February 11, 2022 • 21 mins
Animator and educator Cath Murphy has a rich history in animation spanning more than 20 years and has won numerous awards in film for: Animation; Writing; Directing; Producing and Visual Effects. A registered nurse with extensive experience in mental health, Cath’s approach to animation is about social inclusion and the impact it can have on working and emotional life.
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Episode Transcript
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Cath Murphy (00:05):
Media is just, has so much weight in terms of getting
messages out, whatever somebodywants to convey at the moment.
I mean, you know, like there wasnobody, there were very few people
who don't watch something every day.
And so I think, uh, It's sort ofan amazing opportunity to expose
(00:29):
some stuff, because it's not goinganywhere once it's out there, it's out.
So there's no taking it back.
And you know, there's some verybrave people who use it, you know,
at the risk of death actually.
So yeah, it's an amazing forum.
I think amazing um, tool to use.
Nat Grant (01:00):
Welcome to season five of the Prima Donna podcast, Sonic
portraits of Australian artists.
These episodes compriseinterview recordings and original
music, celebrating creativeelders across all disciplines.
The first episode in thisseries features Cath Murphy.
Animator and educator Cath has a richhistory in animation spanning more
(01:21):
than 20 years and has won numerousawards in film for animation writing,
directing, producing, and visualeffects, a registered nurse with
extensive experience in mental healthCath's approach to animation is all
about social inclusion and the impact itcan have on working and emotional life.
Cath Murphy (01:47):
So my name is Cath Murphy and I'm an animator and I direct
a project called Pollyanna films.
And I worked in the visualarts for a long time.
Started off in clay, probablyillustrated since I was five.
So a lot of my work.
has, narrative sort of theme toit, which is probably why I ended
(02:09):
up in animation, you know, sortof an amalgam of visual arts and
storyline, which is my favorite thing.
And I've worked in, um, lots ofalternative education settings
and taught newly arrivedkids who, uh, looking for an
(02:31):
alternative education experience.
Often students had never been to school,particularly the girls they'd spent,
you know, a few months in detentioncenters here and then came to English
language centers where they learned.
All of what was required of ourprimary school system and then
(02:53):
maybe half of our secondary andthen just started secondary school.
So, uh, the teachers of theseinstitutions were amazing people.
And so we got the opportunity towork with them showing visually
based films that had no dialogue,which meant the kids would sort of
understand the narrative straight up.
(03:16):
And then with that, we worked withinterpreters and we, I chose animation
because it was an opportunity forthe young people to learn literacy,
using a diagram based program.
So they really didn't actuallyhave to have any literacy to start.
(03:38):
And the hard lesson that Ilearnt over say 10 years was
that teenagers love to watch it.
And they love the sort ofimmediate creative process.
But the time consuming elementof animation is something
that not everybody loves.
(03:58):
And, uh, so often I would completeworks or I would get some older
animators that I work with to completethem and some young ones as well.
And so where our project has ended upis that we now work with older women who
(04:23):
have not had the opportunity to have asort of digital education experience.
Very little education experience,which of course impacts on
their employment opportunity.
And those women like me love to sitfor hours doing a slow meditative work.
(04:46):
So I'd probably get up most days anddraw for three hours early, early.
And I have probably, you know, Ithink it's, I started maybe 30 years.
It was sort of like one of thoseEpiphanes that my project needed.
(05:08):
And, uh, it's beenincredible for the project.
So we've started working on thisanimation series called socially
sanctioned, which is about sociallysanctioned, abuse, quite a few
people, mostly women talkingabout their own experiences.
And so animators.
Who, uh, some just starting out somepeople who I've worked with quite a
(05:28):
long time, uh, creating these shortanimated documentaries with me,
uh, for people who have not hadeducational opportunity, young or older,
you know, it's just, they are so excitedabout it just as a learning experience.
(05:56):
Often it's been word of mouth and,uh, there's somebody who knows
somebody who has had a complicatedmainstream education experience,
you know, maybe difficulty readingor just, you know, had some issues
around traditional education.
