The making of ‘Hume at Maribyrnong’ for assignment two was heavily influenced by research I have been undertaking throughout the last few weeks. From around week two I had identified that my interests surrounding the west were industrial labour and migrant communities. When we visited the museum and I learned about the history of pipe maker’s park and the Hume pipe company, this piqued my interest further.

I attended the ‘state of the union’ exhibition at Ian Potter Museum and this was key both for finding inspiration and educating myself on unionisation and labour movements. There were parallels between some of the artist’s work and what I had learned about Hume pipe company. Artist Tully Moore had been inspired by the community nature of the former electrolux factory in Orange, New South Wales, and this was also something I was struck by in learning about Hume.

Throughout making the videos our group had identified a major theme which we were all interested in – migrant groups in the western suburbs and their experiences. Liam had identified an interest in Irish immigrants, while Harriet was intrigued by the Vietnamese community in Footscray. Zitong was generally interested in immigration and I had been interested in the Italian and Greek pipe working community in the 1950s and 60s. Identifying this theme helped us all to focus on our own subjects while also being interested in the other’s videos.

While it was helpful to bounce off one another’s ideas and get feedback from each other, I found this assignment difficult to do in a group environment because to some degree everyone was interested in exploring their own topic. It was hard to be cohesive as a result. However, I think that Zitong and I worked well in producing ‘Hume at Maribyrnong’ particularly with filming and editing, and collaborating with Liam and Harriet also helped me to find inspiration with the similar themes that emerged from our projects.

I learnt a lot about Hume pipe company generally, which I have outlined on my blog. The studio also allowed me to be privy to short documentary works which used montage. I definitely learnt more about the affordances that montage allows. A clip from the film Sans Soleil (1983) was helpful in seeing an example of how text can be used onscreen. This is used in a similar way in another clip from Toungues Untied (1989). 

Something that worked well throughout this process was that Zitong and I were able to identify different topics we could explore with our film, all related to Hume. These were the history of the company generally, the social aspect of working at the factory, and the reality of industrial accidents and working conditions. These were all quite interesting aspects which made our video multifaceted, but obviously, with the 90 second time limit, I am not sure if these ideas are effectively communicated in the video. We could only dedicate about thirty seconds to each, so there is a lot of information and content packed into there, and this effects the pacing as a result.

I also struggled somewhat with working with this video as a montage, as it does involve a certain level of creativity when it comes to combining shots and audio. In future, I would have been more experimental with this. I think the issue was that we wanted to introduce what exactly the Hume pipe company was. It may have been a more interesting video if we just launched into the lives of the workers without the background information about Hume. We also strayed somewhat from talking specifically about the prominence of the Italian community at Hume, perhaps because of the short nature of the video.  However, I did get to try out some things I haven’t done before – using still images within a film, combining stills with videos in the same shot, and collating together different music and sound effects.

Definitely though, what worked well was the research aspect of this project. The museum had some great sources about Hume, including images as well as online publications like the conservation report which formed the basis of the on-screen text. In addition, I looked online on the national library’s website to find old newspaper articles related to Hume. I quite liked being able to compile this different information, and being able to collate it together within the film to juxtapose images together particularly at the end of the video.

In regards to what I’m looking to do next, I was influenced by Broderick’s writing on ethnography in documentary, noting that “representing an unfamiliar or foreign realm comes with logistical and representational challenges tied to ethnography, ethics, and power” (p. 10, 2017). Indeed I have felt a bit uncertain in representing the western suburbs as I have been unfamiliar with the area previous to this studio. However, coming from an Italian migrant background I was quite drawn to exploring the history of the pipe maker’s park upon learning about the demographics of Hume pipe company’s employees specifically. This is something that I feel a personal draw to and I think it will inform what is next for me in regards to the next assignment and my major work.

