Welcome to The Block
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/1.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tAn aboriginal housing project in the middle of Sydney. Why would you want to watch this transmedia documentary about such an outlandish topic? For so many reasons!
The story
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/2.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tThis unique indigenous owned housing project was built in 1973, by local priests, activists and some homeless indigenous people. It quickly grew out to be a warm meeting place with a big sense of community, especially for the so called ‘Stolen Generations’ of aboriginals, who were looking for lost family members.
Survival
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/3.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tBut the neighborhood got heavily plagued by crime, drug abuse and political quarrels, so community building was also an essential survival technique.
Forty years after...
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/4.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tThis documentary was shot just after the last inhabitant had left The Block, forty years after its birth, while waiting for a new future.
Too many stories
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/5.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tWhile digging deeper and deeper in all the personal stories, chunks of history, photos and wandering through the streets, it becomes quite clear why the makers chose this interactive non-linear format for their storytelling: there’s just too many stories in The Block to capture it with a traditional documentary format.
Lizzie
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/6.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tLizzie for example, a teenage orphan whose mum died of an overdose and lived with the harsh reality of junkies and dealers in The Block every day.
Hope
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/7.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tBut there’s also very hopeful stories. Meet Shane. He leads the Tribal Warrior Association (TWA) who assist young people with professional training and education to overcome cultural disadvantages. He also organizes Family and Culture Day at the Block for the sake of the community.
Anthony
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/8.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tAnthony tells us about his father Tony Mundine, a boxing champion who started a gym to keep the local kids off the streets. Because Anthony saw more and more youth around him fall victim to drugs, he decided to take over his father’s work, showing these kids a perspective on life.
The Block sets an example
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/9.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tWe could definitely learn something from how The Block deals with its own hardships, so much is certain. But on a whole other level, we could also learn a lot from this particular kind of storytelling.
Google Street View, but better
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/10.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tWhen entering this interactive experience, you can wander around through the streets (as in Google Street View, but better) or research a map. In those environments, you’ll find links everywhere to personal interviews, mini documentaries, slideshows of archive pictures and discussion forums.
Informational and functional overload
http://www.submarinechannel.com/wp-content/plugins/slideshow-gallery/vendors/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/11.jpg&w=768&h=432&q=100&a=tYou are constantly tempted to dig deeper, as if The Block were a candy store, selling fun facts. Sometimes, the risk of informational and functional overload is lurking.
Inviting
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State of the art storytelling: The Block
An aboriginal housing project in the middle of Sydney. Why would you want to watch this transmedia documentary about such an outlandish topic? For so many reasons!
Experience The Block here.
- February 4, 2013
