I'll see if I can turn Philip Carter's session into an mp3 and make it available.