As I was researching Hume pipe company, I wasn’t able to find much outside of the museum’s resources about the lives of the migrant employees. However, I did come across some information on the Maribyrnong migrant hostel which mentioned the difficulties that Italian immigrants faced in finding employment upon coming to Australia. I’m keen to digitise some audio tapes from the museum which are accounts of Italian Hume pipe employees, and I feel this will relate to my interest in ‘unskilled’ migrant labourers and their experience in the industrial workforce. I feel that these themes will inform my work in this studio going forward, hopefully within the form of a documentary film, whether that be one long piece or a few shorter pieces collated together.

References

California Newsreel (2013). Tongues United. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=tWuPLxMBjM8 [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].

Ford, O. and Vines, G. (1996). Pipemakers Park Maribyrnong Conservation Analysis. 1st ed. [ebook] Melbourne: Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West, pp.vi, 80 – 85. Available at: https://www.livingmuseum.org.au/download%20pdf/PipmakersParkConservationAnalysis1996.pdf [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].

Fox, B. (2017). Reimagining Documentary. In: B. Fox, ed., Documetary Media: History, Theory, Practise. [online] Routledge, pp.1 – 26. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/RMIT/reader.action?docID=5103711&query= [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].

Rittmayer, A. (2014). Sans Soleil opening clip. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaDaGtM6xWU [Accessed 4 Aug. 2018].

State of the Union (2018), Ian Potter Museum of Art, 24 July to 28 October 2018

Montage

Hume at Maribyrnong by Georgia Cerni and Zitong Zhao

Voiceover 

The Women Who Built Footscray by Liam O’Donovan

Interview 

Footscray by Harriet Jones

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LdYVPNraoIIVKutAU9sPxlT5VHTzYXKB

I have decided to write a blog post that will chronicle some of the research I’m undertaking that will be used in my film for this assignment, and possibly the next one if this turns out to be a continued area of interest for me. This research will focus particularly on the Hume Pipe Company, which was an international company with an Australian base in Maribyrnong, Victoria, on the land we now know as Pipemaker’s park.

Reginald Hume (1873 – 1943) who hailed from Fitzroy, was an industrialist and inventor who was behind the production of modern pipes. Here is a portrait of him painted by William Dargie in 1944. He and his brother Walter had a number of industrial endeavours but ended up opening a pipe-making factory in Maribyrnong, Victoria. I have found a whole lot of information about Hume pipe co. from the LMotW’s website, particularly from the ‘Pipemarker’s Park conservation analysis’ that I will link below.

Regarding the work of Hume pipe company, Vines and Ford describe that they were involved in “many large scale public works projects”. In regards to the factory at Maribyrnong, it is described as “an important training ground for Humes personnel and the site of much of the experimental work of the company.” (p. iv)

It’s quite interesting to me that Hume was an Australian company with factories overseas and that it made such significant contributions to the industry. However outside of the resources on the museum’s website and within the museum itself, I can’t find out very much about it aside from a few academic articles.

I have also elected to look online on the national library of Victoria’s website in order to sift through newspaper articles related to Hume. I find this kind of research quite intriguing. I have found a number of articles which recount accidents that had occurred at the Maribyrnong factory, as well as various reports on the company. This article from ‘The Register’ dated 19 Aug 1922 writes that “a laboratory has been established at the company’s works at Maribyrnong factory .. improvements in the manufacture and construction of concrete pipes and joints have been evolved by the company’s staff during the year, and additional valuable patents have been taken out.”

I would love to include excerpts from newspapers into the film for assignment two.

References

Ford, O. and Vines, G. (1996). Pipemakers Park Maribyrnong Conservation Analysis. 1st ed. [ebook] Melbourne: Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West, pp.vi, 80 – 85. Available at: https://www.livingmuseum.org.au/download%20pdf/PipmakersParkConservationAnalysis1996.pdf [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].

The Register (1922). Hume Pipe Company. [online] p.5. Available at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63928279?searchTerm=hume%20pipe%20maribyrnong%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom|||dateTo|||sortby [Accessed 8 Aug. 2018].

