The Lost Thing short film

This film's floating about in various festivals but if you haven't heard about it, you can check out the trailer here at the official website or below.  It's based on a book by Shaun Tan.  It will be released by Madman on DVD on the 10th of November.

14th Japanese Film Festival @JapanFilmFest

Just a heads up for those in Melbs and Sydney, the Japanese Film Festival will be held in November and December.  They're still updating their site with film and other details.  Japanese Film Festival on twitter. More info soon.

Bringing to you an abundance of Australian premieres, special guests and fantastic prizes to be won, the 14th Japanese Film Festival promises to be nothing short of spectacular.

Plan ahead! 2010’s Japanese Film Festival dates are:

SYDNEY
22 – 28 November Event Cinemas, George Street

MELBOURNE
2 – 7 December ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square

Australia and Me - Teresa Thoi, QLDs first serving Viet Policewoman

Quite interesting stories to watch, I'll post the other episodes in a later post.

Teresa Thoi

This episode of Australia & Me delves into the extraordinary life of Queensland's first serving Vietnamese Policewoman, Teresa Thoi.

Born in a small village in Vietnam, Thoi and her family braved the seas in the early 80's for the promise of a new future in Australia. Thoi was just 10 years old when they arrived in Cairns.

It is clear that the assimilation process has left a prominent mark on Thoi's psyche. Although Thoi completed a business degree and returned to Vietnam to further her language skills, it was a chance meeting with a serving police officer that led her to pursue a career in the Australian Police Force.

Thoi is now a Sergeant working in the 'Asian Specialist Unit' in Brisbane. She admits that her role has given her a chance to give back to the Queensland community which embraced her family. She now helps other immigrants who are experiencing what she went through.

"What's rewarding is I can use my own language skills being Vietnamese. I have helped a lot of my community members."

This is truly a remarkable story of how the immigration process can unfold.

(via PerilMag)

Couples book a perfect date with destiny

Kat Chong and David Tran believe they have secured the perfect wedding date.

The couple from the Sydney suburb of Parramatta will tie the knot next Sunday: the 10th day of the 10th month of 2010.

They visited a numerologist who said getting married on October 10 would ensure a happy life together.

"In Chinese culture, numbers can be very important," Mr Tran, 28, said.

Miss Chong, 24, said: "We hadn't realised it was such a big day, and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to get a dress."

Only two other dates this century remain in which the day, month and year will be the same: 11-11-2011 and 12-12-2012.

A spokeswoman for Australian Marriage Celebrants Incorporated, Ann Dally, said there was an unusually high number of weddings booked for next Sunday.

Ms Dally said some celebrants in her organisation had been turning couples away. "A lot of celebrants might only get one wedding a week or one wedding a month but all our members are booked out for this date. I have actually had to turn away about 10 couples."

Source

Cambodian Australian carries much more than the hopes of a nation

Weightlifter Vannara Be impresses Indian ladies at the athletes village.

HIS uncle was a boat person, a refugee from Pol Pot's reign of terror. His father was an immigrant who bent his back dawn to dusk picking grapes to provide his family with a future. Now Commonwealth Games weightlifter Vannara Be has become the first Cambodian-born athlete to represent Australia.

So how does he feel?

"Surprised actually," he said after being presented to the media. "I didn't know until someone just told me."

But if Victoria-based Be was vague about his standing in Australian sporting history, he has total clarity about his own family history and the terrible affect the Pol Pot regime had upon it.

"My aunty and uncle were murdered, my grandmother lost an eye," the 22 year-old said. "They say she cried so much when she lost her children that it just disappeared."

In the early 1980s, Be's uncle managed to flee Cambodia for Thailand, then got on a boat to Australia. By 1996 he had become a citizen and on a trip home to Phnom Penh urged Be's uncle to join him in the new country.

"Dad came out on a short-term visa. My aunty was working on a vineyard in the Yarra Valley and dad tagged along and worked with her. When it came time for him to leave, the lady who owned the farm asked him to stay. He said he couldn't leave his family behind so she did all the work to get us all to Australia. It was all because my father had worked so hard."

Just four years old when he arrived in Australia, Be proved he too was a hard worker, helping his parents pick grapes and carrying them in crates from an early age.

"Maybe that's where I got my strength from. Who knows?"

While the source of his talent is a mystery - there is no culture of weightlifting in Cambodia although Be's three sisters have all taken up the sport - there is no question about his earliest motivation.

