Melbourne’s Best Australian Short Winner ‘Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling’ Is Going On Tour (EXCLUSIVE)

Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling, an animated short co-directed by Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Marjorie “Nunga” Williams, and Nelson Armstrong, has won the VicScreen Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film at MIFF, taking home an AUS $10,000 ($7,107.00) cash prize.

Cartoon Brew spoke with the filmmakers ahead of its screening at MIFF, and can now announce that the film will live up to its namesake as it has been selected for a national touring exhibition.

A trailer for the film, embedded below, gives a window into a joyful, colorful exploration of history past, present and future.

The MIFF jury called the film “a moving testament to the power and beauty of making art together, and to the connections that art can create between those closest to us and people we may never have imagined reaching.” Much like the choir it depicts, the jury noted, the film “tells a story of community in its own languages – not only spoken, but also sung, drawn and painted.”

The 10-minute film traces the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir through the eyes of six artists and singers from two Alice Springs art centers: Tangentyere Artists and Hermannsburg Potters. Blending English, Western Aranda, and Pitjantjatjara, the film is an oral history and serves as a vibrant time capsule of culture. Writer and producer Eloise Lindeback told Cartoon Brew the project grew directly out of the artists’ own studio practice, following works like Judith Inkamala’s ceramic Desert Choir and N. Donald’s Sulman Prize-finalist painting Our Aboriginal Women’s Choir. “There is a documentary about the choir and a book, yet neither of them has been made by First Nations members of the choir,” Lindeback said. “The artists chose to make a film so that they could share their stories their way.”

That process began with a multi-day collaborative scriptwriting workshop attended by all six of the choristers. “The majority of the script was drawn verbatim from quotes from the scriptwriting workshop,” Lindeback said. From there, the team built an asset list and commissioned 28 artists across both centers to work painting canvases and sculpting ceramics, including the vehicles that carried the choir across the country and around the world. Judith Inkamala took on painting every figure in the film herself, giving each choir member and extra an individual look. “I love that you can see the texture of the canvas and paint, and the handmade quality of the ceramics, in the finished film,” said Armstrong. The animator then digitized, rigged, and animated the artwork in a cut-out style.

Sound was vital to the project, as the music itself is a character in Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling. Song selections were guided by the choir’s own members, drawing on an archive of live recordings, some of which correspond directly to scenes depicting the choir singing in a Tamworth studio or at Kwartatuma (Ormiston Gorge). Sound designer Vito Lucarelli, based in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), recorded additional ambience there, and captured sounds on a personal trip through Europe that made their way into scenes of the choir’s overseas travels.

The choir’s own history stretches back to the Mission days of the early-to-mid 20th century, when members first translated and performed centuries-old German hymns in Western Aranda, through a 1961 tour of South Australia and Victoria, a 1993 album recorded in Tamworth, and international performances across the U.S. and Europe.

That history is now the basis for the touring exhibition announced today. Developed by Artback NT in partnership with Tangentyere Artists and Hermannsburg Potters, and co-curated by Lindeback alongside Inkamala and Williams, the exhibition will pair the film with archival choir footage, paintings, and ceramics from the six featured artists. It’s backed by federal funding through the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program, along with philanthropic support from Sunshine & Crocodiles. Lindeback said the exhibition is set to launch in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) before touring to every Australian state and territory, gracing major cultural institutions.

“The film going on tour is special because we can share it with more people,” Inkamala and Williams said in a joint statement. “The film is traveling just like we were always traveling with the choir.”

Lindeback said the team hopes the film keeps playing festivals internationally, and the exhibition tours to museums and galleries overseas once the national exhibition tour wraps. “We are excited for the film to continue to be platformed in film festivals and tour hopefully across the world,” she said.

Our Choir Has Always Been Travelling was produced by Ness Sim, Alinta Brown, and Eloise Lindeback, and written by Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Eloise Lindeback, Anita Mbitjana Ratara, Marjorie “Nunga” Williams, Betty Conway, N. Donald, and Lizzie Topsy Topora Jako.