Today I managed to make it to the ‘State of The Union’ exhibit at the Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University. This exhibit is curated by Jacqueline Doughty and is a spotlight on various labour movements and activism. At one stage of the exhibit, there is a collection of different banners collated by artists that represent unionisation and protests. I would say I have minimal knowledge about unions themselves, so the visual depictions of these banners were familiar (I think this is what many of us tend to think of in regard to protest and unionisation). When I think about recent protests in Australia and abroad I notice that these banners seem to have now largely taken the form of posters. Though posters do of course take an effort to be made, the exhibit did have me thinking about how long the traditional banner would actually take to make, both for the artists and obviously the original unions and protestors.

There were also a number of films playing at the exhibit, including excerpts from ‘The Battle of Orgerave (An Injury to One is an Injury to All)’, a 2001 film directed by Mike Figgis. I caught some of this film, which portrays a key event in the 1984 – 85 U.K miner’s strike. The film is a reenactment of ‘The Battle of Orgreave’, using many of the people who were involved in the struggle. During the film, former miner Malcolm Bray who was involved in the strike expresses his dislike of the protest’s chant ‘the miners united will never be defeated’. As he sees it, the underlying issue behind the protest should not have been focused just on the mining industry, because the real issue was about the working class and their vulnerability. I am planning on watching the whole film, it can be found below.

Additionally, Figgis’ concept for this documentary is quite intriguing. The reenactment footage looks quite realistic, predominantly because of the very real anger and frustration being portrayed by those reenacting it. This is quite an inspiring commitment to telling this story – by literally acting it out, and working with those in the community who were there.

On Friday we visited the museum and Kerrie told us about the surrounding area where the LMW is located, pipemaker’s park. I am quite interested in the old pipemaking industry in Maribyrnong for a project topic.

While a simple google search tells me of some preliminary information about Hume Pipe works – it replaced the Meat Cannery and established itself in Maribrynong in 1912 – I have not yet found much about labour conditions online. However, I’m going to listen to an interview with a man who worked at Hume Pipe Works next week, as the tape is pending digitisation. Visiting the exhibit has helped me to think about my project by seeing examples of work focusing on industrial labour and unionisation, so I’m quite excited to dive into it.

References

State of the Union (2018), Ian Potter Museum of Art, 24 July to 28 October 2018

The Battle of Orgreave (2001). (2001). Directed by M. Figgis. United Kingdom.

The visit to the living museum of the west this week was inspiring and a little intimidating. I was very intrigued by the number of resources that they have at the museum, particularly as far as archival footage: VHS tapes, cassette tapes and photo negatives. The museum was not what I expected, but in a good way, I think because it is so community-based. In some ways, I would also consider it to be more of a library. The amount of work and care that has gone into the museum is truly inspiring.

The visit has helped my ideas about my potential project develop. I have found myself drawn to the industrial labour history of the western suburbs, particularly the meat industry. The conditions of this kind of factory labour is a definite point of interest. I think I am also intrigued by what the legacy of these industries are and how the working class history of the era has carried over into today.

I think these themes could also cross over into other potential topics – the Westgate bridge, the ammunition industry and unionisation. I think I’m interested in this area just because I have a lot of respect for working-class origins and think there are important stories to be told here.

I was also very interested when the museum curators were telling us about Sven Lindqvist and his text ‘Dig Where You Stand’. I have had a look online and found Lindqvist’s journal article, in which he writes that there was quite a lack of information on industrial companies/factories even in his home country in Sweeden. He observed that the history of these companies was reserved for “the owners and directors” (p. 24, 1979) but felt that the stories of the workers should be told.

This got me thinking about examples which showcase the lives of the workers. I did a quick YouTube search and came across this Vice documentary ‘Permanently Temporary” The Truth About Temp Labor’. While not related to the industrial labour I am looking into, it is an interesting contemporary example online which exposes the labour conditions around temporary employment.

I’m really looking forward to diving in and exploring the museum and honing in on potential subjects and resources for a project.