(06:17):
And, um, there is absolutely noshortage, like at the moment, I think
for women older than 50, they're thegreatest growing homeless demographic.
And so, uh, we've actually formeda community relationship with the
Whittlesey community house and a bigpart of their focus of their education
program is for women who are unemployedbecause the stats out there, it's
(06:42):
something like 20% for women over 50.
So.
Yeah, that it's not a hard gig to fill
I was a ceramicist for a longtime and took a trip to India
(07:04):
for about six months with a mate.
And it was one of those trips whereyou have those Epiphanes because you're
so far removed from your own scenario.
And I'd always loved film from a veryyoung age, but, you know, I grew up
as a working class kid, you know, itwas just a bit too pie in the sky.
And then I went, okay,this is what I want to do.
So I got back to Melbourne and just dida couple of TAFE courses using Photoshop
(07:29):
and couple of other animation programs.
Pretty simple.
Did a few script writing courses.
I think I, AFTRS ran a couple of shortones and, uh, one of the things that
was really great then was that peoplewho were in my world pretty famous.
(07:49):
were doing short courses, but TAFEat AFTRS, you know, people who
you thought would have no timeor, you know, there's always that
fantasy that everybody's working.
But, um, so that wasan amazing opportunity.
And so then I did a graduate diplomaat VCA film school in 98 as an
animator
(08:14):
because I'd worked in clay for years.
I actually ended up doing this undercamera thing, where I drew into clay.
And so I created this, my animationdoing that, which was lovely because
it was a really full-on environment.
Fantastic, very stimulating,highly competitive, which was
really a bit foreign to me.
(08:34):
And, um, to do this particulartechnique, I had to be
locked away in a room.
So I escaped a lot of heat.
And, um, so I got lostin that for the year.
And.
I think what I discovered thatyear, it was that my thing is
(08:55):
narrative simple linear narrative.
I really love it.
I love to watch itand I love to make it.
And it's not always fiction, likethe project that we're working on
now, they are people's stories.
So, um, They have fundamentally, Iguess, a beginning, middle and end a bit
(09:16):
like simple narrative structure, but,uh, probably normally I would work in
fiction and, um, but I ended up on thisdocumentary series that's how life goes,
you know, better not to shut the door.
One of the things that we learntin film school was how to make
(09:37):
things move, which is what youdo, of course, as an animator.
And I probably found thatthe most boring part.
So I use this technique.
That's been around forever sinceDisney, a hundred years where I film
whatever it is I want to use in my film.
It might be a person talkingor, you know, a dog chasing
the pig or something.
(09:58):
And.
That footage goes into anediting program and you
can spit it out as JPEGs.
And then those JPEGs get tracedin what I use Photoshop elements,
because you know, all I need andthere's lots of diagram based
programs that do the same thing.
And that's what we use inour project, because it's
(10:21):
incredibly easy to use and learn.
And you actually don't have tobe literate to use it, which is
sort of extraordinary, you know,
animation takes you somewhere else.
And so this series that we'reworking on at the moment is quite
(10:45):
difficult to stomach at times,watching somebody talking about
those things as a live piece.
It's pretty difficult, butwatching something once removed
as an animation, you know, it sortof allows you to stay with it.
And it means you actually sit withthe content a lot more than if you
(11:06):
were .. Cause, you know, it's easy toactually turn off when something is
really difficult in subject matter.
So it's surprisingly good as a fit.
Yeah.
You know, like when we were workingwith younger people and just, you know,
(11:27):
we were showing them really mainstreamPixar shorts that had no dialogue.
I remember there was thisone really insightful boy.
And he w we were watchingthis animation that was, you
know, overtly about bullying.
Whole lot of small birds bickering,and then they hammered this old,
bigger sort of unusual looking one.
And what he said was, uh, itreminds me of my relationship
(11:51):
with my closest friend.
Sometimes we fight, we don'teven know why we fight.
We can't bear to go there becausethe friendship is so important to us.
And so.
