Friday 17 March 2017

AFTRS neglect - Should we be worrying yet again?

Readers will recall that some little time ago  the Film Alert blog provided some information that indicated that AFTRS had stopped performing its primary task, that of delivering high quality young feature film directors into the outstretched arms of the local industry.

New degree programs instituted since the arrival of CEO Neil Peplow seem designed to address that problem, we shall see....

A year or so ago there was also more than a little agitation on display when the then Abbott Government  dilly-dallied over the appointment of Chair of the Council. The Government seemed very reluctant to give Professor Juliane Schultz a second term, something granted to all of her predecessors. In the end Professor Schultz's term was extended by a single year. That year is now up and it would appear that once again there is no seamless transition.

A check of the AFTRS website to divine what might be happening finds, if nothing else, some lack of attention to detail. A photo of Professor Schultz accompanies a box marked Council which readers are invited to click. But that click takes you to this page where you find no mention of her name. Her term has expired and she is apparently gone, extinct, not mentioned any more.

Of those who are mentioned, the peripatetic Katrina Sedgwick of ACMI is now a Council member alongside school Staff Council Member David Balfour whose prior  appointment was at the Met Film School in London, seemingly a fertile place for AFTRS recruitment.

News is awaited of Professor Schulz's replacement. The matter is presumably being managed with all due diligence and care by the Minister for Communications, Senator Mitch Fifield and his office.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.