References

Lindqvist, S 1979 ‘Dig Where You Stand’, Oral History 7, no. 2, pp. 24 – 30. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40178565. [Accessed July 28 2018]

Permanently Temporary: The Truth About Temp Labor (Full Length). (2014). [film] VICE News

Part A: About Me

Part B: Influences

Part C: Research Montage

Part B: Influences

I have been endlessly inspired by ‘The Keepers’, a Netflix original documentary that chronicles the murder mystery surrounding the deaths of two women in Baltimore in 1969. One of the victims was a Catholic nun and teacher, sister Cathy Cesnik. Director Ryan White worked in collaboration with two former students of Cathy’s who have been committed to solving her murder. ‘The Keepers’ sets itself apart because White takes his lead from Gemma and Abbie, two amateur investigators. The series chronicles the investigative work they have done and what inspired them in this process.

Though the documentary is a murder mystery, it’s also a spotlight on sexual abuse in the Catholic church and those in the community who enabled it to happen. White collaborators directly with survivors, collating together many different stories to put together the pieces of the puzzle. ‘The Keepers’ challenges typical documentary practices because it is such cohesive storytelling. The series is not just about the murders, but the context of the wider community and the stories of the many survivors who were subject to abuse. ‘The Keepers’ is not just concerned with summarising everything within a neat package – it is long, complex and covers a wide spectrum of events over many years. The viewer gets the impression that the documentary is for the community it is based on as much as it is for the average viewer.

I would like to be committed to this kind of philosophy when it comes to making a documentary. While ‘The Keepers’ has been commercially successful, it achieves much more than this. The producers of the series were truly committed to remaining loyal to the local survivors while taking on an institution as large as the Catholic church. It is a work of true activism and an extremely brave one at that.

Part A: About me

My primary interest as far as production is documentary and I am always interested in honing my technical skills in this area. Additionally, I appreciate archival footage and this studio presents the opportunity of working with content that has been collected by the museum. The opportunity to make content for the museum was another point of interest for me. I’m at the end of my degree and I’m not only looking to add more work to my portfolio, but I think that working and curating with a museum would be a worthwhile professional endeavour.

My interests lie with non – fiction work, particularly documentary which seeks to tell a story that has previously gone untold, or perhaps misunderstood. I have previously made a documentary on LGBTQ+ issues and this has inspired me to continue seeking out stories which require collaboration and an empathetic approach.

In this studio, I am interested in exploring the immigration history of the western suburbs. I am also intrigued by the working class history of the area and how this will inform it’s future landscape. I choose this studio despite being very unfamiliar with Melbourne’s western suburbs. However, the open space approach to non – fiction content will allow me to approach this previously unfamiliar area in a more productive way. I am wanting to engage with the community as a media maker, but I think I will be more productive to approach these subjects as a collaborator rather than from a traditional director standpoint. In the future, I would definitely like to pursue documentary. The opportunity to further experiment with non – fiction works is key for me. Additionally, I am looking to pursue post-graduate studies so any research I complete in this studio as it relates to non – fiction works would prove to be beneficial to me.

I have been struck this week by how much I don’t know about the west.

I feel more comfortable with the north that I do with any other area in Melbourne, and while I’ve spent time in the east and south, the west is an area unknown to me. I think this is going to be a challenge for me in this studio, but I’m also very excited about it. For a while now I have wanted to make non – fiction content in an area I had little prior knowledge about, so I think this will be great.

I am also very much looking forward to the collaboration with the living museum of the west. I love archival footage and see the value in local history. I think there will be a lot to work with. This week in the studio we did some sound exercises which involved doing interviews with classmates. I had a great opportunity in being able to interview Georgia, who is a local to the west side.

For the first assignment, I will be focusing on Yarraville and the streets and small businesses surrounding The Sun Theatre, an art deco theatre in Yarraville. An area of interest for me for this first assignment is small business and independent trading. While I do not know Yarraville very well, my research on the area has informed me that it’s defined by its cafe culture. I have heard that suburbs in the West (particularly Footscray) have a history of small business/strip malls. I am intrigued by how Yarraville fits into this – many of the surrounding businesses are independent ones, but Yarraville is 6km from the city which makes it a pretty expensive area. I am wondering how this differs from other areas in the western suburbs and am looking forward to checking it out on Tuesday.