The West End Film Festival (WEFF) is an Australian short film competition held in one of Australia’s most vibrant communities, Brisbane’s West End. Established in 2009, it was obvious that the Brisbane film community was crying out for a short film festival they could call their own. Now in its 5th year, West End Film Festival is back and will be held at the iconic Rumpus Cinema on Sunday March 23.

Located in a large warehouse space behind West End’s Rumpus Room bar, holding the festival in a space quite different from a traditional indoor cinema promotes a relaxed environment where filmmakers and audience can interact, and also makes the event more accessible to local punters looking to do something a bit different on a night out.  In April 2013, the Rumpus Cinema accommodated over 800 people over 2 screening sessions on the same night.

WEFF is becoming a stronger identity within the Brisbane film community and has already become an event that local filmmakers look forward to each year. Short film festivals are essential in developing the next generation of filmmakers and provide a platform for established and emerging filmmakers to showcase their work and talent in front of their peers, community and industry professionals. WEFF 2014 will provide a platform for filmmakers nationwide to showcase their work in one of Australia’s most respected short film festivals and celebrating this in the most culturally vibrant, grass-roots place in Brissy, West End.

Films are selected by a panel of industry professionals as well as West End Community Representatives, giving the program a good balance of films chosen for their artistic and technical merit, and also for audience enjoyment. With more than 95 entries into this year’s festival, the panel has selected 14 finalists to be screened across to sessions at this year’s event. More information on finalists to be released shortly.

OFFICAL WEBSITE: http://www.westendfilmfestival.com.au
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Early in 2013 Aunty Peggy Tidyman and a delegation of the local Logan Elders were invited to the Chung Tian Temple as part of building understanding between Indigenous and Buddhist cultures.

Not surprisingly both cultures share a great respect for the environment and embrace the fact that we are honoured with the responsibility to care for the land.

In a sign of friendship Aunty Peggy gathered soil from the Temple grounds and after a traditional Blessing Ceremony presented it to Master Chueh Shan, Abbess of the Chung Tian Temple for safekeeping till the return of the Elders to place the soil back within the earth.

Acknowledging the traditional owners of the land the Blessing Ceremony represented a great privilege as it provided permission for all who now use the Chung Tian Temple to practice their beliefs and culture on the Temple grounds. Reflecting on the Blessing Ceremony Aunty Peggy said: “We have come as friends but we now leave as family”.

One year later and marking the sixth anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s sorry to the Indigenous people of this country a gathering between the Logan Elders and the Buddhist of the Chung Tian Temple took place to return the blessed soil to the earth.

Representatives of the Indigeneous community included: Aunty Peggy Tidyman, Chairperson of the Logan Elders; husband Phil; Aunty Betty McGrady; Aunty Cathy Jackson; and Uncle Paddy Brown. Joining the Ceremony from the Multi-faith Community were Susan and Justin Handley from the Baha’i community and Imam Tariq from the Islamic community. President Kim Wu from the Buddha’s Light International Association of Queensland was also in attendance with a number of members from the Association.

In a simple ceremony at dusk the group stood solemnly and bare footed around the Chung Tian Temple’s Bodhi Tree. In an act of returning the blessed soil back to the earth, each person gathered a handful of soil and sprinkled it around the base of the Bodhi Tree. Breaking the silence a number of kookaburras began singing from the surrounding gum trees while some local wallabies which were grazing nearby looked up to see what all the commotion was about.

Reflecting on this meaningful Act of Reconciliation Master Shan shared: “that the Bodhi Tree at the Chung Tian Temple is descended from the original tree that Buddha sat under when he was enlightened. It holds great meaning that both Indigenous and Buddhist cultures can share this spot as one of being sacred and blessed”.

Aunty Peggy declared: “that from now on Indigenous people will hold this ground under the Bodhi Tree as a sacred site and whenever we visit we will take off our shoes as a sign of respect to the Blessed land that we now stand on”.

The Blessing of the Soil has brought together greater understanding between people from the Indigenous and Buddhist community and further activities are now being planned for a strengthening and sharing of the two cultures.

Westender’s weekly business eNews has been rebranded as Business Voice.

Westender now produces two free weekly eNews letters for the two different groups actively following the affairs of 4101.

1. The Community newsletter now goes to a little over 7,000 subscribers every week.
2. The new weekly business newsletter, Business Voice, focuses on technology, finance, management and Chamber of Commerce News, announcements about regulation of business and the commercial environment in West End and profiles local businesses.

You can subscribe to Business Voice online.

A new paper, released last week, measures the impact of burning fossil fuels on a geological timeframe.

Doctor Andrew Glickson’s paper, Fire and Human Evolution, measures the amount of energy, carbon and oxygen stored or created by plants in early geological ages and its rate of release throughout human history.

