MuDskipping
Written, directed and produced by Dr Phoebe Hart and shot and edited by Mr Joe Carter, Mudskipping combines 3D film, dance and music to evoke a creative reimagining on the lives of mudskippers; amphibians that occupy the liminal spaces between the ocean and land in the mangroves of temperate, subtropical and tropical Australia. The work also includes performances from internationally renowned choreographers from Prying Eye Productions Lizzie and Zaimon Vilmanis, costuming by Troy Armstrong and features original compositions by musician Yanto Browning and acclaimed poet David Stavenger. As creators, the authors connected with various community and industry organisations in order to realise the project, including a crew of 33 film production experts, the Brisbane City Council, Redlands Shire Council, the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation and Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation. 
Mangroves, mudflats and intertidal zones are familiar to many residents coastal regions of the world but perhaps little understood, or even actively regarded as smelly, mosquito infested wastelands better off ‘reclaimed’ for services and urban living. However, mangroves are important ecosystems that trap sediments and nutrient runoff from rivers and creeks that might otherwise damage reefs and provide habitats and breeding grounds for many species of birds, animals and fish. The creatures that live in these ecological niches are very interesting and have their own physical and behavioural adaptations. Around 17% of Australia’s mangroves have been destroyed since European settlement.
The film was premiered at the CreateX festival of creativity and technology in Brisbane Australia on 28 August 2016 to a total estimated audience of 5,000. CreateX and Mudskipping were cited in 114 separate media and news stories, 4 of which were national, and the CreateX website recorded 11,640 unique visitors. The film then toured internationally in competition at dance film festivals.
Mudskipping received two major premieres at European dance film festivals: Cinedans (Netherlands, 2017) and Choreoscope International Dance Film Festival (Spain, 2017). Both festivals are considered to be peak exhibition platforms for the dance film genre and screen choreographies created specifically for the camera. The festivals contribute to the academic research of the body movement and audiovisual (cinematographic) movement and the debate regarding the importance of dance, movement and non-verbal language in the educational process.
Choreoscope projected only 26 of the best short films from among more than 500 entries the festival received in 2017; the official selection was judged by journalist and dance critic Omar Khan, teacher at the José Espadero Professional Dance Conservatory in Alicante and the Taiat Dans Company Bárbara Ros and documentary director and professor at the Department of Audiovisual Communication, University of the Basque Country Eneko Lorente. Choreoscope projected Mudskipping again the following year (2018) as a part of a curated 3D dance film program at the Filoteca de Catalunya in Barcelona, a film archive in Spain aimed at the preservation of film and the dissemination of audiovisual and film culture.
Cinedans 2017, which included both a film festival and a national tour, reached 15,941 visitors via 80 programs with 6,321 attending the festival in Amsterdam alone. Cinedans created a special program to feature the latest stereoscopic film techniques and exhibited work by the renowned Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin alongside Mudskipping. Cinedans conducted surveys of their audiences post-screening, which rated the festival program as 7.8 out of 10 in terms of quality and audience satisfaction overall.
Mudskipping was included in the 2017 international program of Moving Body Dance Film Festival, a biannual festival held at the State Puppet Theatre in Varna, Bulgaria, curated by contemporary dancer and choreographer Iskra Ivanova and cultural studies expert and founder of the SIDEA Foundation for Cultural Development Svetlozara Hristova. The festival screens short films "created at the border of dance and video art".
Mudskipping was screened at academic conferences in the United Kingdom (MeCCSA Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association Conference, 2018) and Australia (ASPERA Australian Screen Production Education & Research Association Conference, 2018) where it was critiqued by academic peers whose focus is creative practice-as-research. Mudskipping was registered as a film made inside the academy by academic filmmakers with the Filmmaking Research Network, an international forum for research and exchange between the UK and Australia that explores the methodologies and frameworks for filmmaking research.
