Australian Consulate-General

New York CG, United States of America

Consulate-General address: 150 East 42nd Street, 34th Floor, New York - Telephone: 212 351 6500 - Fax: 212 351 6501

Events Calendar

To join our Friends of the Consulate list serve
and receive weekly cultural and event updates click here

Australian Short Film Today
Photographer Polixeni Papapetrou makes her New York debut
Australia Council Award Winning Photographer Martin Smith exhibits in the Monash Room
'Love Therapy' by Australian playwright Wendy Beckett opens in New York
Paul Kelly to Perform at Highline Ballroom over Memorial Day Weekend
2nd Annual Chappell-Hadlee Cricket Challenge
A Taste of Down Under 2013 to Benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association
Tropfest New York Announces Host Liev Schreiber and Move to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park

An annual showcase of the latest award-winning short films from Australia
Curated by Susan Talbot AM

When: Wednesday 22 May 2013 at 6.30pm. Reception follows the screenings
Where: Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, New York
Tickets: $7 Asia Society Members; $11 Non-Members; $9 Seniors & Students w/ID
To purchase tickets in advance click here.

Highlights of the 2013 Program

The program features this year’s big winners in the drama and animation categories.

TRANSMISSION
A father and his 10-year-old daughter flee a deadly pandemic in a post-apocalyptic Western Australian desert.
Writer/Director: Zak Hilditch
Producer: Liz Kearney
AACTA 2013: Best Screenplay In A Short Film
Tribeca Film Festival 2012
St Kilda 2012: Best Short Film, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Actor (Angourie Rice, the daughter)

THE MAKER
A strange creature races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life.
Stop motion animation
Writer/director/producer: Christopher Kezelos
Producer: Christine Kezelos
Original music by Paul Halley, Australian composer of contemporary classical music
Sydney Film Festival 2012: Best Animated Short
Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival 2012: Grand Prize

THE CAPTAIN
A man wakes up with a hangover, only to discover the consequences of his actions.
For the eighth straight year, the lineup will include a film by Nash Edgerton, who always manages to shock audiences.
This year’s Edgerton film screened at Sundance 2013.
Writer: Nash Edgerton, Spencer Susser & Taika Waititi
Director: Nash Edgerton & Spencer Susser
Executive Producer: Sue Yeon Ahn
Producer: Benjamin Gilovitz

The program always includes a Tropfest winner.
This year there are two, one the overall winner and one the winner in the new DSLR Category:

WE'VE ALL BEEN THERE
What goes around, comes around.
Director: Nicholas Clifford (AFTRS graduate)
Producer: Michael Ciccone, Jim Wright & Bridget O’Shea
Starring Penne Hackforth-Jones

LET IT RAIN
As a state of mind, youth can be ageless.
Winner DSLR category
Director/Producer: Matt Hardie (NIDA graduate)
Producer: Chris Byrnes

Photographer Polixeni Papapetrou makes her New York debut

When: 4 April – 15 June, 2013
Where: Jenkins Johnson Gallery 521 West 26th Street, 5th Floor New York

Australian photographer Polixeni Papapetrou creates darkly whimsical images that grapple with conceptual definitions of childhood, both historically and in contemporary society. Her New York solo exhibition, Stories from the Other Side is on view at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery until June 1. The exhibition features two of Papapetrou’s most recently completed series, The Ghillies and Between Worlds. Accompanying the exhibition is a full color catalogue entitled ”The Ghillies” with an essay by Chris Healy, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne, and a full color catalogue entitled “Between Worlds” with an essay by writer and curator, Susan Bright.

Papapetrou is a 2009 winner of the Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award, a 2007 Bundanon Trust, Artist in Residence, New South Wales and has won the Visual Art and Crafts Board, Australia Council, New Work Grant four times. Papapetrou is in countless private collections worldwide and is in such prestigious public collections as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and National Library of Australia, Canberra, amongst others.

Australia Council Award Winning Photographer Martin Smith exhibits in the Monash Room

When: April - May
Where: Australian Consulate – New York, 150 East 42nd Street Floor 34 New York

In its opening series focussing on Australian Photography the Australian Consulate - New York is proud to present in association with United Photo Industries the award-winning Australia Council recipient Martin Smith in the Monash Room. Martin Smith’s artwork focuses on those small moments that glance into a life. Tending to gather photographs, as opposed to taking them, his works as a consequence offer wry observations rather than grand statements. The loss or absence inherent in photographic images, which are suggestive of another time and place, is echoed in the physical loss of the words cut into the surface of the works. One story is inscribed on another, just like one memory is laid upon another or one version of a story embellishes another. The resulting works are replete with the same ambiguity, melancholy and richness as memory.

