Joanna Funk

I am so excited to announce a collaboration with Continuance Pictures to interview local and international emerging filmmakers under a new title called ‘The Occasion’. Written interviews and podcasts will be on the Continuance website plus Apple and Spotify every month. When I first met Continuance co-founders Tristan Barr and David Gim I loved their alacrity and strategic vision. With The Occasion, our idea is to raise the profile of new talent and highlight their good work. I can’t wait to see what we can do.

How did this come about?

A month ago I interviewed Tristan for my blog. At the time I thought I was going to get 30 minutes with him on the phone, because he’s always so busy. We ended up talking for 2 hours, and as he went into his next meeting he asked if he could connect me with his business partner David. Of course I said yes.

Five minutes later I received an e-introduction email with David, who asked if we could talk over Zoom, because David’s in Melbourne. Two hours later we were on Zoom, and a couple of weeks later the three of us were on Zoom again, working out how we could work together. I thought they were fantastic and wanted to do something with them. But what? They said:

You use your writing to elevate people, we love that. We’d like you to think about doing that with Continuance, interviewing new filmmakers for podcasts and articles. We want to give a voice to unknown talent out there, the people who don’t get heard. This is a thing that you already do.

I hadn’t seen that coming. But they were right. This is the thing I do, and I love to champion the good work of people who don’t get much attention. I’ve been doing it for over ten years, first with SabahSongs (the blog and then the book), and I started again when I came to Queensland.

So here is the home of The Occasion on the Continuance website. I will of course post when new articles and podcasts are out, and include links to them. In the meantime I will listen to podcasts – that’s a new adventure, as is becoming Editor for The Occasion. I think it’s good.