“Human respiration dissipates 2 to 10 calories per minute, a camp fire covering one square metre releases approximately 180,000 Calories per minute, and the output of a 1000 megawatt/hour power plant expends some 2.4 billion calories per minute, namely some 500 million times the mean energy level of individual human respiration.”

It breaks the era of human intervention in the Earth’s systems (the Anthropocene) into three distinct phases.

1. “Early Anthropocene” ∼2 million years ago, when fire was discovered by Homo ergaster.
2. “Middle Anthropocene” when extensive grain farming developed.
3. “Late Anthropocene” with the onset of combustion of fossil fuels.

Glickson concludes that the discovery of fire leads directly to the consequence of runaway climate change.

” It would take a species possessing absolute wisdom and total control to prevent its own inventions from getting out of hand.”

This provides academic rigour for the simple contention that by burning a billion years of sunlight in a little over a century we are inevitably going to warm the earth enough to lead to climate chaos.

Opera Queensland today announced a world-first project to give nearly 400 everyday people in eight regional communities the opportunity to perform in the chorus of a new, professionally staged production of La bohème.

‘Project Puccini’ is a hugely ambitious initiative, which will invest $2 million into communities on the Gold Coast and Fraser Coast (Maryborough), and in Toowoomba, Ipswich, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Mount Isa.

Auditions for adults and children to sing and act alongside OperaQ’s principal artists and Queensland Symphony Orchestra musicians start in March 2014, with the La bohème tour running from July to September 2014.

OperaQ will employ a chorus master and rehearsal coordinator from each region and work with local arts centres, theatres, councils and sponsors to ensure the highest standard of performance and personal development opportunities for budding local artists.

An intensive 10-week development program will equip all participants with improved music and drama skills, new social and creative networks, and an increased sense of community, wellbeing and self-esteem.

Arts Minister Ian Walker said the Queensland Government supported Project Puccini and the La bohème regional tour with funding of $399,954 through Arts Queensland’s Playing Queensland Fund.

“Project Puccini offers a unique opportunity for everyday Queenslanders to perform in a professional production,” he said.

“This is an excellent example of our Arts for all Queenslanders commitment in action, delivering more great arts and culture for more Queenslanders.”

Project Puccini is also proudly supported by the Graeme Wood Foundation.

OperaQ Artistic Director Lindy Hume said Project Puccini was the first major undertaking in the company’s Open Stage program, which aims to build creative skills and maintain strong, meaningful relationships with communities across Queensland.

“I am particularly passionate about encouraging excellence in regional arts and we want to seek out and nurture outstanding talent across Queensland,” Ms Hume said.

“We hope our professionally trained local choruses will go on to perform in other cultural and community events, and inter-regional relationships will develop to build artistic collaboration and improve the return on government and private investment in the arts.

“This brand new production of La bohème demonstrates the company’s commitment to excellence in regional Queensland,” Ms Hume said.

Known as the most romantic opera of all time, La bohème appeals to devotees and newcomers alike. Beginning on a snowy Christmas Eve in Paris, it tells the tale of Mimi’s love affair with the poet Rodolfo and their group of rent-dodging flatmates living and loving precariously on the edge of society.

Puccini’s beloved opera will be brought to life by award-winning theatre director Craig Ilott and internationally acclaimed designer Penny Challen.

All Project Puccini participants and supporters can connect online through www.operaQ.com.au/projectpuccini to share their experiences, stories, video and images.

Collaborative artists Wilkins Hill (Wendy Wilkins and Wes Hill) have been working together since 2000, pursuing a shared interest in the phenomenological aspects of communicating meaning between an artwork and an audience.

In Brainal Pipes Confusion Cave, the artists expand upon a series of works developed in Germany between 2008 and 2012, which stage obtuse metaphors through banners and commercial signage material. Previous works have sought to communicate distinctly but indirectly to viewers; heightening the readability of art as well as its resistance to hermeneutical closure. Brainal Pipes Confusion Cave sees the artists employing commercial banners to invoke the exhibition space as a type of cave, and suggests a mode of analytical engagement that is incomplete or has been abandoned.

A Wilkins Hill installation is often conceived around a central theme that the artists then discard, leaving traces of logic in the work but rarely producing coherence. This exhibition has been specially developed for the Metro Arts space, in keeping with the artists’ emphasis on the temporal and spatial dynamics that are at play in the interpretive process.

ABOUT THE WORK

OPENING / 19 February 2014, 6PM

EXHIBITION / 19 February – 8 March 2014

ARTIST TALK / 26 February, 6PM

FRIDAY NIGHT / 7 March, from 5:30PM onwards

METRO ARTS GALLERY, Level 2