Proud Gunditjmara playwright, film maker and singer songwriter Richard Frankland speaking at the launch of Witness. Photo: Keith Gow

“When you’ve got art, you’ve got freedom”

by Ben Keene April 2, 2018 0 comments

For those who missed our launch and the announcement of the inaugural First Nations Emerging Critic Carissa Lee last month, here’s a taste of what happened on that beautiful autumn afternoon, put together by our recordist, composer and sound editor Ben Keene.

Voices, in order: Liz Jones, artistic director of La Mama; playwright, singer, songwriter and film maker Richard Frankland, who performed the Acknowledgement of Country; Witness co-founders Alison Croggon and Robert Reid, and First Nations Emerging Critic Carissa Lee. Music composed and performed especially for the launch by Ben Keene.

Read: Robert Reid’s launch speech

first nations emerging critic witness

Ben Keene

Ben Keene is the sound engineer, editor and composer on podcasts and videos for Witness. He graduated with distinction from the RMIT Digital Media Course in 2016 and was awarded the RMIT Higher Education Award. He is currently a casual academic and completing his Honours degree at RMIT. His sound design credits include the Melbourne Theatre Company, Expressions Dance Company, TheatreWorks, Hoy Polloy, Finucane Smith and Big West Festival. He works closely with Darrin Verhagen as part of the band Shinjuku Thief (with whom he completed additional composition for the AFI award nominated soundtrack The Boys in the Trees in 2016) and as a research assistant at AkE (Audiokinetic Experiments) Lab.

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