MERCURY STOLE MY FIRE

Everything is interconnected — people are part of nature.

Mercury Stole My Fire is a mysterious true story told through the bodies of mime artists, Penny Baron and Nick Papas from Born in a Taxi physical theatre ensemble (Melbourne, Australia).

Mercury Stole My Fire was the second short film (12mins 12 secs) that I made — I wrote, directed narrated and produced it. The cinematographer was Janis Lesinskis while Fiona O’Connell was responsible for editing and sound. The soundtrack comes from the ‘Mistral’ track on the late Bruce Rogers’ Cloudhands CD.

Achievements

Mercury Stole My Fire (2005) gained an Honourable Mention in the ‘Performance 10–30 minutes, on a theme of disability’ category of the 2006 International Picture This…Film Festival, 6–10 February, Calgary (Canada) and a Merit Award at the XXVII Superfest International Disability Film Festival, 2–3 June 2007, Berkeley (US), screening at London’s 8th International Disability Film Festival, 14–19 February 2008.

I received a travel grant from the Australian Film Commission to accept the Honourable Mention at Canada’s Picture This… Film Festival 2006.

Judges’ comments

From the Picture this… Film Festival 2006, Performance 10–30 minutes, On a theme of disability, Honorable Mention, “Mercury Stole My Fire” (703-PTF-2006)

absolutely excellent

unique form of storytelling on film

excellent performance, great script

script was flawless

beautiful, creative expression

very expressive, poignant and educational

Everything is connected: ‘I became a part of the land, the land travelled through me’

creative language and movement tell a story of isolation and deprivation due to chemical sensitivities.

Show More

excellent mix of poetry/prose and dance

cool use of dance to tell a story of disability

simple message through dance

entertained & educated!

great camera work

used a powerful approach to tell the story

I liked it

wonderful use of movement & words

dance movements and narrative support each other

dance is remarkably well-tied to narrative

life story told through dance performance is very powerful

Background

You can find the story in a revised and contextualised print version here:

Nelson A (2004) ‘Mercury stole my fire’ in Holdsworth S and Caswell T (eds) Protecting the Future: Stories of Sustainability from RMIT University. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne, 129–36.

You can find some background on the making of the short film here:

Nelson A (2006) Dis.a.bil.i.ty… dis.a.bled… dis.cov.er… Metro Magazine 149, 204–208.