If there's an avenue to deflectit as in hammer, somebody
else, we sometimes do that.
(12:12):
The complexity of it, you know, if youjust watched that, particularly as a
teenager, I think you'd feel lecturedif it was just somebody saying to you,
you know, can you see what you doing?
Blah, blah, blah.
So, um, whereas the studentswere really receptive.
And they got it.
(12:33):
It was really, it was a great process.
Actually.
I worked in aged care for a long time,which was very rewarding because the
people who work in that area, if youfind a spot, it's a lovely community.
(12:53):
And then I ended up inadolescent mental health.
And so a lot of the work that we did wasabout engaging young people who felt
disenfranchised by a particular setupor, you know, needing something else.
And then I took a bit of time off,you know, during COVID and we did
a bit of work remotely and all thatsort of stuff, but yes, I still do.
(13:17):
And I'm about to start workingat the children's, the sorry,
the Austin on the kids' unit.
I grew
up in a family where it wasimportant in a very positive
way to make a contribution.
(13:40):
I think it's definitelyinfluenced how I work.
I, I think about what the cultureI grew up in, in the seventies.
Where opportunity was much greater andthe playing field was much leveler.
And now I think we live in a verymercenary setup where the only
(14:01):
way it can work is if most peopleactually don't earn quite enough.
And so we're in a differentspot socially than we've
ever been, which is a shame.
And I think it will change.
Actually.
I feel quite optimistic, but Ithink for me to run a project.
Making professional films andoffering work to people who,
(14:26):
uh, need an opportunity andwho completely embrace it.
Like it's a real, it's a, forme, it's a win-win and we,
last year we screened the firstdocumentary of our series at St.
Kilda film festival.
And there were a couple of animatorswho came and who'd worked on the film.
It was just an incredibleexperience for them.
(14:48):
Like the thrill of.
You know that it's partof a professional setup.
You know, the playing fieldis extremely, even they
do the work that I do.
And, uh, it's a thrill todo it as a group really.
(15:09):
I happened to be livingdown near Apollo bay.
And I had a three-year-oldand I could have nursed, but
the , the hours are insane.
So, I went ok better to dosomething else and I, I was
working as a professionalanimator up until that point.
And the thing that you when,especially if you, when you live
in the country, you realize.
(15:29):
How little the students have accessto just in terms of, you know,
educational experiences, you know, so,uh, I started running these workshops.
Um, first was just theprimary school next door.
And then we a couple of more remotetowns down on the west coast and it
(15:49):
grew into the rural animation project.
And, um, I remember we made thisgorgeous film with the kids at
this primary school about this boywho got taken up in a space ship.
And anyway, one of the students atthe school, you could really tell he
embraced the project so much, thatwas potentially something he would
(16:11):
do having based on that experience.
And they were having a local filmfestival and they were only allowed
to take a certain number of kids inadults that was just cause it was a
whole lot of primary schools together.
And so it had to be the senior kidsand he wasn't a senior student.
I've never seen a child so upset.
So I said to the head teacher,I don't know what you have to
(16:33):
do, but this boy needs to go.
They found a spot for him, of course.
And he was just beside himself.
He was so excited.
And, you know, I think that is a commonexperience when you offer something that
just wouldn't have been an opportunityin an environment that is remote.
(16:59):
Then I ended up workingwith Berry Street a bit.
And they worked with a lot ofmarginalized, teenagers worked
in Wangaratta and, um, I'm stillin touch with a couple of mental
health clinicians who workedon a couple of projects there.
And then we ended up with the Englishlanguage center in Shepparton, and,
uh, students, I, I talked aboutthem before, but they came from
(17:24):
the detention centers and somestudents had been to school, but not.
Often they'd learned, learnedEnglish for the first time
at the detention centers.
And then they were to learn, youknow, in a sort of really condensed
way, what we would learn for sixyears of primary school and then
secondary and then off they'd go.
So, and I remember once we were,I was showing a film that had no
(17:47):
dialogue so that all the students,we had lots of interpreters.
