WHAT IS RINGBALIN?
Ringbalin - River Stories is a geo-located documentary that invites you on a journey along Australia's
great Murray Darling Rivers, with Aboriginal Elders from the oldest cultures on
earth acting as your guides. It contains dozens of traditional and personal stories and
takes the form of a film, an iPad/iPhone App, and website.
This story
starts in 2010 during Australia’s worst drought in history. The Murray Darling
River was dying. A group of Aboriginal nations united to try to save the river
and the life that relied on it by performing the traditional Ringbalin
ceremony.
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It took them
on a 2,300 km journey following the river system, and we captured this historic
experience on film. We went along to film what happened. By the time they had
finished dancing, the rain was falling, and what followed were the biggest
floods on record.
As we filmed, we realised how many
wonderful, funny and wise stories the Aboriginal Elders could tell that went
way beyond the immediate expedition. So we decided to record as many as possible
and put them in an interactive documentary, so that travellers (real and
armchair) could be guided on a journey along the River Murray and its sister
the Darling. The stories are funny, sad, inspiring, educative, profound and moving.
There are anecdotes, songs, yarns, wisdom, history, insight, dancing and facts
told from the unique perspective of the people who have been living on the
river for 40,000 years. For an example, watch Auntie Beryl's story about the Emu Stars here.
We wanted to make 40 short films
with the Elders. But thanks to their enthusiasm and generosity, and the fine
quality of their contributions, we've now collected many more that that, as
well as photo stories and audio tales that capture Aboriginal
perspectives of the river to enhance a real visit to the location, or to give
you a virtual adventure from the comfort of your own home. The experience provides a candid window onto
a rich and ancient culture, with access far beyond what the average
tourist can discover.
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HOW THE APP WILL WORK
Whether you're on the other side of the world or just down the
road, you can experience
this journey. Travel virtually online, or come and
visit the river in person where the stories will be all around you.
The Elders will find you
as you enter their Countries. The sound of
clap-sticks will alert you as you near the places where they're waiting to tell
their stories.They've made
journeys for you to follow, with stories of the rivers and streams and songs of
the waters and their peoples.
If you take the journey in
person, notifications will alert you when you're near a ‘story site’. There are
more than fifty hand-painted maps, all GPS coded, to guide you to the exact
locations where the Elders' stories are told, and along with the filmed stories
there are intriguing audio and photo stories to enhance your trip.
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WE NEED YOUR HELP TO GET US OVER THE LINE
On October 20 we'll release a free
‘prototype' version of the app, and we're pretty excited about that. But we want
to release the full version as we originally imagined it ,with all the
functionality and content to deliver on our original vision. To do that we need
to raise some extra cash to pay the bills, edit all the stories we've collected,
add in more smart tech and make this all available via the (iPad and iPhone) app.
Here's what we need the money for:
1.
Sound mix,
grade and online for all the additional stories: $10,750
2.
Rights to
use Archie Roach's gorgeous song Jamu Dreaming: $2,600
3.
The cost
of car hire and fuel to field test the app up the river (two weeks on the
road): $1500 + $1500
4.
Adding in
some clever functionality that lets you place yourself on the map and have the
app act as though you were physically there in terms of how it responds and
what it offers: $1,300
5.
More
smart tech that places a virtual ‘geo-fence’ around the sites on the map/in the
app so if you have the app and are travelling in country, we provide relevant
notifications as to what is around you: $3,350
6.
Updating
all the ‘sharing’ features in the app to take into account pesky iOS7 changes
(thanks Facebook, Twitter and Apple!): $1,600
7.
Some
money for marketing so that we can tour it
to SXSW and a European multiplatform festival: $5,200 (although we'll probably
need a bit more because Australia is so far away!)
We'll do as much of this as we can, depending on how much we can raise. If we beat our target we'll be able to
record more of these wonderful stories before the old people pass on and their
wisdom, humour and family stories are lost.
But we know that's a lot to
hope for, and we'd be grateful just to be able to pay for some of the
essentials and complete the app we've been imagining for so long!
WHO WE ARE
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Director and DP Ben Pederick (blue t-shirt), editor Jos Pederick (far right), stills photographer and cinematographer Ali Sanderson (second from right) and motion graphics designer Michael Duff are the team behind Goodmorningbeautiful Films. We make films about human struggles, rights and the environment worldwide, and we're won awards including the Grand Prix du Bassac, Cambodian Environmental Film festival (2008), Best Online Journalism, the Society of Environmental Journalism (2009) and First Prize in the Hong Kong Human Rights Press Awards (2012).
But making the Ringbalin project wouldn't have been possible without the remarkable creative team that's come together with GMB to realise this project: producer Julia de Roeper and production manager Chrissy Kavanagh at JDR Screen, Jennifer Wilson and her amazing digital development team at The Project Factory, graphic artist Yianni Hill at We're Open and EP Sue Maslin of FilmArtMedia. And of course our awesome editors Jonnie Morris and Daniel King, and producer's attachment Nara Wilson!
SHARE, SHARE, SHARE.
If you can't contribute to the funding campaign, we'd still love your support. Please use the Indiegogo share tools to tell all your friends about this awesome interactive project, and help us make a big loud noise on social media!
Please help us get this new way of telling stories finished and into peoples hands, hearts and minds.
