benomara.com

Outside the Net

benomara — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 05:16:10 +0000

Australian Catholics Magazine invited me to contribute a personal story to their current issue which focuses on technology and social justice. This was a chance to reflect on my experiences working with the Sudanese, Vietnamese and Samoan communities in Melbourne’s west, and some of the discoveries I made about the way they interact with digital technology. I enjoy writing short, sharp pieces. It’s only five hundred words, but canvases some of the issues I address through my Post Doctoral research at Victoria University.

Writing Short Films: Radio Interview on YouTube

benomara — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:16:35 +0000

Jessica Au wrote a great post about short films at Spike, Meanjin’s blog. It explored some of the implications for short filmmakers who screen their movies at festivals and online. This inspired me to create a short video about writing and producing short films. I used a radio interview broadcast on Triple J featuring Zan Rowe and myself during the 2005 St Kilda Film Festival. I had heaps of fun cutting this together. It was great to revisit the interview and learn how to use iMovie, which I found to be both easy and frustrating at the same time – I’m used to using Premiere on the PC.

Flickr Photos

benomara — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:56:19 +0000

I’ve set up a Flickr account to publish a series of photos taken as part of my various writing projects and also the research I have performed at Victoria University. They include images I shot while working in Fiji, South Africa and Italy, and also my general wanderings around my home town Footscray in Melbourne’s west.

Most of these photos have been taken using a Canon Digital SLR camera. I’m certainly not a professional, and am learning as I go along.

This Is Not A Hobby

benomara — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:26:48 +0000

The Emerging Writers Festival was held in Melbourne last month. They ran some great sessions about opportunities, challenges, tips and tricks for writing and publishing in Australia. Being a writer is tough. Support networks do exist, however, and it’s refreshing to feel more connected in real world spaces when writing can be such a solitary pursuit. I only went to the festival’s opening night (which was very cool), but I did write an article about writing, rejection and uncertainty as my contribution to dialogue around young people and creativity. The piece was published by Meanjin in this month’s issue:

Meanjin is an important literary journal and it feels great to have my first story for this publication – plus Sophie Cunningham’s editorial about feminism really nailed how I and others feel about negative reactions to women in various cultural spheres:

“I’ll just say this: either women can’t sing, paint, write or think as well as they used to—certainly not well enough to offset their tendency to become less beautiful with age—or we live in a culture that does not like the things women say or does not know how to hear them when they say it.”

Wilco, Thursday 6 May 2010 @ The Forum, Melbourne

benomara — Fri, 21 May 2010 02:50:11 +0000

Wilco is band that demand respect. A few weeks ago I put myself in credit card debt to go see the Chicago based rockers at The Forum in Melbourne, Australia. They jumped and rollicked their way through a feast of Wilco gems. It seriously rocked and the punters were salivating for more. I wrote a review of the gig and it’s been published at TheDwarf.com.au – I relished the return to music writing and injected this little nugget with plenty of cheeky machismo.

Live review of Wilco in Melbourne

High-tech Health in the Bush

benomara — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:09:06 +0000

My new story has been published as a weekly feature at Eureka Street. High-tech Health in the Bush makes a case for affordable and user friendly technological innovation to effectively support the health and wellbeing of Australia’s diverse range of communities, such as culturally and linguistically diverse groups in rural and remote areas.

High-tech Health in the Bush

The story was a great way to draw on my travel experiences and research work in regional Australia, and also poorer communities in South Africa.

Indie Excursions: Primal Urges @ HorrorSquad

benomara — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:13:42 +0000

‘Primal Urges’ has been profiled in an article at HorrorSquad, a popular website dedicated to horror films. It’s accompanied by another indie short, ‘Tell Tale Heart’, based on Poe’s short story. You can see them both here and check out HorrorSquad for other gory goodies.

Perfect Gift For A Man

benomara — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:09:48 +0000

One of my stories that originally appeared in the Herald Sun, ‘Grandad Still Worth Gold To Me’, has been published in the book The Perfect Gift For A Man. This collection features 30 stories about reinventing manhood – very cool.

This book came together after an online campaign (Manweek) by Reachout and Triple J to encourage men to speak about their experiences.

All proceeds go to Inspire (www.inspire.org.au), an organisation dedicated to helping Australians lead happier lives.

A free version is available but please also consider buying a copy for friends and family.

A Shagger’s Tail

benomara — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:33:42 +0000

Everyday Weirdness have published my new piece of flash fiction, A Shagger’s Tail. This story follows the plight of a young bloke who has just been dumped by his girlfriend via text message and comes home to find he has a new and particularly dodgy flat mate called ‘Pickles Magee’. It features giant rats, A-Team collectible figurines and late night escapades with Video Ezy shop assistants. What more could one want?

Primal Urges – Full and High Quality Version

benomara — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:02:51 +0000

The full high quality version of Primal Urges is finally online. Eat your heart out Van Diemen’s Land, this is cannibalism in the ‘noughties.