Often we would have fivein the room at the time.
Cause there'd be, there might be 10.
Different culturalgroups in the classes.
And, uh, there was onestudent who was watching the
film and really enjoying it.
They're all prettylight in superficially.
(18:09):
And the one of the teachers says,ah, she's been here for 10 weeks.
That's the first timeI've seen her smile.
A couple of the shorts that they madeand they, they absolutely initiated
the storyline and they, I think theywon best animation at the Australian
teacher of media awards one year.
And they got nominated for bestdoco in the professional section.
(18:34):
And that was, I mean, they drove them,you know, I was just, I'd help them with
a storyline and how to make them, butthey, they did everything acted in them
and generated the story and, you know.
, it was great.
(18:54):
Um, one of the things that weused animation for was to try
and reorientate a person's selfperception around their capacity to
learn because mainstream education.
Is incredibly rigid.
And you know, if you have a, an averageor a phenomenal memory, you'll get a
(19:21):
top mark, but there's lots of differentways that people are designed to learn.
It was a way of offering analternative and challenging that.
There's this thing in mentalhealth, they call it a
cognitive behavioral tool and.
Normally, it would be about challengingphobias or notions, but, uh, in a
(19:46):
way, the, to work on a project whereyou let's say you draw 500 images,
you are absolutely not in yourhead, which is what I love about it.
So I'll get up in the morning and I'llgo, okay, maybe I'll do a couple of
hundred images or something and I'll putmy headphones on and I'll start to draw.
And so.
(20:07):
Everybody in life now, you know, COVIDwas a real stark reminder of just
how much, how insanely busy we are.
And so as soon as you wake up yourhead starts, cause you've got to
do 45 things before you get inthe car to this whole process.
For me.
Stops it, that is morethan just about drawing.
(20:31):
The whole sort of mental process is avery peaceful and I've been doing it
for a long time and I still love it.
Nat Grant (20:42):
You've been listening to the Prima Donna podcast, Sonic
portraits of Australian artists formore information about the project
and to hear more episodes like thisone, visit prima Donna podcast.com.
(21:06):
This podcast was produced onthe lands of the Wurundjeri
people of the Kulin nation.
And I pay respects toelders past and present.
Media is just, has so much weight in terms of getting
messages out, whatever somebodywants to convey at the moment.
I mean, you know, like there wasnobody, there were very few people
who don't watch something every day.
And so I think, uh, It's sort ofan amazing opportunity to expose
(00:29):
some stuff, because it's not goinganywhere once it's out there, it's out.
So there's no taking it back.
And you know, there's some verybrave people who use it, you know,
at the risk of death actually.
So yeah, it's an amazing forum.
I think amazing um, tool to use.
Nat Grant (01:00):
Welcome to season five of the Prima Donna podcast, Sonic
portraits of Australian artists.
These episodes compriseinterview recordings and original
music, celebrating creativeelders across all disciplines.
The first episode in thisseries features Cath Murphy.
Animator and educator Cath has a richhistory in animation spanning more
(01:21):
than 20 years and has won numerousawards in film for animation writing,
directing, producing, and visualeffects, a registered nurse with
extensive experience in mental healthCath's approach to animation is all
about social inclusion and the impact itcan have on working and emotional life.
Cath Murphy (01:47):
So my name is Cath Murphy and I'm an animator and I direct
a project called Pollyanna films.
And I worked in the visualarts for a long time.
Started off in clay, probablyillustrated since I was five.
So a lot of my work.
has, narrative sort of theme toit, which is probably why I ended
(02:09):
up in animation, you know, sortof an amalgam of visual arts and
storyline, which is my favorite thing.
And I've worked in, um, lots ofalternative education settings
and taught newly arrivedkids who, uh, looking for an
(02:31):
alternative education experience.
Often students had never been to school,particularly the girls they'd spent,
you know, a few months in detentioncenters here and then came to English
language centers where they learned.
All of what was required of ourprimary school system and then
(02:53):
maybe half of our secondary andthen just started secondary school.
