Selecting the winner of Radio National’s 360documentaries competition for best radio feature in My Tribe was not an easy task.
Judges Claudia Taranto, Gretchen Miller and myself (Kyla Brettle) were looking for the audio work that told a great story, was original and compelling and demonstrated technical excellence. The winner of the competition would be going onto produce a commissioned work with the 360documentaries crew – so it’s a prize with lots of challenges and we needed someone ready to take it on.
Our first step was to actually find the audio-only works in the My Tribe exhibition group. As you can imagine, there were lots of segues and time spent getting lost looking at the many great videos, still images, text works and multi-media pieces – but we finally put together a list of audio on the My Tribe HQ Delicious Tags.
There was lots of really strong entries to choose from including some excellent programs from students at LaTrobe University and the University of Wollongong.
Among the works we thought highly commendable and well worth a listen are the audio documentaries ‘My Gamelan Clan’ by Metallophone and ‘Video Game Nerds Unite’ by Rocknroll_Joel Also, for some very evocative audio montages and musical soundscapes check out Stephen Barrass’ ‘Refugee Realities’ series and ‘Babel; dancing about architecture’ by david porteus.
When it came down to the finalists – love was definitely in the air and online with two beautifully crafted and compelling works. A favourite was Rose’s radiophonic ‘Love in the cloud; the 100 dates online dating project’
which explores a quirky approach to meeting others online. But in the end we decided to hand the winning ticket to Robbie-McEwan for his feature, ‘Me, my boyfriend, his girlfriend and his mum’. As judges we all felt that it was a highly original idea that packed a lot of punch. Robbie’s candour about his private life, his funny and frank script that was delivered naturally, his creative use of music and devices like his audio diary all made for a winning entry.
So that’s a wrap for the radio documentary competition – and if you would like more recommendations My Tribe HQ – (including works in across all media forms) explore the My Tribe Showcase.
image: ‘Bucket Head St Kilda Market‘ by My Tribe Contributor Underground Productions