Anna Helme

This is one from the archives. A 35 second promo for the Northern Arts Tactical Offensive, to be used at screenings and events (obviously, or quacking for details may be somewhat less effective). NATO was a collective in Manchester who did various subversive and situationist-influenced performances and other artworks, including the March for Capitalism and a spoof tourist guide to Manchester for the Commonwealth Games (2002), directing tourists to the alternative Blitz Festival of international grassroots underground culture, in the form exhibitions, street theatre, outdoor music, film nights and presentations. (more…)

In 2008 I was the web developer for the Done by Law website which was launched recently. Done by Law is the radical law show on much-loved 3CR community radio here in Melbourne, produced by a great team of people working in various areas of the law for the Federation of Community Legal Centres in Victoria.

The site is a simple audio blog built using Wordpress, designed by Tom Civil of the wonderful local publishers, artists and activists Breakdown Press, and project managed by Marian Prickett from the Done by Law show. I had a lot of fun making this website, hacking Wordpress is a fiddly yet satisfying thing to do. It’s also satsifying helping a community radio show find it’s place on the web.

Revolting in Prague (26mins 23sec, 2000). Riots, pink fairies, corporate men and money. An insight into the IMF/World Bank summit which activists shut down in 2000. 50,000 people traveled to Prague to stop the money men destroying our planet.

This is a video produced by Undercurrents (directed by Paul O’Connor), the video activist production company where I worked in 2000-2001, of the IMF / World Bank protests in Prague, 2000. I was a camera operator for the event, following the pink and silver march, with my camera buddy, Flo.

It was quite an experience, being part of a huge mass of people from all over Europe and the world, converging to protest the policies of these institutions who put economic restructuring ahead of people and the environment, demanding that governments privatise basic services, build infrastructure such as dams without regard for environmental and social destruction and more in exchange for their development loans. Undercurrents was part of the independent media who came together around the prague.indymedia.org project to tell a broader story of the protest than the narrow, conflict-based news coverage in the mainstream press.