Introduction to the ASPERA Journal Special Issue: creativity matters, part one (2022)

The Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) 2022 Conference Creativity Matters: Poetics. Pedagogy. Production. Policy. was held at Griffith Film School, Griffith University, Brisbane from Monday 11 July to Wednesday 13 July 2022. The conference explored matters regarding creativity across all areas of research and teaching in Australian higher education institutions today and into the future. It acknowledged the fact that the screen industry is changing rapidly. New generations of storytellers are entering the scene resulting in competition for career opportunities and funding. In this environment, universities play a pivotal role in educating students to work creatively and collaboratively in local and global scenarios. In this Studies in Australasian Cinema ASPERA Special Issue, we are pleased to present research arising from the papers presented at the conference. It includes matters regarding teaching and researching the poetics of screen-based storytelling in higher education, particularly around matters of Indigenous and diverse voices, the collaborative input of key creatives, ideas that impact and the finding of the global in the local in screen-based storytelling. It investigates the pedagogy of how we may educate undergraduate and post graduate students to be more innovative, creative and entrepreneurial during and beyond their film school experience. It highlights how we may integrate our research and teaching to creatively address industry production imperatives to work collaboratively in co-productions, to embrace new technologies in screen-based productions, as well as how higher education institutions can lead change and innovation in the industry. The conference theme of Poetics in Australian Indigenous storytelling and collaborations are explored in an international cross-cultural film school co-production in Burgess, Mace and Moyes’ Special Research Report Animating Country. Their research discusses the Australian outback experience of students and staff from Falmouth University, England and Griffith Film School, Australia and two Australian Indigenous Elders who collaborated on an animation, inspired by local Dreamtime narratives. The project’s objectives centred on student experiences and outcomes, underscored by the central question of ‘how do we encourage and enable students to tell meaningful stories in a cross-cultural context?’ This initiative provided an opportunity for students to develop a sensitivity to the cultural context/s of their practice via animation storytelling. A five-minute stop motion animation, Butterfly Dreaming (2019), was co-created over two weeks with the Guwa-Koa Traditional Owners as part of the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival. This paper explores the challenges of aiming for ‘authentic stories’ on Indigenous land across Western and traditional cultures. The limitations of using primarily stop-motion animation, of working ‘in the field’, and of animating with only those materials found in the landscape, were deliberate choices designed to promote creativity, ingenuity and a close and tactile engagement with the environment. The course was designed to facilitate students’ cultural inquiry and critical awareness of Australia’s colonial history through open dialogue, discussion and co-production, whilst gaining first-hand insights into the ethics of cross-cultural co-production.