The ABC will premiere four new films targeting a youth audience; Viv’s Silly Mango, Gugu naGogo, Namaste Yoga and Yaz Queens later this month on ABC ME and ABC iview.
The films make up the heart of The Kaleidoscope Project, a joint ABC/ Screen Australia initiative which supports and showcases the best of Australia’s next generation of Culturally and Racially Marginalised (CaRM) filmmakers, through mentorship and collaboration with experienced executive producers as well as editorial guidance from ABC Children’s and Screen Australia.
Each film aims to explore what life in contemporary Australia is like as a young person from a culturally and racially marginalised background.
The portrayals are compelling, refreshingly honest and told authentically through the lens of filmmakers Lara Köse, Mary Duong, Rachel Choi, Taku Mbudzi and Ravi Chand.
The films are sweet, beautiful, brave and bold. They thoughtfully and respectfully invite the ABC ME audience to share in the many challenges and discoveries that shape the identities of so many young people growing up in Australia today.
ABC Children’s and Screen Australia are excited to continue their commitment to diverse and inclusive storytelling and the opportunity to support authentic representation on screen.
The Kaleidoscope Films
Viv’s Silly Mango, a film by creators Mary Duong and Rachel Choi, offers an honest and playful insight into growing up as young people from migrant or refugee backgrounds in Brisbane through the perspectives of three Asian pre-teens – Viv, Esther, and Nikki – as they navigate the meaning of family and friendship in their discovery of riot grrrl music and most importantly, themselves.
Gugu naGogo, created by Taku Mbudzi, explores intergenerational and cultural relationships and struggles between daughter, mother, and grandmother, through the eyes of Gugu, a 12-year-old budding astronomer living in a small Australian town, far removed from Zimbabwe, where her Gogo lives.
Creator Ravi Chand draws on his experiences with Namaste Yoga, about Shiv, a 12-year-old Indian-Australian boy who hates being Indian. Shiv struggles with internalised oppression, whereas his 8-year-old sister Kaali is proud of her culture and immerses herself in it. Shiv experiences his culture being taken, commercialised and “taught” back to him, and learns to reclaim his culture on his own terms through his practice and connection with the true essence of yoga.
Yaz Queens, created by Lara Köse, explores the relationship dynamics between 10-year-old Yaz and her father after eight years of living apart in different countries, and how their cultural differences play a role in their struggle to relate, but ultimately, how their shared love of music helps bridge that divide and brings them closer together.
