UNTOLD STORIES: ASSIGNMENT 3 PROPOSAL
Working title:
‘Behind the Curtain; The Women’s Circus’
Form and medium:
Website that combines photography, videos and small written profiles on women in the circus. Video on the history will be about 2 minutes long. Audio accompanying photos of women.
Short synopsis:
This project will focus on the previous and current lives of individual women in the Women’s circus. It will show a snapshot of the circus’ history and its impact on the community.
Longer synopsis:
In this story, we will learn about the overall operations and way in which the Women’s circus is organised, funded, its history, its members. The first bit will be a short historical synopsis on the circus through a mini documentary.
The second half of the story will focus on particular members of the circus. We will spotlight four women and tell their story of how they came to hear about the circus, why they joined, why they continue to participate and how it has impacted their lives. This will be shown through a series of images and words.
We hope to answer any questions that people like ourselves have about the circus. As it is quite a unique and niche organisation, we feel that audiences will have multiple unanswered questions in their minds about it. We want to answer, clarify and educated about not only the benefits of this community group but the deeper reasoning behind it.
It seems to have established a wonderful place for females to be empowered, feel good about themselves and meet new friends. We’d like to uncover how and why the women’s circus has been going as long as it has and see it, maybe even help it, continue to grow.
What is your individual role or component of this project?
Profile of one woman involved in the circus each and each contribute roles in putting together the website and creating the video on the history.
Visualisation:
There is a doco that was made on the circus in 2002, we will take some of the stories from that when interviewing our subject. https://www.lensculture.com/articles/kostas-kapsianis-a-common-story
https://www.lensculture.com/articles/rania-matar-photos-from-beirut-and-boston-womanhood-across-borders
Will use https://www.wix.com/ to make our site.
https://www.chelseasienna.com/ looking somewhat like this in its set out
Rationale:
The purpose of sharing this story is to highlight the importance of community and places of security and positivity for victims of domestic violence. This is a positive initiative project that if shared, could spark more across Victoria.
Archival Material:
We are using a contact from the museum archive to use for our video on the history, she used to run the circus. We also wish to contribute more content to the museum, providing them with the raw images and video interviews that we do. The Women’s Circus also has its own archive of content which we intend to go through and use once we have spoken to our contact and decided what factors of its history we want to focus on.
Main participants:
Using contact from the Museum, women who used to run the circus. She will provide insight on the history and the beginnings of the circus.
We are meeting with the artistic director Penelope, to discuss who would be great people to interview and capture in the project.
We would like to ideally include participants who were involved in the Circus when it was first established in 1991 and participants who are currently involved in the circus. Illustrating how the circus has grown and changed from when its main intention was to help victims of domestic violence to regain confidence, to what the organisation now represents in the community in 2018.
Setting:
The Women’s Circus in Footscray and Northcote, that’s the central idea, so we have to stay there around that location. We may also go to other locations to interview/shoot the women involved or once involved.
Challenges:
Participants willing to be interviewed. If we can film or photograph group shots it may be a challenge to get permissions etc.
Timeline:
Week 7 & 8 – meet with Penelope (Artistic Director) to discuss and finalise those to contact for an interview. Book in interviews with women and get filming/photography started when possible.
Week 9 – Be in process of filming/photography and writing synopsis’. Work on website. Film classes. Film and interview Penelope and Donna.
Week 10 – Editing of videos and photos begin.
Week 11 – Rough cut done
Week 12 – Final video and photos finished and uploaded onto website with written work.
Research video/photos/audio:
Test images
