Category: Radio16

In conjunction with the Newcastle Museum, Australia’s Silent Film Festival is proud to present two sessions of restored classics in September.

The first session is a tribute to the inimitable Charlie Chaplin to celebrate his 100 years in film this year! Charlie’s genius captivated and enchanted audiences around the world within a very short period of time. That relationship has never ended. The whole world claims Charlie as its own: the qualities in his roles as director, actor and composer are timeless and universal.

On Saturday September 13 at 2pm, local musician, Greg Smith, shall accompany digital restorations of 4 of Charlie’s classic silent short comedies.

The first two on the program are the very first two films released to the public in 1914.

Charlie Chaplin

100 Years in Film

Making a Living (1914)

Kid Auto Races (1914)

The Champion (1915)

The Vagabond (1916)

Tickets $20/$15 concession

On Sunday September 14 at 2pm, the film on offer is the Academy Award winning World War 1 drama, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 152 minutes.

Tickets $15/$10 concession

McIntyre Auditorium Newcastle Museum

6 Workshop Way Newcastle

Tickets through Festival website home page.

Cash sales only at the door. Festival Pass to both sessions $30/$20 concession.

A new show hits the Radio 16 Roster this morning! Sean Ison will be joining us every Wednesday for Mid Mornings 10am – 12 featuring a collection of music from the seventies and eighties and plenty of fun OTR. Tune in every Wednesday after Peter James and the breakfast club.

On Sunday 29 June, the Leukaemia Foundation is daring local residents of all ages and fitness levels to ‘dash’ through Newcastle Foreshore Park, wearing a sunflower and a smile for the Sunflower Dash.

Anyone can join the Sunflower Dash by running, walking, or dashing the 1km or 500m route. Those taking part will help provide emotional support to people with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and related blood disorders.

“Today, 31 Australians are expected to be diagnosed with blood cancer. Finding the sunny side to life can be hard when blood cancer shadows your day” said Christine McMillan, General Manager of NSW and ACT.

“We chose the symbolic sunflower because even on a cloudy day, it turns towards the sun. It is a beautiful image that makes us think of all the families who have turned to the Leukaemia Foundation to get through the tough times” said McMillian.

The Sunflower Dash will help the Foundation provide emotional wellbeing to those living with blood cancer and their carers. This is facilitated through education and support programs and counselling.

The Leukaemia Foundation is the only national not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the care and cure of patients and families living with blood cancers and related blood disorders. It receives no ongoing government funding and relies on community support.

The family friendly event will also have food and entertainment for everyone, with a special appearance by The Little Scallywagz and Iron Man. The event is also supported by local businesses, such as Tree Top Adventure Park and Mullers Amusements.

To register and bring sunshine this winter please visit www.sunflower.org.au or call 1800 500 088.

Thursday June 5 at 6.45pm – Event Tower Cinemas, Newcastle

Filmmaker Clive Neeson Available for Interview

Last Paradise reaches Newcastle on Thursday June 5 at the Event Tower Cinemas, Newcastle with local special guest, surf pioneer, Peter McCabe. It is a rare occurrence that Peter McCabe makes a public appearance. But this is an adventure film with global significance. It has received major awards from around the world with Australian film legends, Dick Hoole and Alby Falzon along with the scientific community singing its praises.

Last Paradise is the story of adrenaline and innovation – how a bunch of surfers pushed the limits to pioneer the modern concept of extreme sports and adventure travel. For physicist-film maker, Clive Neeson it has literally been a lifetime in the making and the journey has revealed major issues about our planet.

The late legend, Allan Byrne tells the story with pioneers Peter McCabe, George Greenough, Gerry Lopez, Miki Dora, AJ Hackett and Brian Conley. The 45 years of golden unseen footage was restored by Peter Jackson’s team who discovered it as the result of an accident during making of “The Lord of the Rings” and declared it as “the best footage we have seen”. Music legends including Cat Stevens came on board to provide a classic soundtrack.

For Tim Ryan Peter McCabe – WNewcastle’s Peter McCabe early 1970s, Last Paradise

The film begins and ends stalking monster waves in the Aussie outback where after decades of global exploration, the true meaning of paradise unfolds. Peter McCabe features in incredible unseen surfing footage with friend, Gerry Lopez as they discovered the paradise of Bali before tourism.

The evening will conclude with a Q&A session with physicist-come-filmmaker, Clive Neeson. Last Paradise is a big screen sensation and promises to be a great night out. All tickets purchased go in the draw to win a seven day Samoan Holiday package incl. flights.

In the remote wilderness, when necessity was the mother of invention, a maverick bunch of kids began experimenting with something that would change the world of adventure travel.

Passionately driven to innovate new ways of tapping into nature’s forces for adrenalin, Clive joined likeminded thrill seekers through the 1960’s and 1970’s in a global quest for adventure paradise. The culmination of their 45 year global search turns out to be our own Australia, the “Last Paradise”.

