Community activities.

Mike has always been an activist, sometimes full on, sometimes an adjunct to other things he’s doing.

Leading Students to India. 1961

His first activism came when he led 100 Australian University students on a cultural exchange to India. This could be calling more of a baby sitting job. But activism emerged as he raced around India trying to prevent the students causing diplomatic incidents by either being too interested or too insensitive in India.

The most exciting part of the job was saving young Australian women from imminent marriage. As guest of hospitable families, the Aussie girls thought it acceptable to be their usual friendly selves with the young men in their host families,  as they were with  everyone else. But their warmth in that traditional society was taken as an expression of interest and longing for cross cultural union. Mike several times arrived in the nick of time to prevent unexpected nuptuals. .

Australian Volunteers Abroad. 1962

After this, he travelled though Indonesia, visiting young Australians who were working in a Peace Corps type of organization, doing good works at the village level. He took numerous photographs and on coming back to Australia, toured Universities with the show, slides and a talk,  to recruit new volunteers to the pro bonoscheme.

The Vietnam war opposition 1969

He next got poltically involved when the Vietnam War began. He joined various activist groups and participated in lots of protests. In Dec. 1970 he and grandmother activist, Claire Culhaine, camped in Ottawa as close to Parliament hill as they could get, challenging the Prime Minister, Pierre Eliot Trudeau, to come and talk to them about Canada’s role in  the war.

This took place  was mid winter and it was bitterly cold in the days when there were still were winters to be reckoned with. The two activists had a pup tent each,  lined with Styrofoam, and so trying to ward off the 30 degrees below tempratures . It got quite scary when late at night drunks would emerge from a tavern nearby and debate pouring whisky over the tents and setting them alight as the protesters kept mouse-quiet inside.

Prime Minister Trudeau did come to meet the pair and thus in media terms of raising awareness of Canada's rather hidden role in the war,  the tent sit-in  was a success. This event grew  out of the film Mike had made in Vietnam, the year before, Sad Song of Yellow skin.

Anti Nuclear Campaign 1970

His next campaign, less intense, was anti nuclear at the time of the Three Mile Island accident in the US, some years before Chernobyl.

Promoting Australian Documentary freedom. 1970-1985

During these years Mike was frequently returning to Australia to teach. He profited form these trips to lobby the Aust Government of the day  to give Film Australia more freedom and  to set up funding streams  for documentaries. His slogan was that documentaries are the touchstone of a healthy society. Totalitarian states don’t allow documentaries to be made. A thriving doc. Culture shows a healthy society, even if nasty things may be exposed by film makers.

Pleine Aire painting. 1990-

In the early Nineties, Mike became very involved with outdoor painting as a result of making his film on van Gogh, Vincent and Me. This led him to becoming th village painter in Morin Heights, Quebec, an hour north of Montreal where he, Katya and baby  Ellen,  had a chalet. Mike enlisted local people to discover the joys of painting. His  activism in this case was in spreading th message that painting calms the fevered soul. That in paiting outdoors, for example, one leaves one’s mark without making a mark. All the restless energy which often goes into ripping into nature, can be soaked up by the painting process with a trophy work at the end to boot!

Coming back to Australia in 1996, as head of Docs. at the ABC, Mike soon moved to the Central Coast and became very active in community affairs in his village.

The Avoca Beach Theatre issue. 1997-

His special passion for the last seven years has been the Avoca beach Theatre, a charming single screen venue, 60 meters from th surf at the end of Avoca Village. This much loved Art House has been going for fifty five years and is probably the most famous building on the Central Coast.

But there have always been degrees of threat hanging over it, given its prime position so close to the sea in a town where real estate values are exploding. When the owners, The Hunter family, bought the piece of land next to the theatre in 2001, the threat accelerated.

Mike and the community had actually helped the Hunters with the purchase, stacking the auction with theatre supporters and scaring off other buyers. But after succeeding in the purchase,  the Hunters expanded their plans as to how they would combine and develop  the two adjoining properties, and ran smack into massive opposition which has not abated. Now, many years later the drama comes to a head as we await a decsion from the State Govt.