Martin Smith is an Australian photographer who combines words and images to explore family, memory, loss and identity. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Griffith University and teaches in the photographic department at the Queensland College of Art/Griffith University. His works have been exhibited internationally at the Hong Kong Art Fair, Photo Paris, Hous Projects in New York and Photo LA. He has been awarded the Veolia Prize, the Clayton Utz Travelling Scholarship and the Prometheus Award. In 2008 he released a monograph titled “Martin Smith, photographs, In response to.”

Jim Ramer is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Photography at Parsons, the New School for Design. Most recently, Professor Ramer's work was featured in the 2009 International Festival of Photography at the Goeun Museum, Korea and was a presenter at the PingYao International Festival of Photography.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

'Love Therapy' by Australian playwright Wendy Beckett opens in New York

When: 20 April – 25 May 2013
Where: DR2 Theatre - 103 East 15th Street, New York

Sit in for a session of LOVE THERAPY and see what happens when fantasy becomes reality. In this new play we take a secret look behind the closed doors of a junior therapist, Colleen, and we learn what a therapist really thinks and feels. Insistent that love is at the core of good therapy, Colleen’s clients thrive under her care . . . until boundaries are blurred and love eventually sours.

For specially priced tickets $25 Tickets (reg. $45) when purchased by 4/15
$30 Tickets (reg. $45) when purchased after 4/15 Visit www.BroadwayOffers.com or call 212.947.8844 code LTGEN30

FOR MORE INFORMATION: visit www.LoveTherapyPlay.com

Paul Kelly to Perform at Highline Ballroom over Memorial Day Weekend

         When: Saturday 25 May 2013
         Where: Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th Street, New York
         Bookings: http://j.mp/YTuaaQ

Singer/Songwriter Paul Kelly will perform at the Highline Ballroom as part of his North American tour to promote his new album ‘Spring and Fall.’ Kelly alongside his nephew Dan Kelly will perform a mix of the new album with older songs.
Paul Kelly has recorded nineteen studio albums as well as several film soundtracks (Lantana and the Cannes 2006 highlight, Jindabyne) and two live albums, in an influential career spanning more than thirty years. He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997.

'Songs From The South', a selection of his popular songs first assembled in 1997 and expanded to a double album in 2008, contains many of his songs now lodged deep in the Australian psyche. He continues to cross musical boundaries. The Triple J tribute album Before Too Long, released in 2010, featuring John Butler, Missy Higgins, Megan Washington, Paul Dempsey, Ozi Batla and many others is evidence of his influence on generations of musicians.

His first work of prose 'How To Make Gravy', a self -described ‘mongrel memoir’, was published in 2010 with Penguin and is accompanied by a CD box set of live recordings and an audio book with readings from Paul and some of Australia’s finest actors Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Judy Davis and Ben Mendelsohn.

2nd Annual Chappell-Hadlee Cricket Challenge

         When: Saturday 18 May 2013 at 12:30pm
         Where: Christiano Park in Greenwich, Connecticut
         Bookings not required, Info: www.americanaustralian.org/en/cev/1103

Get ready for a great day out where top Kiwi and Aussie expats will battle it out for the 2nd Annual Chappell-Hadlee Cricket Match. Only a 45 minute drive from New York or a quick cab ride from Greenwich train station, bring your friends and family and set up a picnic for this all ages event! There will be plenty of shade in the spectator area, a food truck, Australian and Kiwi beer and donations will be collected for Achilles International.

A Taste of Down Under 2013 to Benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association

When: Monday 24 June 2013, 6 - 10 pm
Where: Tribeca Rooftop, 2 Desbrosses Street New York

Come and celebrate the wonders of the ‘Lands Down Under’ as you join over 600 guests gathered to sample wine, food and culture of Australia and New Zealand at MDA's 20th annual 'A Taste of Down Under'. Enjoy outstanding cuisine prepared by some of New York City's finest chefs, paired with the leading brands from the vineyards and breweries of Down Under and across the country.

Tickets: Special Ticket Offer for American Australian Association Members $85 / Non-Members $100 / Tickets at the door $125 / Proceeds go to the Muscular Dystrophy Association: www.americanaustralian.org/en/cev/1113

Further information and sponsorship Opportunities: www.atastedownunderny.org/

Tropfest New York Announces Host Liev Schreiber and Move to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park

When: Saturday 22 June 2013
Where: Prospect Park, Brooklyn
To register for a spot in advance, click here.

The World’s Largest Short Film Festival Returns to New York with a Free Event Saturday 22 June 2013. Filmmaker Deadline Extended to May 16; Grand Prize Includes $20,000

Tropfest, the world’s largest short film festival, which staged its hugely successful U.S. debut last year, will return to New York this summer. Making the move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, the event will be hosted by acclaimed actor, producer, director, and screenwriter Liev Schreiber on Saturday, June 22nd in Prospect Park. The short film competition has also issued a call for entries with a newly extended deadline of May 16. See more here.