Ego Lemos

Tuning to the heart of East Timor: Ego Lemos

Monday, August 23, 2010

On the phone, 5:30pm Multi-talented East Timorese artist Ego Lemos was in Australia at the 2010 Darwin Festival last week. Ego is internationally known for his award-winning song, Balibo, which was the soundtrack to the movie of the same name. He has also recently released his debut solo album, O Hele Le, which features beautiful folk songs in Tetum, the East Timorese national language. I spoke by phone with Ego about his achievements as a musician and environmental campaigner for the Timorese people. Tell us about your two concerts at the Darwin Festival. How were they received and what performance... 

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Adam Bandt

Greener on the other side: Adam Bandt’s election bid

Friday, August 20, 2010

Melbourne Greens’ Headquarters, Brunswick Street, 6pm Tonight is the last night before the 2010 Australian federal election. Blogs, tv and radio are aflutter with speculation about the outcome, as the Labor and Liberal parties draw closer and closer together in the pre-poll ratings. In the City of Melbourne, however, there is a unique race going on.  For the first time in Australian parliament history, there is a chance that a Greens party candidate could win a lower house seat over the Labor party. That Greens party candidate is one Adam Bandt. So this evening, full of curiosity, I went... 

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tree215.7.10

Notes from Hidden Documentary: the journey so far

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

There are days when you just don’t feel like writing. The sentences are clunky on the page, you keep making excuses to go make tea and your hallowed writer’s ‘voice’ seems more like a rasping whisper. It must be the winter chill. After a temporary hiatus in self-pity land, I began writing this evening. My writing process is made up largely of watching youtube videos for hours until the magical five minutes of inspiration arrives. There doesn’t seem to be any short cut here. The videos must be watched until, somewhere, between “Bachata hits from 2004″ and... 

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Media and the Arts

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Stories from Australia’s largest terrorism trial: Joan Robinson and Omar Merhi

The Trial director Joan Robinson

The Trial is one of Melbourne’s most important hidden documentaries. It follows the  stories of two accused men in Australia’s biggest terrorism trial, which ran from February to September 2008. The terrorism trial itself was all over the media that year. It involved 25 lawyers, 12 accused and heard hundreds of hours of secretly recorded conversations and presented 66,000 pages of evidence. Many of the accused were charged as a result of words they had spoken rather than... Read More

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Casting off discrimination: Suvash Darnal and Bidhya Chapagain

threejournfront

Journalism isn’t an easy profession – just ask Mark Latham. Recently, however, I  met a group of journalists who inspired me to believe in media to create  social change.  The group came from Nepal to Australia through the Australia Pacific Centre of Journalism for a month long work tour, with the goal of empowering  the Dalit community of Nepal. They present a complex picture of the issues facing Nepali society. Most of the journalists belong to the Dalit caste,... Read More

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A model manager: Philip Darley

Philip Darley

Darley studios, Flinders Street, 3:30pm Fashion blogger Lady Melbourne once said to me that fashion was the visual language people used to communicate their identity to the world. As I sat there talking to her on that afternoon last year in my sloppy jeans and t-shirt, I wondered just how well I was communicating the inner fashion siren locked – somewhere – inside of me. So this week, in my attempt to learn the secrets of the eternally glamorous, I met with model... Read More

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Hidden Melbourne

Hidden Melbourne: Why is there so much cast iron lacework on the buildings in Melbourne?

adamfront

In a new Hidden Documentary section, I’ve decided to open up the curiosity floodgates to you, dear reader. I want to know, what have you always wondered about Melbourne? Is it an old building you always pass on your way to work, or a piece of graffiti you’ve wondered about, or maybe where your local [...]

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New Endeavours

Hope in Copenhagen: Ryan Sweeney

Ryan Sweeney and his crew

Last year when I was in LA for the American Music Awards, I met filmmaker Ryan Sweeney who was working on the red carpet for the show. When you watch live television, it can seem glitsy and slick. The reality, however, is there is a lot of waiting around while interviews are organised, talent is [...]

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