Joshua Marks doco on grandparents Australian broadcast premiere

Not many people make a documentary film about their grandparents, especially if they are not famous.

Well, Sydney-based Joshua Marks has.  He calls it, simply, My Grandparents.   There’s a “tag line” that goes “A young film-maker rediscovers his ancestors – and they’re still alive!”

My Grandparents will be broadcast nationally here in Australia this Sunday, 27^th October 2013 at 8.30pm on the Aurora Community Television channel, on Foxtel.

The documentary is a group biography, described as a “cross-generational documentary in which filmmaker Joshua Marks sets out to find out more about his grandparents – what drives them, what fears and hopes they have.”

Marks worked on his film over two years and incorporated lots of humour. In just 26 minutes (how did he ever edit it down?), he creates “a journey of awareness”.  As with all good semi-autobiographical films (think of Sarah Polley’s recent Stories We Tell), the film becomes both a journey of discovery as well as an elucidation of his subjects.

Declaration here:  I am related to Joshua Marks through marriage, and I know two of his three living grandparents quite well.  I am also the Chair of the Board of Aurora.  So I am anything but objective in these matters.  But still – it’s a delightful film worth watching.  And Aurora is a charming, quirky and fascinating community channel – to the best of my knowledge, the only television channel in Australia that broadcasts 100% Australian content.

Missed the broadcast on Aurora?  You can purchase the DVD from Ronin Films – the DVD has extra features, including an interview with Marks.  (Pricing depends on who you are and where you live.)

Photos below – top one the promotional flyer; bottom one the film-maker with his three grandparents.

 

Creating Community – garbage can collaboration

Here is a photo of grouped garbage cans in a cul-de-sac near our house on the North Shore of Sydney.  This picture says a lot about neighbourliness in this small street:  the residents have all decided (together?) to group their cans to make it easy for the local council trucks to empty them.  We who live in the relatively low-density suburbs of Sydney rarely collaborate with neighbours like this. When you walk the streets of the suburbs on garbage pick-up day, you see more garbage cans than people.  But here at least the cans have their own “community”.

(Photo:  Sydney’s North Shore on garbage pick-up day)

For those who do not know, the yellow bin is for paper, blue is for bottles/cans and black/red is for general rubbish.