ALAF Projects
Music Road Show in Argentina
The Foundation's Buenos Aires based Associate, Debora Staiff of Indigo Productions is working with various presenters in Argentina and other southern cone countries in Latin America to develop an Australian Music road show in September, 2010. Roadshow will feature distinctively Australian musical talent ranging from jazz fusion to indigenous and much in between in a touring "mini-festival" project. The featured artists are William Barton, Misinterpretato, Dva, James Sherlock and Kristin Bernardi. The roadshow concept has been successfully trialed in Latin America and other regions with film and pop music. But this will be the first venture in which a wider range of musical genres will be showcased. The Project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Arts Queensland and the Australia Council through the Latin America Initiative of International Market Development.
National Film and Sound Archive
The Foundation has been commissioned by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) to undertake research on its behalf in Latin America. NFSA is exploring options for networking its own skills and services in the region as well as a number initiatives in the cross promotion of Australian cinema in Latin America and Latin American cinema in Australia. The project will be headed by Foundation Associate, Justin Macdonnell. During a recent visit to Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, he opened a dialogue with film colleagues in the region at the first stage in this work.
Australian Latin American Co-productions
The Foundation is engaged in active planning and negotiation with major presenters in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico for co-productions with Australian performing arts institutions and artists over the next three years. Key collaborators include festivals and performing arts centres on both sides of the Pacific. The program is managed by the Foundation's Board member and Associate, Mario Estrella.
Australia Latin America Foundation residencies
The Foundation is also well down the track in negotiating residences in three different art forms in Latin America aimed at sharing skills and creating new work between Australian and Latin America artists and artistic companies. The first is a physical/street theatre project directed by Stalker Theatre's David Clarkson with five other Australian artists who worked with four Colombian companies in the lead up to and during 2010 IberoAmerican Theatre Festival in Bogota. Four new works were created out of the seven week residency and presented at this year's festival.The second is a multiyear dance-based project commenced in Mexico in late 2009, This involves Australian choreographers Rebecca Hilton and Phillip Adams working with Mexican dance companies La Lagrima (in Hermosillo) and Lux Boreal (in Tijuana) respectively. The first public outcome was at the Centro Historico Festival in Mexican City in March 2010 in association with the dance department of the national University, UNAM with finished work to be presented at the festival in March 2011.
The third is a multiyear music residency is being developed in the university city of Guadalajara, Mexico by Roland Peelman artistic director of The Song Company which will culminate in a major cross cultural event in September 2011.
Each of these forms part of the Australia Council's Latin America Initiative of International Market Development curated and managed by the Foundation aimed at engaging Australian artists in Latin America in a more in-depth way than previous one-off touring ventures had allowed.
For further information on any of these projects please contact: secretary@alafoundation.com
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