So, uh, the teachers of theseinstitutions were amazing people.
And so we got the opportunity towork with them showing visually
based films that had no dialogue,which meant the kids would sort of
understand the narrative straight up.
(03:16):
And then with that, we worked withinterpreters and we, I chose animation
because it was an opportunity forthe young people to learn literacy,
using a diagram based program.
So they really didn't actuallyhave to have any literacy to start.
(03:38):
And the hard lesson that Ilearnt over say 10 years was
that teenagers love to watch it.
And they love the sort ofimmediate creative process.
But the time consuming elementof animation is something
that not everybody loves.
(03:58):
And, uh, so often I would completeworks or I would get some older
animators that I work with to completethem and some young ones as well.
And so where our project has ended upis that we now work with older women who
(04:23):
have not had the opportunity to have asort of digital education experience.
Very little education experience,which of course impacts on
their employment opportunity.
And those women like me love to sitfor hours doing a slow meditative work.
(04:46):
So I'd probably get up most days anddraw for three hours early, early.
And I have probably, you know, Ithink it's, I started maybe 30 years.
It was sort of like one of thoseEpiphanes that my project needed.
(05:08):
And, uh, it's beenincredible for the project.
So we've started working on thisanimation series called socially
sanctioned, which is about sociallysanctioned, abuse, quite a few
people, mostly women talkingabout their own experiences.
And so animators.
Who, uh, some just starting out somepeople who I've worked with quite a
(05:28):
long time, uh, creating these shortanimated documentaries with me,
uh, for people who have not hadeducational opportunity, young or older,
you know, it's just, they are so excitedabout it just as a learning experience.
(05:56):
Often it's been word of mouth and,uh, there's somebody who knows
somebody who has had a complicatedmainstream education experience,
you know, maybe difficulty readingor just, you know, had some issues
around traditional education.
(06:17):
And, um, there is absolutely noshortage, like at the moment, I think
for women older than 50, they're thegreatest growing homeless demographic.
And so, uh, we've actually formeda community relationship with the
Whittlesey community house and a bigpart of their focus of their education
program is for women who are unemployedbecause the stats out there, it's
(06:42):
something like 20% for women over 50.
So.
Yeah, that it's not a hard gig to fill
I was a ceramicist for a longtime and took a trip to India
(07:04):
for about six months with a mate.
And it was one of those trips whereyou have those Epiphanes because you're
so far removed from your own scenario.
And I'd always loved film from a veryyoung age, but, you know, I grew up
as a working class kid, you know, itwas just a bit too pie in the sky.
And then I went, okay,this is what I want to do.
So I got back to Melbourne and just dida couple of TAFE courses using Photoshop
(07:29):
and couple of other animation programs.
Pretty simple.
Did a few script writing courses.
I think I, AFTRS ran a couple of shortones and, uh, one of the things that
was really great then was that peoplewho were in my world pretty famous.
(07:49):
were doing short courses, but TAFEat AFTRS, you know, people who
you thought would have no timeor, you know, there's always that
fantasy that everybody's working.
But, um, so that wasan amazing opportunity.
And so then I did a graduate diplomaat VCA film school in 98 as an
animator
(08:14):
because I'd worked in clay for years.
I actually ended up doing this undercamera thing, where I drew into clay.
And so I created this, my animationdoing that, which was lovely because
it was a really full-on environment.
Fantastic, very stimulating,highly competitive, which was
really a bit foreign to me.
(08:34):
And, um, to do this particulartechnique, I had to be
locked away in a room.
So I escaped a lot of heat.
And, um, so I got lostin that for the year.
And.
I think what I discovered thatyear, it was that my thing is
(08:55):
narrative simple linear narrative.
I really love it.
I love to watch itand I love to make it.
And it's not always fiction, likethe project that we're working on
now, they are people's stories.
So, um, They have fundamentally, Iguess, a beginning, middle and end a bit
(09:16):
like simple narrative structure, but,uh, probably normally I would work in
fiction and, um, but I ended up on thisdocumentary series that's how life goes,
you know, better not to shut the door.
