'Living with inequality' a short film by #BrokenHill filmmakers Sara & Mackenna Ridley

Film
After a quick look on Twitter using the #BrokenHill hashtag I came across this powerful short film which was made using an iPhone by Broken Hill filmmakers Sara and Mackenna Ridley.

Called 'Living with inequality', the title says it all.

Here's the link to the Vimeo clip (http://vimeo.com/117871753) -

Equality Film from Sara Ridley on Vimeo.

The message is that discrimination continues to exist in Australia today.

Thanks Jenia Ratcliffe of @ABCOpen in Broken Hill for the Tweet. 

Two #BrokenHill filmmakers share powerful message about inequality with an iPhone. http://t.co/ys2mnJLr5T I @abcopen pic.twitter.com/TgAjQ9aMjU
— Jenia Ratcliffe (@Open_Jenia) January 28, 2015

Very thought provoking.

Jane Deany

NFSA visits Broken Hill 7-9 November 2014 for Big Screen Film Festival

Community Event

The National Film and Sound Archive’s Big Screen Film Festival is in Broken Hill for its final tour, so there will be films aplenty this weekend to celebrate 100 years of film in Broken Hill.

All in all, the festival will premiere five new Australian films plus a selection of ABC Open films, including contributor Ray Denton's first ever production!

Retiree’s film up in lights at #BrokenHill @NFSAonline #bigscreen film festival. http://t.co/mgGmgaoYf2 I @abcopen pic.twitter.com/hxLI44DbzP
— Jenia Ratcliffe (@Open_Jenia) November 7, 2014

The opening night on Friday, saw festival goers enjoy a glass of wine at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery in Argent Street before heading around the corner to the Silver City Cinema for the 6.30pm screening of the local premiere of 'When the Queen Came to Town' plus the NFSA’s footage of the Queen’s 1954 Broken Hill tour.

"When the Queen Came to Town" screens on Friday + archival footage from 1954 #BrokenHill #BigScreenFilmFestival pic.twitter.com/PMhP5akyol
— ABC Broken Hill (@ABCBrokenHill) November 6, 2014

Ray Denton's film 'Outback Planetary Science' screened on Saturday at 7pm before sci-fi thriller 'Predestination'.

The Sunday Morning screening of the new 'Maya the Bee' movie should suit all the family.

At the Sunday matinee screening of 100 Years of Film in Broken Hill, will provide the opportunity to spot your grandparents on the big screen and win prizes!

Venue and ticketing information

Silver City Cinema
41-45 Oxide Street
Broken Hill NSW 2880
Ph: 08 8087 4569

With films all weekend, it sounds like there'll be a lot to keep visitors and locals alike busy in Broken Hill.

Enjoy.

Cheers Jane Deany

Eighteen months on and Jane Deany still loves Broken Hill

The Broken Hill Court House and me
Argent Street, Broken Hill

I couldn't let the day go by without mentioning that it has been eighteen months since I started www.ilovebrokenhill.com on 8 December 2011 and I still have much more to say after nearly 150 posts.

So as the romance continues, I plan to keep writing about all the things that are great about Broken Hill as there is still so much to say.

You can follow the story on Facebook at ilovebrokenhill.com and Twitter @ilovebrokenhill or of course right here on the blog.

I've met and spoken to many interesting and wonderful people over the time I've been writing and have had some fun experiences including becoming the story in a page three article in the 'Barrier Daily Truth' (BDT) in October (see post 28 October 2012 link here), writing a guest post on the ABC Open website on 29 November (see link to post here) and being interviewed by Chris Jeremy of ABC Broken Hill 999 local radio on his 'Outback Outlook' show in January this year.

I've interviewed a number of high profile and interesting Broken Hill identities such as Broken Hill Mayor Wincen Cuy and Sussan Ley the Federal Member for Farrer in which Broken Hill is situated, see story earlier today, just to name a couple of people, and there are still many stories to tell and more people to be interviewed.  Everyone I've spoken to has been friendly and helpful.  So thanks to everyone in Broken Hill (and nearby Silverton).

So stay tuned for more ilovebrokenhill.com in the months ahead.