"I took it up because playing sport meant you could get time off school," he said. "If you were in a competition you could get a whole day off."

The turning point of his career came when the family gained permanent residency last year.

"Before that we were always wondering if we would have to go back to Cambodia," he said. "I had no real goal because I didn't know what my future was. I'd only train once or twice a week. Then when we knew we would be staying I got serious."

Competing in the 62kg class, Be has a best lift of 115kg in snatch and 138kg in the clean and jerk.

While none of his family will be in Delhi, he knows they will be watching him compete on television.

"My mother is so proud, she is ringing me every day," he said.

Source

Early Halloween Treat for Queenie Chan fans

Queenie Chan has released a short horror story called Elevator and is is available at Bento Comics. She has a few other stories on that site too.

Also, a movie version of the Dreaming has been announced and to coincide with this, a volume of the Dreaming has been released which includes "eight new color pages, five figure illustrations, as well as a new short story and an interview with Queenie".

Vote for AAs in Yahoo Talent Comp

Check out the following AAs getting their groove on for the chance to win 5000 big ones.  Click on the pics below to see their dance vids and don't forget to vote for your fave.

Ivan Tan

How long have you been practicing your skill/trick for?
3 or 4 years. I started off by breaking on the streets because I had nowhere else to dance. I knew I was getting somewhere when random people started throwing spare change at me.

How often do you train and what does it involve?
I'm always dancing, just ask anyone who knows me. Even at the supermarket, I'd shuffle down the aisle to get the milk and moonwalk back to my trolley. It drives my girlfriend crazy. I don't think breakdance/bboying involves anything other than a desire to express yourself (except maybe some cardboard on the floor if you want to practice backspins).

What has been your greatest achievement involving your skill/trick?
I've been in a few battles now (even won an inter-uni battle once), but I consider my greatest achievement is being able to pass on my knowledge of this art - the same way it was passed onto me.

What will you do if you win the $5,000?
I'd give half to my bro. He's been diagnosed with a condition that forced him to leave his job (that he loved - he's a designer), so that he could rest and concentrate on getting better. His medical bills are piling up and he doesn't have a source of income anymore. I'm sure he'll appreciate some financial ease. As for the other half, I'll probably surprise my girlfriend with something nice and then say, "See, I told you breakdance is awesome!"

Jono Wong

How long have you been practicing your skill/trick for?
I've been tricking for about 6-7 years now. I originally was a gymnast and had been competing for 8 years, but I just got to a stage where I wanted somthing different and less structually stiff. So I retired and started Capoeira in search of the crazy tricks that i had seen on a few videos, but I didnt get to train them much and mainly learned the martial arts, music and cultural side of Capoeira.

Then I met Morgan Flook at our local Gymnastics Adult Class and he was already training some of the things I wanted to learn, so we started training together, teaching and learning from each other - destined friends and training rivals. At the time the sport wasnt called tricking, we were just coppying all the Capoeira, Wushu, Sports Karate, Taekwondo and breakdancing moves that we were downloading off the internet. In about 2006, we found out the sport was called tricking, but it made little difference, we just kept training and filming and making "samplers" of our footage. We decided to call ourselves "Team E" and we were a pretty big hit in the Global tricking scene seeing as we were one of the first big tricking teams in australia to release a tricking sampler. From then on, we just kept training and innovating and now we are in the present!

How often do you train and what does it involve?
I try to train 2-3 times a week. My friends and I will train in the Manly Warringah Gymnastics Club where I work or at the Castle Hill RSL Gymnastics Center where we work on all the combo's and tricks that we have been striving to achieve. There are so many different variations and combinations of tricks already so there is always somthing to work on, yet there is still room for new and inovative tricks which is what I like to devote my time to.

What has been your greatest achievement involving your skill/trick?
Attempting and Landing the E-Flip Gyro at this years 2010 Australian Tricks Gathering was definately the greatest moment I have experienced with this trick as there is always so much anticipation and energy at Tricking Gatherings. Seeing as there were Trickers from Sweden, the UK and NZ at the gathering as well, it made the scene even more epic!

What will you do if you win the $5,000?
The 5K will probably be spent on a down payment for a Swedish Air Trampoline that we can use for our classes, students and personal use :D

Imagine the largest, bounciest jumping castle you have ever been on then multiply it by a thousand!!! perfect for flipping around on! and way safer than a trampoline cause you dont get launched in funny directions at all :P