One of the things that we learntin film school was how to make
(09:37):
things move, which is what youdo, of course, as an animator.
And I probably found thatthe most boring part.
So I use this technique.
That's been around forever sinceDisney, a hundred years where I film
whatever it is I want to use in my film.
It might be a person talkingor, you know, a dog chasing
the pig or something.
(09:58):
And.
That footage goes into anediting program and you
can spit it out as JPEGs.
And then those JPEGs get tracedin what I use Photoshop elements,
because you know, all I need andthere's lots of diagram based
programs that do the same thing.
And that's what we use inour project, because it's
(10:21):
incredibly easy to use and learn.
And you actually don't have tobe literate to use it, which is
sort of extraordinary, you know,
animation takes you somewhere else.
And so this series that we'reworking on at the moment is quite
(10:45):
difficult to stomach at times,watching somebody talking about
those things as a live piece.
It's pretty difficult, butwatching something once removed
as an animation, you know, it sortof allows you to stay with it.
And it means you actually sit withthe content a lot more than if you
(11:06):
were .. Cause, you know, it's easy toactually turn off when something is
really difficult in subject matter.
So it's surprisingly good as a fit.
Yeah.
You know, like when we were workingwith younger people and just, you know,
(11:27):
we were showing them really mainstreamPixar shorts that had no dialogue.
I remember there was thisone really insightful boy.
And he w we were watchingthis animation that was, you
know, overtly about bullying.
Whole lot of small birds bickering,and then they hammered this old,
bigger sort of unusual looking one.
And what he said was, uh, itreminds me of my relationship
(11:51):
with my closest friend.
Sometimes we fight, we don'teven know why we fight.
We can't bear to go there becausethe friendship is so important to us.
And so.
If there's an avenue to deflectit as in hammer, somebody
else, we sometimes do that.
(12:12):
The complexity of it, you know, if youjust watched that, particularly as a
teenager, I think you'd feel lecturedif it was just somebody saying to you,
you know, can you see what you doing?
Blah, blah, blah.
So, um, whereas the studentswere really receptive.
And they got it.
(12:33):
It was really, it was a great process.
Actually.
I worked in aged care for a long time,which was very rewarding because the
people who work in that area, if youfind a spot, it's a lovely community.
(12:53):
And then I ended up inadolescent mental health.
And so a lot of the work that we did wasabout engaging young people who felt
disenfranchised by a particular setupor, you know, needing something else.
And then I took a bit of time off,you know, during COVID and we did
a bit of work remotely and all thatsort of stuff, but yes, I still do.
(13:17):
And I'm about to start workingat the children's, the sorry,
the Austin on the kids' unit.
I grew
up in a family where it wasimportant in a very positive
way to make a contribution.
(13:40):
I think it's definitelyinfluenced how I work.
I, I think about what the cultureI grew up in, in the seventies.
Where opportunity was much greater andthe playing field was much leveler.
And now I think we live in a verymercenary setup where the only
(14:01):
way it can work is if most peopleactually don't earn quite enough.
And so we're in a differentspot socially than we've
ever been, which is a shame.
And I think it will change.
Actually.
I feel quite optimistic, but Ithink for me to run a project.
Making professional films andoffering work to people who,
(14:26):
uh, need an opportunity andwho completely embrace it.
Like it's a real, it's a, forme, it's a win-win and we,
last year we screened the firstdocumentary of our series at St.
Kilda film festival.
And there were a couple of animatorswho came and who'd worked on the film.
It was just an incredibleexperience for them.
(14:48):
Like the thrill of.
You know that it's partof a professional setup.
You know, the playing fieldis extremely, even they
do the work that I do.
And, uh, it's a thrill todo it as a group really.
(15:09):
I happened to be livingdown near Apollo bay.
And I had a three-year-oldand I could have nursed, but
the , the hours are insane.
So, I went ok better to dosomething else and I, I was
working as a professionalanimator up until that point.
