Saving Little Wonder Part 1, Rough Cut

THIS is how you can save the world. A group of feral hippies and environmentalists bands together with members of an indigenous Aboriginal tribe to try and save one of the last fragments of Australian rainforest (filled with rare, endangered and unclassified species of animals) from destruction. This is most of a rough cut documentary detailing their true story, rushed to your screen from the lost archives of Australia’s forest wars – because these unique forests are under threat again after the recent elections of rapacious, destructive governments bent on burning the world’s heritage in power stations. Language (and lifestyle) warning. A document by R. Ayana (Part 2 coming sooner)

The Delian Mode (Kara Blake, 2009)

The Delian Mode (Kara Blake, 2009) is a a short experimental documentary revolving around the life and work of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire (5 May 1937 – 3 July 2001), best known for her groundbreaking sound treatment of the Doctor Who theme music. A collage of sound and image created in the spirit of Derbyshire’s unique approach to audio creation and manipulation, this film illuminates such soundscapes onscreen while paying tribute to a woman whose work has influenced electronic musicians for decades.

"A documentary on Delia Derbyshire who created the theme song for “Doctor Who”. Musical pioneer Delia Derbyshire didn’t just create the Doctor Who theme music; she invented every sound it comprised. Her history, and the history of a BBC department that helped launch electronic music, is told in an innovative, idiosyncratic style." —Telluride Film Festival

Slip Inside This House

Pink Floyd in It's so far out it's straight down

Granada Television produced this fascinating TV time capsule “It’s So Far Out It’s Straight Down” as a special part of their Scene at 6:30 series. The program focused on the young counterculture / hippie scene in London and features Miles, the Indica Gallery and the editorial board of The International Times underground newspaper. Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lawrence Ferlinghetti are seen at the International Poetry Incarnation and we are taken to The UFO Club where Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd are playing a live version of “Interstellar Overdrive” (Also heard on the soundtrack is an early version of their “Matilda Mother,” then called “Percy The Ratcatcher” and “It Can’t Happen Here” by The Mothers of Invention).

Paul McCartney is a talking head interviewee (although not framed as such) in the studio, intelligently discussing the nascent underground scene:

If you don’t know anything about it [the counterculture], you can sort of trust that it’s probably gonna be all right and it’s probably not that bad because it’s human beings doing it, and you know vaguely what human beings do. And they’re probably going to think of it nearly the same way you would in that situation.
The straights should welcome the underground because it stands for freedom… It’s not strange it’s just new, it’s not weird, it’s just what’s going on around.

“It’s So Far Out It’s Straight Down” was broadcast in March of 1967. The film focuses on performance (happenings) and The International Times, described by one of its members as communication media. The network element of this film, "to be part of something that has a common bond"is striking in the age of digital networked media. With words "beginning to become obsolete" and posters as the next form of mass communication.