IF YOU have ever wondered what it takes to make an enthralling documentary, then Bellingen is the place to be on the weekend of 1 and 2 November.
A group of Australia’s award-winning documentary editors (all women) formed a loose group over the past few years to talk through work issues and decided they wanted to watch each other’s films and “have a good old natter about them”.
Supported by the Australian Screen Editors Guild and Screen Works, they have collated a weekend of screenings and “Q&As” at the Dark Room in Bellingen.
Their message is that “real film making” doesn’t begin until the shooting is done, and that editing is what makes a documentary compelling.
Jane Welch, who has spent 35 years editing feature documentaries, told News Of The Area, “This is a weekend event to come and hear hair-raising stories and soak up six exceptional documentaries.
“If you’ve ever found yourself in tears crying or laughing or just completely furious watching a film, you are in the hands of an editor.
“Of all the filmmaking collaborators, the editor creates the connection to the audience.
“The editor writes the film, in words, pictures, music, timing and juxtaposition.”
She said that documentary editing is like the extreme sport of editing.
“Usually just a bunch of rushes and no script but big ideas and hopes arrive in the edit room, and out comes a film that looks like it could never be edited any other way.
“Often the best cutting is completely invisible so the film just carries you along.”
Ms Welch said the Dark Room will transform into a habitat for some of Australia’s best documentary editors and, in the comfortable, dark space they will show some of their favourite films and “get under the bonnet”.
Saturday: “Nobody’s Sweetie” by Jenny Hicks will examine the life and work of “Australia’s most eccentric and reclusive artist” Dale Frank, while Andrea Lang’s “End of the Rainbow” looks at the result of a multinational company dropping its mine into a West African village.The dawning of the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin in 1973 is celebrated in Karin Raven Steininger’s “Aquarius”.
Sunday: Ms Welch’s “Dark Science” is about Swedish scientist Eric Mjoberg dispossessing Indigenous communities in 1910 and will be followed by “The Final Quarter” by Sally Fryer about AFL champion, Adam Goodes. ITHAKA, by Karen Johnson, highlights what the most powerful nations will do in order to hide their crimes.
Find tickets at events.humanitix.com/the-dark-arts-of-editing.
By Andrew VIVIAN
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