By Christine de Kock
YARRAVILLE film-maker Lana Schwarcz is packaging the events of her life into bite-size comedic chunks as part of an ABC2 project entitled Video Lives.
Ms Schwarcz is one of five Australians participating in a project that involves film-makers producing, writing, directing, starring in and editing a brief video diary that is screened every second Wednesday on ABC2 at 7pm.
By the end of June Ms Schwarcz, 33, expects to have made eight individual video diaries. Four have already been screened.
However, she has not been given a project end date.
Her initial videos explore the theme of failure. “You can fail at something but it will still enrich your life in some way or failure doesn’t really matter,” she said.
“The first video is about me doing stand-up comedy for the first time and failing, and the second was about me trying to find a housemate and failing, and the third was about me trying to – a friend of mine had a launch for a cabaret show – and all I had to do was interview her and I failed at that, I sort of ended up running out of tape.”
Ms Schwarcz said she didn’t set up the shots but filmed candidly, asking people for their permission to be in the videos.
She said up coming episodes will feature her dad telling a joke. “But he can never really tell a joke because he ends up laughing. It’s hilarious … we all p–s ourselves with that and that is a genuine part of family dynamics.”
Ms Schwarcz said: “There is a lot of kudos associated with the ABC.”
She has put her post-graduate degree in puppetry at the Victorian College of the Arts on hold until she finishes the ABC project.
But she already has a diploma in performing arts and a degree in media and dance from Deakin University.
She has worked with the Women’s Circus in Footscray and was a street performer in France, Switzerland and America.
Her career has also included television and stage performance and participation in other creative genres.
To download the videos go to the website abc.net.au/tv/australiawide/videolives.