As always, cheers, Jane D

Free photography workshop 9 June Tibooburra Sight & Sound Festival

Albert Hall, Briscoe Street, Tibooburra
image courtesy www.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons

Community Event
As part of the Sight and Sound Festival which is being held in Tibooburra this weekend, ABC Open Broken Hill will be running a free photography workshop similar to the workshops held in Tibooburra and Milparinka in April this year.  See my article of 18 April here regarding that successful event.

I mentioned the Sight and Sound Festival yesterday 6 June in my post, see below and link here.

Details of the workshop can be found via ABC Open Broken Hill link here.

Time:   10am - 4pm

Place:  Albert Hall, Briscoe Street, Tibooburra NSW

Bring:  Camera, smartphone and laptop if you have one.  BYO lunch.

Bookings:  Contact ABC Open Broken Hill's Jenia Ratcliffe who is once again running the workshop.  See her contact details below.

Jenia Ratcliffe ABC Open Broken Hill - (08) 8082 4024 or ratcliffe.jenia@abc.net.au

The theme is 'Faces'.  See link here to ABC Open's website for some examples of 'Faces' photos already uploaded onto their website.  Sounds like a lot of fun, and it's free!!

Enjoy, cheers, Jane D

ABC Open 'Abandoned' photography exhibition Tibooburra 7-27 June

Community Event
ABC Open Broken Hill's Jenia Ratcliffe is visiting Tibooburra in Far North West NSW this weekend to take part in the opening of the 'Abandoned' photography exhibition.  The exhibition is part of Tibooburra's Sight and Sound Festival which runs over the June Queen's birthday long weekend.  The official opening is tomorrow Friday 7 June, at Albert Hall, Briscoe Street, Tibooburra.  For $10 you can enjoy wine and cheese and the first chance to see the exhibition.  See details below.

The exhibition is a collection of work that was captured during the ABC Open Broken Hill photography workshops in April.  See my article of 18 April 2013 about that event via this link.

The Festival itself will take place on the main street of Tibooburra, and will include a variety of stalls, food and activities for all the family, so it's well worth the trip according to Jenia.

Okay, Tibooburra isn't exactly around the corner, it's about 335 km north of Broken Hill (or 1,189 km from Melbourne - I won't be going), but it's a long weekend so there's more time to explore this isolated but fascinating historic town.

After a few weeks in Tibooburra the exhibition will move on to nearby Milparinka, which is where some of the photographs were taken, where it we be on show from 28 June to 7 October 2013.

Here's some more information -

Here are the links to ABC Open Broken Hill's information about the exhibition and Sight and Sound Festival.

Jenia Ratcliffe's contact details are ABC Open Broken Hill - (08) 8082 4024 or ratcliffe.jenia@abc.net.au

Enjoy, cheers, Jane D

Snapped out of Broken Hill, ABC Open's free photography workshops to visit Milparinka and Tibooburra this weekend

ABC Open Broken Hill's Jenia Ratcliffe (right) and me
at the Patton Village Summer Vibes Festival in January

Community Event
ABC Open Broken Hill's Jenia Ratcliffe is visiting Far North West NSW this weekend, and will spend the 20th and 21st of April 2013 in Milparinka and Tibooburra (respectively) where she is holding photography workshops, and the best part is that not only is everyone welcome, the workshops are free.

Okay, so Milparinka isn't exactly around the corner, it's about 296 km north of Broken Hill (or 1,150 km from Melbourne - I won't be going) and Tibooburra is another 39 km beyond (north) of Milparinka or 335 km north of Broken Hill.  I have yet to visit either of this famous historic towns, but hope to on one of my trips to Broken Hill, so I can't tell you much about them.

No doubt after the workshops, which run between 10am and 4pm each day there will be plenty of photos downloaded onto ABC Open Broken Hill's website, as well as participant's Facebook pages and well, they could end up anywhere these days.  My point being that the photos will provide a great opportunity for readers to get a taste of what's in store if you manage to make the trip to these isolated towns where a real taste of outback Australia can be found.

'Pub with no beer' - Milparinka - by Ruth Sandow
Ruth co-ordinates the Milparinka Heritage Precinct
image provided by ABC's Jenia Ratcliffe

Here are the links to ABC Open Broken Hill's information about each of the workshops, and Jenia's contact details can be found there and below - see Milparinka link and Tibooburra link.