Through this unique original footage, a series of stories emerge with a relevance that connects to audiences, young and old. In and amongst the adrenaline and adventure, Last Paradise weaves issues of energy development, deforestation, species loss and urbanization as particular audience takeaways. But it’s all hidden under the bonnet of an exhilarating cinema experience.

“It is my life’s work. We captured on film the pioneering of extreme sports, that is, those which engage the wilderness and push the limits with the forces of nature. It began with my mother, who was raised in an orphanage and escaped it all to become a wildlife cinematographer in Africa during the 1950’s. My parents raised four boys remotely and we all became addicted to that daily brush with danger. I began filming at the age of 15 with a broken camera that I bought in a pawn shop because as a kid I was driven by the dream of what this film would be,” Clive said.

With a Master’s Degree in physics and a career in technology innovation, including the first digital movie camera and climate monitoring system, Clive skillfully incorporates scientific and educational elements into an eye-opening fun filled cinema experience for any age. He hopes “Last Paradise” will become an inspiration for the youth of today as well as a tool for education and social change.

“I wanted to use the world’s biggest adventure story to address the world’s biggest issues – in this sense the film is an open letter to a generation inheriting a world vastly different to the one I and my friends grew up in. We cannot see where we are going unless we see where we’ve been and only original footage can give us that experience” Clive said.

The winner of a string of international awards including Most Popular Film at the New Zealand Film Festival, Best of BANFF in Canada and The Ambassador of Green Award at XDance USA, Last Paradise will be screened nationally in through May and June.

Bucking the national trend of falling science enrolments, RDA Hunter’s ME program is making a difference to Hunter school students and industry. Selection of physics for example has risen 5% to above the NSW average at schools participating in the program.

David Bonzo of ME partner school St Philips Christian College said, “The Program has given students a reason to study harder subjects like maths, sciences for their HSC.”

“We have worked hard to build the ME Program into a workforce development initiative that makes a difference to students and industry and we’re seeing tangible results,” said RDA Hunter CEO Todd Williams.

As one of only three school student focused programs funded by the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) in Australia, RDA Hunter’s ME Program links Hunter defence and manufacturing companies and Hunter high schools to build a skilled and tailored workforce for the future.

Ashley Cox, Manager of the ME Program says “This is such a unique opportunity for our region to lead the way in terms of ensuring our young people are fully prepared for the future, a future in which technological change and skills in Science and Mathematics will be vital.”

Highlights of the program to date include,
1. Secondary school participation in the ME Program has increased from 4 schools to 26 schools (which is a majority of secondary schools in the Hunter).
2. So far, over 7,500 students have been involved in the program
3. Industry participation has increased from 4 to 32. These companies range from small to medium sized technology companies to multi-nationals.
4. The uptake by year 11 students in Physics has grown to now put the Hunter above the NSW average
5. Students attending as ME Program School are now twice as likely to undertake engineering studies are significantly more likely to complete higher education as a result.
6. One of the ME Partner schools in 2012 for the first time ever has put on an extension maths class (3 unit)

“We need more of this type of focus to increase the enrolments (in STEM subjects)” said Prof Denis Goodrum from the Australian Academy of Science, Canberra.

Senior citizens are being given the opportunity to enjoy a priority preview of many of the wonderful exhibits which will form part of the inaugural 3 Village Art Festival to be held across next weekend.

Probus Clubs and other senior citizen groups are being invited to attend a special preview, with morning tea being prepared by the local CWA, at Tocal Agriculture College this Friday, May 23^rd. Bookings are essential for catering purposes with the CWA charging a nominal fee of $5.50 for guests.

Bookings can be made by contacting 0406 996 475.

The 3 Village Art Festival, the first of its kind, will be held next Saturday & Sunday, May 24^th & 25^th. The event will be a celebration of the arts, with a wide range of works from some of the region’s most talented artists and photographers displayed across a number of locations in the historic and beautiful villages of Paterson, Vacy and Gresford.

At each Village (about 6km apart) art, photography, sculpture, woodwork and numerous other examples of visual arts will be displayed. There will also be market stalls, vintage car and bike displays, as well as children’s activities and entertainment to keep the whole family entertained.

Commencing at 10.00am at Tocal Agriculture College at 10.10am each day, visitors will “hit the road” as they collect their event maps, programmes, brochures and Children’s Art Rally forms and head off to explore the art trail. An exciting, fun and no doubt educational experience for all the family.

Festival Enquiries:            Graham Murphy 0416116009

www.3villageartfestival.com.au

Unfortunately we have had to cancel our ANZAC day broadcast scheduled for this morning due to the severe thunder storms and torrential down pour of rain. Of course none of this takes away from the importance of the occasion. We hope to have some interview podcasts available in the coming weeks.