Community Film Screening

The Extraordinary life of Bob Brown intertwined with the story of Australia’s ancient trees.

7 pm Friday 30th June at the Zamia Theatre Main Street, North Tamborine. Box office opens from 6.30pm.

Tickets $10. All proceeds to the Bob Brown Foundation.

Why I am hosting this community screening
I joined the Bob Brown Foundation in the Tarkine in 2022 as part of Art for Takayna, creating work for an exhibition at the Salamanca Art Centre in Hobart. I have seen the havoc that logging and mining can do to this endangered temperate Gondwanan rainforest one of the last surviving wild places in the world. I have climbed through the valley and mountains that may soon be used as a toxic tailings dam drowning 285 hectares of old growth forest, home to endangered species of Masked Owls, Tasmanian Eagles and Swift Parrots to name but a few. Takayna is a rare gem, its beauty is mighty, fragile and awe inspiring.

Having lived in the rainforest villages on Tamborine Mountain for over 30 years I have a small understanding of the fragile ecology we are temporary custodians of. When we think of climate change and other environmental threats its easy to say it is all too much and what can be done. But we can all do everything we can do within our own capacity.

Bob Brown has been someone who has given his all.

Join me to witness in this beautiful film, the magic of these ancient trees and forests and the work of one forest defender.

Synopsis

DURATION: 113 MINUTES

THE GIANTS is a long overdue biopic of environmentalist Bob Brown, a National Living Treasure, the first openly gay member of parliament in Australia and leader of the world’s first Green party. It’s also about the life of Trees, which scientists are only starting to understand. The film goes from Bob story to the trees’ story - revealing just how closely intertwined they are. It’s a joyous exploration of the Forest delivered in a new, creative and awe-inspiring way.

Brown’s trailblazing life helps narrate the exhilarating rise of the environmental movement in Australia from the successful Franklin River campaign in 1983 to today's fight for the Tarkine. The film is a poetic exploration of his motivations and his actions that began, like Greta Thunberg, with a few lone acts of protest; and of his spiritual connection to nature that continues to sustain him.

In the battle for the Franklin, Bob Brown’s collaboration with leading Tasmanian photographer Peter Dombrovskis proved decisive in capturing the public’s imagination and inspiring them into action. THE GIANTS will follow the same tactic – creating an epic and creative portrait of the Forest that combines monumental ‘tree portraits’ and immersive, animated ‘3D forest scans’ with spine-tingling sound design and a powerful soundtrack featuring human vocals – to literally give a voice to these trees.

Brought to you by the team that made FREEMAN – the most watched documentary of 2020 on Australian TV, THE GIANTS aims to ignite a conversation about the right of the Forest to exist – and to inspire us to save it.

Reviews
The Giants, Bob Brown documentary is inspiring and beautiful. This elegant film uses the natural world to wrap an ancient context around contemporary politics and the former Australian Greens leader’s drive to save the environment.The Guardian

This eye-opening portrait of Bob Brown will stun and delight you.- Sydney Morning Herald

This story has been told more than once in documentaries, but never as potently and as comprehensively as it is here. David Stratton -The Australian