ABC Open Broken Hill - Jenia Ratcliffe (08) 8082 4024 or ratcliffe.jenia@abc.net.au

Here is a link to a recent article Jenia wrote about Milparinka's 'Pub with no beer'.

The workshops sound like a great opportunity to spend time doing something different in a striking outback landscape.

Happy snapping, cheers, Jane D

ABC Open Broken Hill's Jenia Ratcliffe's "A Place by the Sea" screens on ABC's "Compass" Program Tonight

Entertainment

Promo shot from ABC Compass website for the story
"A Place by the Sea"

Don't miss tonight's ABC Compass television program "A Place by the Sea" which has been produced by ABC Open Broken Hill Producer Jenia Ratcliffe.

I have spoken to Jenia about all things blogging and Broken Hill in recent months.  We were in touch last week regarding my guest blog on the ABC Open Broken Hill website which was published last Thursday (29.11.12) see link.  There are many other fascinating blogs on that site which are well worth a read.

Anyhow, back to Compass.  I think Jenia is quite excited about tonight's "premier" screening on Compass which is a very well known and long running Australian television program.  Compass, on air each Sunday night since 1988 - is a program which reflects and explores faith, belief and values in Australia and around the globe .  

Jenia Ratcliffe - "ABC Open Broken Hill" Producer
picture from the ABC website

It goes to air on ABCTV at 6.00pm Australian Central Time (and Broken Hill time) which is 6.30pm Eastern Standard Time (Melbourne time).  If you get the chance to see it, do please tell us what you thought.  If you can't watch it at the time you can always catch up with it later on ABC iview.

Jenia produced a short film which showed at sunset at last Friday night's "Summer Vibes" festival launch at Patton Park South Broken Hill.  In a post on the "Summer Vibes" festival a few day's ago I mentioned that film which is "Big Dreams for New Generation".  If you happened to see it please do let us know what you thought.

Cheers, Jane D

ABC Open Broken Hill, Romance, Hot Weather and Me

It was a hot 40 degrees in
Broken Hill outside the
West Darling Hotel

I was delighted to write a guest blog for ABC Open Broken Hill a couple of days ago.  It was fun to reminisce a little about the beginnings of my "romance" with Broken Hill.  I have provided a link to the article here.  Given some of the details of the story, it was fitting that it was published on a hot 43 degree day in Broken Hill.  It was pretty hot in Melbourne that day too, we got to 39 degrees "down south".

ABC Open provides a fantastic avenue for regional Australians and some city folk too who have a regional 'connection', to keep in touch even if they are thousands or hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest town.  In ABC Open's own words - 

"ABC Open invites regional communities to produce and publish photos, stories, videos and sound through the ABC."

It's a fascinating website well worth checking out.  There is a wide variety of really interesting stories published in a range of mediums.  There are so many talented story tellers, photographers and film-makers out there in regional Australia.

Cheers, Jane D

Patton Village Summer Vibes Festival 30.11.12-27.01.13 Sth Broken Hill

Publicity Brochure from
'Summer Vibes' website

Entertainment
Don't miss the Summer Vibes Festival which begins this Friday 30 November at Patton Park, Patton Street, South Broken Hill, (opposite the local shops in Patton Street).

I know a lot of work has gone into it as I have been reading about it over the past months in the local "Barrier Daily Truth" newspaper and ABC Broken Hill website.

ABC Broken Hill will play a short film "Big Dreams for New Generation" to kick off the festival's nine week line up of films on this festival opening night.

From ABC Broken Hill's website I've sourced the following -

"Big Dreams for New Generation was produced as part of ABC Open's DreamBox project and showcases dreams collected from the students of Alma Public School during last year's NAIDOC Week.

This fantastic film along with over fifteen others about life in the Broken Hill region will be screened as part of the Summer Vibes Festival at Patton Park, South Broken Hill; Every Friday evening from 30 November to 27 January; and at Coburn Hotel on 26 January."

Festival Dates:     30 November 2012 - 27 January 2013

ABC Open Broken Hill's short film  8.30 - 8.35 pm Friday 30 November

Where:                   Patton Park, Patton Street, South Broken Hill

Website:                www.summervibes.org.au

Patton Village is running the event.

It sounds like a lot of fun. There will be a lot on. I suggest you check out their website for events and more information.  I hope I can make it to some of the events.

Cheers, Jane D