And the thing that you when,especially if you, when you live
in the country, you realize.
(15:29):
How little the students have accessto just in terms of, you know,
educational experiences, you know, so,uh, I started running these workshops.
Um, first was just theprimary school next door.
And then we a couple of more remotetowns down on the west coast and it
(15:49):
grew into the rural animation project.
And, um, I remember we made thisgorgeous film with the kids at
this primary school about this boywho got taken up in a space ship.
And anyway, one of the students atthe school, you could really tell he
embraced the project so much, thatwas potentially something he would
(16:11):
do having based on that experience.
And they were having a local filmfestival and they were only allowed
to take a certain number of kids inadults that was just cause it was a
whole lot of primary schools together.
And so it had to be the senior kidsand he wasn't a senior student.
I've never seen a child so upset.
So I said to the head teacher,I don't know what you have to
(16:33):
do, but this boy needs to go.
They found a spot for him, of course.
And he was just beside himself.
He was so excited.
And, you know, I think that is a commonexperience when you offer something that
just wouldn't have been an opportunityin an environment that is remote.
(16:59):
Then I ended up workingwith Berry Street a bit.
And they worked with a lot ofmarginalized, teenagers worked
in Wangaratta and, um, I'm stillin touch with a couple of mental
health clinicians who workedon a couple of projects there.
And then we ended up with the Englishlanguage center in Shepparton, and,
uh, students, I, I talked aboutthem before, but they came from
(17:24):
the detention centers and somestudents had been to school, but not.
Often they'd learned, learnedEnglish for the first time
at the detention centers.
And then they were to learn, youknow, in a sort of really condensed
way, what we would learn for sixyears of primary school and then
secondary and then off they'd go.
So, and I remember once we were,I was showing a film that had no
(17:47):
dialogue so that all the students,we had lots of interpreters.
Often we would have fivein the room at the time.
Cause there'd be, there might be 10.
Different culturalgroups in the classes.
And, uh, there was onestudent who was watching the
film and really enjoying it.
They're all prettylight in superficially.
(18:09):
And the one of the teachers says,ah, she's been here for 10 weeks.
That's the first timeI've seen her smile.
A couple of the shorts that they madeand they, they absolutely initiated
the storyline and they, I think theywon best animation at the Australian
teacher of media awards one year.
And they got nominated for bestdoco in the professional section.
(18:34):
And that was, I mean, they drove them,you know, I was just, I'd help them with
a storyline and how to make them, butthey, they did everything acted in them
and generated the story and, you know.
, it was great.
(18:54):
Um, one of the things that weused animation for was to try
and reorientate a person's selfperception around their capacity to
learn because mainstream education.
Is incredibly rigid.
And you know, if you have a, an averageor a phenomenal memory, you'll get a
(19:21):
top mark, but there's lots of differentways that people are designed to learn.
It was a way of offering analternative and challenging that.
There's this thing in mentalhealth, they call it a
cognitive behavioral tool and.
Normally, it would be about challengingphobias or notions, but, uh, in a
(19:46):
way, the, to work on a project whereyou let's say you draw 500 images,
you are absolutely not in yourhead, which is what I love about it.
So I'll get up in the morning and I'llgo, okay, maybe I'll do a couple of
hundred images or something and I'll putmy headphones on and I'll start to draw.
And so.
(20:07):
Everybody in life now, you know, COVIDwas a real stark reminder of just
how much, how insanely busy we are.
And so as soon as you wake up yourhead starts, cause you've got to
do 45 things before you get inthe car to this whole process.
For me.
Stops it, that is morethan just about drawing.
(20:31):
The whole sort of mental process is avery peaceful and I've been doing it
for a long time and I still love it.
Nat Grant (20:42):
You've been listening to the Prima Donna podcast, Sonic
portraits of Australian artists formore information about the project
and to hear more episodes like thisone, visit prima Donna podcast.com.
(21:06):
This podcast was produced onthe lands of the Wurundjeri
people of the Kulin nation.
And I pay respects toelders past and present.
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