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Great Australians
Kids Documentary Series
Produced & Presented by Kids 4 Kids:
"Please, Prime Minister Rudd & Premier Rees,
we don't want to grow up couch potatos watching DVDs,
we want to produce them!"
Become an Anti-Couch Potato!
Producer Tara Hogan (6 yo) and 'associates', are looking for support from our government representatives, State & Federal - it would be excellent use of a tiny little bit of Prime Minister Rudd's $14.2 billion "Building the Educational Revolution" (BER) / economic stimulus - along with private sector sponsorship, to help us recognize in a more tangible way the contributions of Great Australians, especially those that are now forgotten or never received their due credit.
Specifically, assistance and funding so we can set up the "Great Australians Foundation".
It would have an oversight board made up of prominent members of our society.
The inaugural project would be the "Great Australians Kids Documentary Series" (GA-KiDS Internet TV).
What will make this project unique is that it will be largely produced and presented by kids for kids. It seems apt that if the older generation have missed the boat, maybe having it presented by children for the new generation, might make it easier for the 'oldies' to catch on.
At the same time it encourages 'progressive education' - children to be proactive, creative, independent, and entreprenuerial filmmakers, rather than growing up couch potatos who nag parents to buy them DVDs.
Hence the "Anti-Couch Potato Initiative".
Initially we will show the results on YouTube and Kids Internet TV format. Eventually we may be able to prove we are just as interesting as other documentaries you see on cable TV and Foxtel's History Channel. It could be a trailblazing endeavour that attracts ongoing sponsors, with financial benefits flowing back to the schools, helping to offset funding shortfalls and the constant need to send home notes to parents asking them to pay school fees for special activities.
Already as you can see from her letter of 13 February '09 (just after her 100th birthday!) we have support from Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.
She has kindly offered to let us come down to Cruden Farm to do an interview about her husband, Sir Keith Murdoch.
We know that usually a feasibility study / business plan has to be presented along with endless forms to fill out, but under these special circumstances, we really can't keep Dame Elisabeth waiting for months.
So we are asking that a small grant / sponsorship (Qantas even to get the children from Sydney to Melbourne) be made available immediately so we can get the interview done, some time in March.
Your understanding and prompt support will allow us to get straight back to Dame Elisabeth with the current status.
GA-KiDS Pitch to Sponsors - You Become an "Anti-Couch Potato"!
• "Great Australians Kids Documentary Series" (GA-KiDS) will give you
a total Corporate Image / Public Relations facelift
• GA-KiDS will have staying power - endless story lines over the next several
years right up to the 100th Anniversary of WWI / Gallipoli. Holding our own for
dollars invested, especially against the ineluctable Hollywood Blockbusters.
• High chance of attracting mainstream news attention over this long period - lots of free advertising for your company.
Great PR value - from the Big 4 Banks who are percieved as greedy - to ailing Qantas / Travel Industry - to local 'Potts Point - Kings Cross - Darlinghurst' businesses, especially a Real Estate agent chain that could supply us with studio / office space.
It's a shortcoming in our education system that Australians do not know about the momentous deeds of people like Keith Murdoch. So it would seem a nice, though belated 100 birthday present for Dame Elisabeth to know that things are happening. It would be even more appropriate for the Education Minister to let Dame Elisabeth know, direct, of the government's support for our project and this very special school excursion.
So we would get our Great Australians Kids Documentary Series rolling with Sir Keith Murdoch ('1886-'1952) - envisaged over 8 half-hour episodes - covering just how he got our soldiers out of Gallipoli. It would include the interview that Dame Elisabeth Murdoch has so kindly offered to give Tara and classmates, and of course references to her own tireless work for charities and children's health.
[If our Great Australians Project ever becomes successful and captures the Nation's imagination, perhaps one day it would be fitting to have a "Keith Murdoch National Airport" - like the Americans have done with Ronald Reagan and JFK National Airports, and we have too with Charles Kingsford Smith - Wagga Wagga would be a perfect location - halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, just across from Canberra - high speed rail link - shared funding, good use of the $42 billion economic stimulus!]
The next season would move onto other Great Australians. The natural progression is to the Billjims ('1916-18) - the nickname for the soldiers that Keith Murdoch got out of Gallipoli, many of whom were Australian Light Horse, who were then reunited with their Walers (NSW bred horses) and then proceeded to liberate Palestine from 400 years of Ottoman occupation. It what was the most successful cavalry victory in modern military history. Of course all the credit went to Lawrence of Arabia (TE Lawrence being one of many officers on camelback including Dame Elisaabeth's uncle Col. Nowell de Lancey-Forth). The famous David Lean Hollywood movie doesn't even mention the Australians. In reality they were the spearheading force of the whole campaign. An Australian, Gen. Harry Chauvel commanded the entire allied force. And it was an Australian, Major Arthur Olden (of the 10 ALH) that actually beat Lawrence to Damascus.
Other subjects would include the volunteer Fire Fighters tradition - very similar in spirit to the Billjims, who are totally forgotten by the media. Whereas we are well aware of the deeds of their descendants in the Victorian Bushfire disaster.
Later we hope to set up http://www.greataustralians.org.au
For now we have a new blog at: http://greataustralians.wordpress.com
Tara Hogan (6 yo)
Host & Producer
...& her 'Assistant', Peter Hogan
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