NFSA discovers Australia's earliest known surviving film

Arts Minister Peter Garrett recently announced that the earliest known surviving film made in Australia has been found and restored to the NFSA.

The film Patineur Grotesque (or the Humorous Rollerskater), is believed to have been shot in late October 1896 by Lumiere cinematographer Marius Sestier just days prior to the 1896 Melbourne Cup Carnival.

'This is a very exciting find and an important piece of our nation's cinematic history.  It features some of the earliest images of Australia caught on film and its discovery is a credit to the determination and skill of the curatorial staff at the NFSA.

'Patineur Grotesque also helps fill a missing link in global cinematic history, acknowledged as a forerunner to the work of two of cinema's earliest comedians, Charlie Chaplin and Max Linder,' Mr Garrett said.

The film is one minute long and the action takes place in the centre of the frame. A man in costume and on rollerskates performs for a gathering crowd. As part of the act the skater trips and falls, then drops his hat. As he attempts to retrieve the hat he continues to fall about. When finally the hat is restored to his head the act comes to a halt.

Until last month, the film had never been screened in Australia.

Find out more about the discovery of Patineur Grotesque and the NFSA's Marius Sestier Project.

Big Screen is 'Sweet' on Mallacoota

Australian favourite, actor, Gary Sweet.

The Big Screen Australian Film Festival has got off to a great start this year, drawing large crowds in Mildura and Yamba in February and March. Next stop is Mallacoota.

Big Screen Festival Coordinator Gordana Bacic will be joined in Mallacoota by Logie and AFI award-winning star of stage and screen Gary Sweet. Gary will introduce the opening night film, Subdivision, at the Mudbrick Pavilion. Gary will next be seen in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's mini-series The Pacific and the forthcoming feature film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Big Screen is a travelling film festival presented by the NFSA. The festival brings new and archival Australian films to audiences across regional and rural Australia and is just one way the NFSA ensures our rich cinematic history is made available to inspire the next generation of Australian filmmakers and artists.

Big Screen moves onto Nanango in May and Briagolong and Cairns in June.

Special donation of Indigenous Music

Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion Band.

The NFSA has received a very rare donation of manuscripts including traditional Torres Strait Islander songs and stories written by hand more than 50 years ago.

During World War Two the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion was based on Horn Island in the Torres Strait. The Battalion band, led by Lt. Colonel C.F.M. Godtschalk, liaised with local musicians to include Indigenous songs in the band's repertoire.  Manuscripts of the songs were created using standard Western musical notation and including the original Indigenous words to the tunes.

Donated manuscript featuring Kain Khuki.

In 2009, after reading an article about the arrival of Dr Darryl McIntyre, the new CEO of the NFSA, Colonel Godtschalk's widow donated to the NFSA her late husband's collection of papers relating to the Battalion band in the Torres Strait. The wonderful collection contains photos, notebooks, clippings and the handwritten scores of four songs, Adiboya, Kain Khuki, Red Clouds and Farewell. It is likely that this was the first time that the songs had been transcribed into Western music scores.

The NFSA is collaborating with Dr Karl Neuenfeldt, a specialist on Torres Strait music and a former SAR Fellow at the NFSA, on plans to undertake further research and to record the music in the Torres Strait.

New Scholars and Artists in Residence

There are currently two Research Fellows at the NFSA under the Scholars and Artists in Residence program. This program offers Fellows specially facilitated access to the national collection, close collaboration with NFSA curatorial and technical experts, access to the library, modern accommodation and a fully equipped work space on-site.

Robert Cettl is a Fellow at the NFSA until the end of May. His project involves an analysis of Australian feature film from the early 1970s to the present day, exploring its representation of disability and disabled people. The project is informed by the growing politicization of the Disability Movement and seeks to apply the union of film and disability study began in the USA by such figures as Prof. Paul K. Longmore to the distinctiveness of Australian film culture. A qualified librarian and archivist, Robert is an Adelaide-based experimental filmmaker and freelance author whose latest work of film scholarship is Terrorism in American Cinema, the first analytical filmography of terrorism as a genre (published in the USA by McFarland & Co. Inc).

Dr David Lawrence continues his Fellowship at the NFSA until the end of April. He is analysing a selection of images from the Torres Strait and the Fly River District (1898-1998) in the NFSA collection, with the aim of documenting the historical, social and political narrative behind the images. David is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. An anthropologist by training, he has published widely on the history and culture of indigenous societies in the Asia Pacific region.

National Folk Award presented for tenth year

This year's NFSA National Folk Recording Award has been won by Chloë and Jason Roweth, with Jim McWhinnie, for their new CD, A Voice that was Still. The Award was announced and presented at the National Folk Festival held in Canberra over Easter.

The Roweths are based in Millthorpe, NSW and Jim McWhinnie is from Bathurst. Chloë plays the mandolin and bouzouki, Jason plays guitar and bass, while Jim plays the bodhran. Vocals on the CD are shared by Chloë and Jason. 

The NFSA's Recorded Sound Senior Curator, Matthew Davies, said today that the CD is a beautiful mix of the old and the new.'Chloë and Jason have intensively researched traditional Australian music and play some wonderful old songs and tunes. In addition they incorporate into the CD some terrific modern songs, penned by people like Bob Rummery. The production, with Jim McWhinnie's supportive bodhran, is very satisfying indeed.'

This is the tenth year the National Folk Recording Award has been presented. Acting CEO of the NFSA, Ann Landrigan said today that the Award was designed to encourage continued high-quality recording of Australia's sound heritage. Entrants were selected from recordings submitted by performers at the 2010 National Folk Festival. The Award was judged by a panel of representatives from the National Folk Festival and the NFSA.

The Award carries a cash prize plus inclusion of the winning CD in the NFSA's recorded sound collection.