Hollywood here we come: Residents of Bell, Clarence and Dargan launch their community video project at Mt Vic Flicks

ABCD Inc committee members (left to right): Jeannie Dare, Mark Turl, Kevin McCusker, Alice Reti-Steel, Karen Jones, Karen Cody, Cathy MacNamara. Photo credit: Maja Baska.

Under a beautiful starry night, residents of Bell, Clarence and Dargan recently came together for a glamorous, fun-filled evening at Mt Vic Flicks to celebrate the launch of their community video project.

A red carpet lined with gold bollards awaited the guests as they arrived outside the cinema and posed for photos taken by local photographer, Maja Baska, who documented the event.

Joanna Brown, Resilience Co-ordinator at Resilient Villages

Inside, champagne and canapés were laid out for the guests by event hosts and owners of Mt Vic Flicks, Adam Cousins and Kirsten Mulholland, with the team from Resilient Villages also providing financial and logistical assistance on the night.

The screening was the culmination of more than a year’s work on a project that was spearheaded by the community group ABCD Inc (Association of Bell, Clarence and Dargan) who formed after the 2019/2020 bushfires devastated their community. The villages of Bell, Clarence and Dargan suffered, per capita, some of the greatest losses of homes in New South Wales during the Black Summer Fires. Local residents formed ABCD Inc in the aftermath of the fires to ensure that their community would never again be left so vulnerable and under-resourced in the face of another catastrophic bushfire.

The series of two videos produced by ABCD Inc depict bushfire expert, Tony Hawkins, visiting the homes of residents of Bell, Clarence and Dargan and giving them practical, DIY, cost effective and personalised advice on how to improve the resilience of their homes.

Karen Cody, Vice President of ABCD Inc introduces the videos with a moving, personal account of what she experienced during the 2019/2020 bushfires as she, her son and partner fought, (fortunately successfully), to save their property. Karen also describes the ensuing trauma and chaos that community members experienced in the wake of the fires. 

Kevin McCusker, President of ABCD Inc said of the video launch; ”It’s a really exciting time for us. An enormous amount of work has gone into this and we’re extremely pleased with the result. We believe it’s something very unique in that I haven’t seen anything that goes into the level of detail on how to look after your house and property in preparation for bushfires.There’s a lot of information out there but the video makes it a lot easier. It’s practical and it’s easy stuff to do. It’s a great video and I’m incredibly proud of it.” 

Karen Cody said of the production of the videos; “They’ve been a long time in the making. [To make the videos] we held about eleven day long events in our small community of less than 330 people so most of the population have participated in those events in some way. Now we’ll get to see them on the big screen. It’s very exciting.” 

The video launch was attended by Federal Member for the Blue Mountains, Susan Templeman, who said during the Q & A session after the screening; “I want to congratulate you on a fantastic use of tax payer funds… not only have you used it as a connector and a recovery tool but you have used it as a resilience and preparation tool. I think what you’re giving people here is such practical advice. I think this is one of the best uses of recovery money in terms of long-term sustainability that I’ve seen.”   

(left to right) Karen Cody - Vice President ABCD Inc, Kevin McCusker - President ABCD Inc, Tony Hawkins - bushfire consultant, Susan Templeman - Federal Member for Blue Mountains.

This sentiment was also echoed by a local resident who commented; “The film was absolutely outstanding. I hope its going to get wider circulation… because you’ve taught a lot of very good lessons in the film.” 

The videos are available for anyone to view at:

https://abcdinc.org.au/BUSHFIRE or on this site at: https://resilientvillages.au/videos.

This project was made possible with funding from the Disaster Resilience and Recovery Fund (DRRF) which is jointly funded by the Australian and NSW Governments.

Resilient Villages also provided additional funding and professional expertise to assist ABCD Inc in the making of the videos.

More images from the night can be viewed here.

Anne Crestani - Program Lead, Resilient Villages & Joanna Brown - Resilient Co-ordinator, Resilient Villages