All the Best doesn’t go looking for the fight; the fight comes to us. A night on the Gold Coast during Schoolies starts in a Penthouse apartment and ends with violence and jail; and a girl’s whip is transformed from performance object to weapon when domestic violence stares her in the face in Darwin.
A Night to Forget
For the record, Wade Keighran doesn’t like to fight. But when a group of drunk guys at Schoolies started physically harassing a group of young women, he felt he needed to act. It was the start of the worst night of his life.
Produced by Kate Montague.
Music credits: ‘Gimme Shelter’ by The Rolling Stones; ‘You Doo Right’ by Can; ‘The Hardest Button’ by The White Stripes; ‘Dimension’ by Wolfmother; ‘Where is my Mind’ by The Pixies.
Zen and the Art of Whipcracking
Kerzlake thought she’d mastered the art of whipcracking. But coming home one night through the dark streets of Darwin, an unexpected showdown with a stranger challenged everything she loved about her art.
Produced by Kate Montague.
Music credits: ‘The Last Night’ by The Dirty Three; ‘The Man with the Harmonica’ by Hollywood Studio Orchestra; ‘Bang Bang’ by Nancy Sinatra; Calexico.
Production Manager: Carly Anne Kenneally.
Features Executive Producer: Belinda Lopez.
Executive Producer: Giordana Caputo.
All the Best brings you stories that turn masculinity on its head. Alpha males are taught a lesson by beta males in the Army Reserves, an aggressive, alcoholic father finds himself on the wrong end of a shotgun, and a man finds out how to monetise his beard on the Internet.
Beards, And the Men Who Love Them
There are people on the Internet who fetishise beards. Melbourne photographer Jackson Eaton happened to have exactly the kind of beard that they wanted. (Below, for your own enjoyment: The growth of Jackson’s beard from clean-shaven to Internet trophy).
Produced by Fiona Pepper.
Sound design by Belinda Lopez.
Photo credits: Jackson Eaton.
Music credits: ‘Ecstasy of Dancing Fleas’ by Penguin Cafe Orchestra; ‘Warwick Pro Series Star Bass 5‘ by Bass People Sydney; ‘I’ve Still Got My Beard’ by The Beards.
Revenge of the Weekend Warrior
Even in the Army Reserves, hierarchy is everything. Private Paddy Jacob, dedicated weekend warrior, knows that. So when one particularly authoritarian Sergeant pulls rank on him and insists that they do not communicate during a drive together, Paddy obeys him to the letter.
Written and read by Melissa Jacob.
Produced by Heidi Pett.
Music credits: ‘Send for the Man’ by AC/DC; ‘Talk (feat. Giorgio Tuma)’ by the Townhouses; ‘Midriffs’ by Sui Zhen.
My Best Friend’s Dad
Growing up in Manildra, central west NSW, Shaun had only one friend. But his best friend’s dad was an abusive alcoholic, who was aggressive towards both boys. Shaun practically wished him dead.
All the Best stays out on a limb, beyond the comfort zone. We go to the middle of Jakarta’s devastating floods, where flood victims give our disaster tourists a taste of their own medicine. And a granddaughter who hasn’t seen her Nan in five years makes an emotional journey to the nursing home where her grandmother receives care for Alzheimer’s. Plus, a letter from Manus Island.
Disaster Tourism
Features Executive Producer Belinda Lopez used to live in Jakarta, and recently went back to visit the city. Her holiday was ill-timed: it coincided with massive flooding that has paralysed the city. Armed with cameras and recorders, she and her friend, Indonesian journalist Ade Mardiyati, joined the media hunt for victims of the floods. The Jakartans they found gave them much more than they bargained for.
Produced by Belinda Lopez.
Remembering Nan
Carly Anne Kenneally hadn’t seen her grandmother for five years. Her Nan, Annette Ainslie, suffers from Alzheimer’s and is now in a care home. Carly decided it was finally time to visit her; but the journey to the nursing home becomes one of remembrance and rediscovery. Carly’s story was placed second in All the Best’s Summer Story Challenge.
Produced by Carly Anne Kenneally.
Music: Bretzel’s Singer by Morning Fence.
Letter from Manus Island
Straight from Manus Island in Papua New Guinea: a letter from a 24-year-old woman from Afghanistan who is being detained after seeking asylum. The letter is one of several written by women asylum seekers on Manus Island, available on news website New Matilda.
Read by Heidi Pett.
Sound design by Sonja Dechian.
Music: Heidi’s Theme’ by Decoder Ring.
Production Manager: Carly Anne Kenneally Features Executive Producer: Belinda Lopez Executive Producer: Giordana Caputo
Photo credit: Ade Mardiyati
Music: Comfort of Strangers by Beth Orton
All the Best returns to your airwaves for 2013 with a series of stories about people confronting out-of-the-ordinary life events. Two All the Best producers turn to fiction to tell personal truths about cancer, family and love. And we welcome back Zahra Stardust, a guest on the show last year, who was supposed to appear in an photography exhibition about empowered women in sport, until the art gallery banned the photograph.
Grief
A sister tells the story of her brother Roland’s cancer diagnosis. A fictional story by writer Lynda Delacey, who lost her father and a close friend to cancer last year, and producer Abigail Sie.
Written and read by Lynda Delacey.
Produced by Abigail Sie.
Music: ‘Memory Booth’, original composition for ‘Grief’ by Haydn Walker; ‘The Visitor – Door Knock’, original composition for ‘Grief’ by Gerard Fitzgerald; Brazil’ by Cornelius; ‘In C Remixed’ by Terry Riley, performance by Zoe Keating from ‘Into the Trees’.
Empowering Still
Zahra Stardust: Pole dancer, stripper, human rights advocate and feminist, told us her story last year. She’s joining us again after photographs of her that were to appear in a upcoming exhibition in Sydney were rejected by the gallery. Curator Toni Bailey wrote to photographer Belinda Mason about her concerns, saying that she could “appreciate that the intention of the photograph is to suggest that the subject is empowered, however we are convinced that not everyone will read it in this way.” Zahra and Belinda argue the photograph is an empowered vision of women.
The exhibition, Onside, presents a series of artworks “referencing gender stereotyping, sexualisation of women’s bodies and notions of femininity”. On display at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney from 9th February- 24th March 2013.
Produced by Liam Knierim.
Production Manager: Carly Anne Kenneally Features Executive Producer: Belinda Lopez Executive Producer: Giordana Caputo