The Hunters want to put a three screen convention centre on the 2 blocks, wrapping th existing theatre in a building which, almost with five living  units,  will be five times the bulk of the original .

The community overwhelmingly does not want this. Some change is inevitable but the community; led in large part by Mike and in more recent times by Steve Fortey, an Avoca beach High School teacher, wants the charm and ambiance of the existing building retained. Aboriginal people have a strong sense of place,  of country. This theatre comes very close to being  “country” for many Central Coast residents and Sydney people who have holidayed here.

Our Little Treasure 2004

In the course of this campaign, Mike made an information and persuasive film on the theatre drama called Our Little Treasure,. This half hour production made with the constant help of Henion Han and Greg Finlay, has been used in community screenings to put the community point of view and warn against the overdevelopment.

Other overdevelopment issues. 2000-

Related to the theatre battle have been countless other local battles usually against over development,  of which mike has been a part. Much of the time these campaigns mixed in  with his role as local painter. This is a region with many artists but few are known to set up their easel all over town in the pedestrian flow, as Mike has done,  painting local scenes and portraits which then hang in strange places like the butcher’s shop and now the newsagent.

Painting and activism. 2000-

Painting and activism dovetailed with the sandwich board in which Mike paraded the beach, a board featuring images of the theatre on panels which swing open to the surprise of sunbathers. Mike walked the beaches giving out pamphlets on the state of play in the theatre drama.

More recently, he has made a free standing “tree” which can hold either small paintings or display boards on the theatre issue. Art and activism joined recently with a huge banner proclaiming that there will be No 4 on the 4shore, 4 sure.

This refers to the Hunter plans for four fours storeys for their theatre development and the precedent this will set all along the Avoca foreshore.

The very old campaigner. 2003-

Mike has been bringing his friend Olive Riley, 107 into these causes. She is the theatre’s oldest patron and fully supports the theatre campaign. Publicity shots of her and the theatre banner were recently taken on the beach.

Most recently, Olive and Mike had taken on some other small causes. They are trying to save the livelyhood of Johnny Bosco, the lettuce man. Johnny has been growing Hydroponic lettuces at Macmasters reach and recently been stopped by Gosford council for no good reason.

Blogging activism. 2007.

In the blog that Mike is doing with Olive, www.allaboutolive.com.au  both Mike and Olive are very much activists, using the blog as platform for fighting to save Johnny’s lettuce patch, for example,  by bringing the matter to international attention.

In the same vein, the blog is bringing attention to a charming old fashioned ferry, Cockatoo Ferries, which is running around Brisbane Water with not enough patronage to keep going. It is hoped that attention generated by the blog will increase the usage of this charming facility, an ideal way to discover waterways that even those who have lived here for years, know little about.

Collaborating with Katya 1995-

In may of these activities, Mike is joined by his delightful wife, Katya Korolevich who, along with being involved with all of this, has her own avenues of activism. She is very active in her Russian Orthodox church which was set up from scratch on the Central Coast a few years ago. Katya is a senior member of the congregation and is carrying on many supportive activities.

Together on issues Russian, they have both been supporting foster families in Russia, raising money for them by showing films they made together in Russia about a very special fostering scheme. This activism has ben very satisfying for both of them.

Helping fellow filmmakers. 1995-

Mike’s helping fellow filmmaker, David Bradbury make his films on nuclear and environmental issues is also a form of activism since it is done for the cause rather than the money which is miniscule. Mike find that at a good proportion of his work annually is pro bono.

Last year, he helped,  Maleny  a Queesland town on the Sunshine Coast, make its own no budget feature film, Even Emus need to Dance constituted a sort of activism since again it was community work without pay.

The picture show man. 2003-

Lastly, Mike has been playing the role of Picture Show Man. He brought a projector some years ago and now runs feature films for community groups as fund raisers. His most regular gig is once a month at Wagstaff where audiences usually number about 60. The film to shown is chosen with community consultation. Mike arranges the rental and then sets up his rig on then night. He also researches the film so as to be able to lead a discussion on it after the screening. These are great fun, and may well grow as a activity.