Lifeblood
Lifeblood is a film about the intersection of place, history, and Australian identity.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Nicholas Tory
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thank you!
The film takes place in Bourke, a town in far north western New South Wales on the edge of the Central Australian desert.
Bourke is a forgotten place, but an undeniably beautiful place, this was our inspiration - a beauty that you have to slow down and look closely to see.
To watch Lifeblood is to experience the beauty and delicate complexity of Bourke and its surrounding country.
We wanted to make a film that allows you to experience this place in real time. We wanted to highlight White Australians' disconnection with Australian First Nations Culture, First Nations ways of life, the Stolen Generations, and First Nations ideas around being part of a place, living as part of an ecosystem, not imposing ourselves on our environment.
In these ways, Lifeblood is a call to rethink ongoing environmental and cultural apathy in Australia.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
If you surrender to our film Lifeblood, and really 'see' it, just like if you were to go to Bourke and really 'see' the district, understand its history, and the delicate equilibriums at play within every aspect of life, you would feel, as we did, that it is a place worth protecting.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Lifeblood is about seeing and recording the landscape.
Every project that I produce and direct starts with a collection of drawings and a preliminary written treatment. This is how Lifeblood started.
Having spent years creating award-winning public art installations for festivals in Sydney, Melbourne and Berlin, I decided three years ago that I wanted to further diversify my art practice. I went to art school in Sydney, and worked in the Australian Film Industry at the beginning of my career, so I decided I wanted to create an animated short film that explores the ideas around the intersection of place, history, and our identity in Australia. A story based in Bourke, New South Wales. We wanted to show what this historically important and almost mythical part of Australia is really like, to immerse the viewer in the landscape, and to make a film that doesn’t rely on the usual tropes and themes that you see in Australian cinema, and indeed a lot of mainstream animation
A new challenge, taking the viewer on a journey into the extraordinary Australian landscape, while posing the question - who are we as Australians? We are disconnected from our true cultural identity. We don’t understand our environment, and therefore we don’t know how to protect the delicate equilibriums that have existed for millions of years in our country and on our planet. We ignore the truth, and an entire culture that flourished for hundreds of thousands of years slowly dies. Why do we ignore these truths? Where are we rushing to? Stop and look. Stay a while, and you will see.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Lifeblood was written and produced a bit like a documentary film, in that we took four road trips to Bourke in 2019 and 2020. During these trips we sketched, filmed and photographed locations, interviewed local people, researched the ideas and history of the place, and our story evolved from these experiences. We wrote the story for Lifeblood visually first, with a hand drawn storyboard and concept designs on paper. We scanned these drawings, and produced an animatic which evolved weekly or fortnightly from that point until we had completed the film over a two year period.
Lifeblood is a story told from a white Australian perspective, but was written by both Aboriginal people and white people. I wrote most of the story initially and then co-writers Ngemba Elder, Aunty Dot Martin and Proud Ngemba man, Phil Sullivan's stories were incorporated early on. Jonathan Nix was a co-writer and contributed many ideas and sequences to the film. The voiceover script was written during the editing process at the end.
This method allowed a certain freedom to focus on the important ideas, expressed with animation and landscapes, and with the sound design and our original score written and performed by Jonathan Nix
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We have received positive feedback about our film Lifeblood. The film is playing well on the film festival circuit, having been picked up by some amazing festivals, and has already received some award nominations.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
No it hasn't, although I know of course that there are views on the ideas in Lifeblood that would challenge our point of view, and I welcome these discussions. I have had a couple of robust conversations with First Nations People about the First Nations content in our film, but I am always clear that our film is written from a white perspective, with profound contributions from co-writers Aunty Dot Martin and Phil Sullivan, and hopefully people can see that the Aboriginal cultural elements and themes discussed are being handled respectfully.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We want as many people to see our film as possible. We want to make more work that explores truthful Australian themes, histories and mythologies, celebrating Australian culture and the extraordinary natural beauty of our country.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We are open to discussions about collaborating with any of the mentioned people to help get our work seen and 'heard' by as many people as possible.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
We want everyone to try to see Bourke through the eyes of Aboriginal people. to really 'see' the place. We want the Australian government to implement policies designed to meet global climate targets much sooner. Let's protect our home, because it's the only one we have.
We want all Australians to think without fear about why the natural world around us is so unique and beautiful and must be cared for far better. We want Australians to visit these places and experience them as we have. We all must understand what is happening to our planet, and the impact that we have had on Australia's First Nation Culture and knowledge. If we understood Australia like First Nations people do, we would know how to protect it.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Are the the people of Australia disconnected with Australian First Nation history and culture, and is this disconnection holding us back from understanding our history, our culture, our land and waterways, and why we are mismanaging them now and for future generations?
Would you like to add anything else?
Please watch our short explainer video about the making of Lifeblood:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ie8yo1kfh70rjo5/Explainer%203%20WIP_3.mp4?dl=0
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Currently, two more animated short films, two very short historical pieces for a cultural centre, and beyond that, one (approx) eight-minute animated film that we will be looking forward to entering in festivals. Developing and designing an Aboriginal Cultural Centre with local government client, and First Nation Artistic and Cultural Stakeholders. Touring a collection of interactive light sculptures that highlight climate change and the beauty of nature around the East Coast and eastern states of Australia. Developing two treatments for feature films.
Interview: August 2021
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Lifeblood
Length:
20:20
Writer
Phil Sullivan, Aunty Dot Martin, Nicholas Tory and Jonathan Nix
Lifeblood involved a collaborative writing process, co-written by long-time collaborators NICHOLAS TORY and JONATHAN NIX, as well as Bourke local and Ngemba Elder, AUNTY DOT MARTIN, and proud Ngemba man, PHIL SULLIVAN.
Director/Producer
Nicholas Tory
NICHOLAS TORY's work seeks to explore themes around the experiences of living in urban environments and a desire to be closer to nature, the fragility and complexity of all life on our planet, human mythologies, and the roles that technology plays in our lives and in our world. Nick's art practice, and his cultural work and public art production business, Ample Projects, has a key focus on creating work that combines traditional artistic methods with new and old technology, to create relatable cultural work, public artwork and animated films.
Key cast:
Nardi Simpson
Looking for:
sales agents, distributors, journalists, film festival directors, producers, buyers
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lifeblood.animation
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nicholastory
Hashtags used:
#Lifeblood #LifebloodAnimation
Made in association with:
The people of Bourke Shire
Where can I watch it?
Catalina Film Festival/USA - Sep 2021
Show Me Shorts/NZ - Oct 2021
Sydney Film Festival/Aus - Nov 2021