“This film, Mamu, it’s about right, it’s about wrong. It’s about the past and the future, the new and the old.” – Curtis

In September 2010 the Desert Stories crew embarked on their first professional short film project under the guidance of filmmaker mentor Platon Theodoris. Curtis Taylor speaks about his experience of directing his first narrative based short film, with some sneak peaks of Mamu in between.

The video is made up of interviews with Curtis during the post production phase of Mamu and was filmed on location in Newman and Lake Dora, Punmu Community.

Filmed by: Curtis Taylor & Dave Wells
Edited by: Mark Taylor
Mentored by: Platon Theodoris & Craig Anderson

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks

Content by the Desert Stories crew is produced in partnership between CuriousWorks and Martu Media , a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.

Curtis is the lead West Australian artist in The Stories Project.

Curtis Taylor, 21yrs, hails from Parnngurr Community, located 400 kms east of Newman. Curtis is an actor, emerging film writer/director and a young Martu leader. He is currently an undergrad at Murdoch University, completing a Bachelor of Culture, Communications and Media. After finishing school in 2008, Curtis worked as Community Coordinator and Youth Development Officer at Martu Media (a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa), where he also spent 18 months working on Yiwarra Kuju as a filmmaker and youth ambassador. Curtis was the recipient of 2011 Western Australian Youth Art Award and Westfarmers
Youth Scholarship.

Mark is a media and arts educator, editor and designer at CuriousWorks.

Mark graduated from the Australian Film and Television Radio School as a documentary filmmaker and has been working closely with Australian Indigenous communities since 2006. A highlight of working with CuriousWorks has been working with a remote Indigenous community in the Western Australian desert to produce a documentary about their history. Mark is teaching community members production skills and is facilitating the documentary project.

In 2005 Mark co-founded the Sydney Latin American Film Festival as a means of sharing stories from Latin America. One of Mark’s roles was Technical Trainer in sound and projection and he developed an element to the festival described as ‘Neighbourhood Cinema’ where films are taken to communities that would not normally be able to access the event. As part of the process Mark trained numerous community members technical aspects of video projection and film screening set up.

We met them at Fairfield, Western Sydney. We joked with each other – are we still in Australia?

Listen to Curtis Taylor, Desert Stories crew member, speak about his time in Sydney and the projects on the Desert Stories slate.

Curtis Taylor interview with Rachel Fountain on ABC North West WA radio

Guido Gonzalez (Urban Stories) and Curtis Taylor (Desert Stories)

Country, music and painting stories. Take a 2 minute break and catch a slice of the great desert life!

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Next? Catch a slice of Western Sydney life in 90 seconds.

For family, woman, man and child, going back to the land they know. – Billy Landy aka Butler

Catch a slice of Martu life in 2 minutes.

On a return to country trip to Durba Springs in June this year, Martumili artist Yankura paints his traditional home Puntawarri. The backing track, performed by Butler is also about Puntawarri, a longing to return to their ancestral home.

Puntawarri
Release: August 2010
Location: Western Desert, Western Australia

Producer: Dave Wells
Directors: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John, Carol Macdonald
Directors Photography: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John, Carol Macdonald
Editors: Curtis Taylor, Anthony Gibbs, Owen John

Sound: Anthony Gibbs
Music: courtesy of Billy Landy aka Butler, “Puntawarri”, recorded live

The Stories Project
Creative Director: Shakthidharan
Producer: Eleanor Winkler
Mentors: Elias Nohra & Platon Theodoris

The Stories Project is presented by CuriousWorks .

Content by the Desert Stories crew is produced in partnership between CuriousWorks and Martu Media , a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa.