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form y separately published work icon Prison Songs single work   film/TV  
Issue Details: First known date: 2015... 2015 Prison Songs
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Prison Songs is billed as “Australia’s first musical documentary’ where the subjects express themselves through songs written by Casey Bennetto and Indigenous singer/songwriter Shellie Morris.'

It is captivating, heartbreaking, uplifting and unique.

'Watching prisoners singing and dancing in the unforgiving surrounds of the prison walls is inspiring stuff. Most of the male and female inmates are Indigenous, adding a poignancy to the documentary. The proportion of domestic violence, alcoholism and addiction in their stories is high.'

'Inmates break into hip hop, blues, country, reggae and gospel tunes as they sing about their backgrounds and their daily toil. There are solos, duos and group numbers performed in cells, workyards, laundries -musically giving us access to the personalities behind the prison cases.' (Source: TV Tonight website)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Renditions from the inside : Prison Songs, Documusical and Performative Documentary Lesley Speed , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media and Cultural Studies , vol. 33 no. 3 2019; (p. 324-336)

'Produced for SBS Television, Kelrick Martin’s Prison Songs is unusual as a documentary in which the participants convey their stories through songs that were written for the film. Centring on inmates of Darwin Correctional Centre, known as Berrimah Prison, and described in its press kit as ‘Australia’s first ever documentary musical’, Prison Songs involved a collaborative production process in which inmates contributed to writing the musical numbers. As a documusical, the film belongs to a documentary subgenre that originated in the United Kingdom and forms part of a wider landscape of convergence between non-fiction and fictional television. Prison Songs expands Australian documentary, contemporary Indigenous film-making and stories about incarceration. The film’s presentation of participants’ experiences through music, story, dance and humour can be situated within the performative documentary mode, in which orthodox screen discourses of sobriety are supplanted by poetic expression. Its use of songs and musical performance as partial alternatives to interviews and narration traverses boundaries between avant-garde and television forms, expression and information, and prison and the wider society.'   (Publication summary)

Music and Stories Come to Bellingen 2017 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 8 February no. 644 2017; (p. 19)
Aboriginal singer/songwriter Shellie Morris speaks 17 different Aboriginal dialects, many of which are considered sleeping or close to extinction. She will be visiting Bellingen on the NSW north coast for two nights of music and stories on March 17 and 18.'
Shellie's Score from the Heart Katina Vangopoulos , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: NT News , 30 November 2015; (p. 7)
'Musican Shellie Morris will be among those representing the Territory at tonight's AACTA Awards for her work on Prison Songs...'
New SBS Documentary Prison Songs Confronts Issue of Indigenous Incarceration Craig Mathieson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning , 29 December 2014 2014;
New SBS Documentary Prison Songs Confronts Issue of Indigenous Incarceration Craig Mathieson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning , 29 December 2014 2014;
Shellie's Score from the Heart Katina Vangopoulos , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: NT News , 30 November 2015; (p. 7)
'Musican Shellie Morris will be among those representing the Territory at tonight's AACTA Awards for her work on Prison Songs...'
Music and Stories Come to Bellingen 2017 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 8 February no. 644 2017; (p. 19)
Aboriginal singer/songwriter Shellie Morris speaks 17 different Aboriginal dialects, many of which are considered sleeping or close to extinction. She will be visiting Bellingen on the NSW north coast for two nights of music and stories on March 17 and 18.'
Renditions from the inside : Prison Songs, Documusical and Performative Documentary Lesley Speed , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media and Cultural Studies , vol. 33 no. 3 2019; (p. 324-336)

'Produced for SBS Television, Kelrick Martin’s Prison Songs is unusual as a documentary in which the participants convey their stories through songs that were written for the film. Centring on inmates of Darwin Correctional Centre, known as Berrimah Prison, and described in its press kit as ‘Australia’s first ever documentary musical’, Prison Songs involved a collaborative production process in which inmates contributed to writing the musical numbers. As a documusical, the film belongs to a documentary subgenre that originated in the United Kingdom and forms part of a wider landscape of convergence between non-fiction and fictional television. Prison Songs expands Australian documentary, contemporary Indigenous film-making and stories about incarceration. The film’s presentation of participants’ experiences through music, story, dance and humour can be situated within the performative documentary mode, in which orthodox screen discourses of sobriety are supplanted by poetic expression. Its use of songs and musical performance as partial alternatives to interviews and narration traverses boundaries between avant-garde and television forms, expression and information, and prison and the wider society.'   (Publication summary)

Awards

2015 winner Australian Teachers of Media Awards Best Indigenous Resource
Last amended 24 Oct 2016 14:34:12
Subjects:
  • Darwin, Darwin area, Northern Territory,
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