"Old Lady River" - Loren Kate
FILMS FOR CHANGE
"Is there a person you met while travelling who reaffirmed your faith in humanity?"
"All the time. That’s another reason I keep doing the journeys. On my last major journey around the Indian Ocean I met some inspirational types who are battling for the planet. Mark Jones, a crocodile catcher and expert in the remote Kimberley region of Australia, was an inspiring character who spoke brilliantly and powerfully about our need to look after our world. With people like him out there perhaps we’ve got a chance."
Simon Reeve - BBC Presenter.
https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/the-world-according-to-simon-reeve/
STORIES
From an early age, Mark has been enamoured with stories.
Mark began his career behind the camera and as he became more experienced, he found himself being drawn to the art of story telling through film. Sometimes dark, sometimes light and all manner of shades in between, his work illuminates the oldest stories that live amongst the greatest cultural landscape on the planet, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. A place he calls home.
Stay up to date on all the latest news, productions, events, and community work Mark's involved with by having a look at the articles, clips and links below.
CURRENT PROJECTS
2024
Wunambal - Gaamberra and the Frobenius expedition
In 1938, a German ventured into the Kimberley and recorded the people in photos and art. Fast forward to 2024 and the WG people are reunited with their ancestors through these magnificent artworks.
Mark was honoured to be commissioned by the Wunabal-Gaamberra people and the Frobenius Institute for a major exhibition at the Museum der Weltkulturen (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) and the Museum Fünf Kontinente (Munich, Germany).
2024
Diversity - A Kimberley Adventure
Mark was invited by the team at Diversity Charters to create an array of products for promotion. Mark jumped at the opportunity to do a 2 week adventure along the Kimberley coast to film the wet season in all of its glory.
2024
Two Ways - The Kimberley Rock Art Legacy
"Two Ways" is a beautiful film about the collaboration between science and the worlds oldest culture. It was shown at the World Archemetry conference at the University of Melbourne and ACMI cinemas in Melbourne to 3 sold out shows and is now touring nationally. Coming to a theatre near you.
2023
Kimberley Aboriginal Regional Body (KARB)
Mark was honoured to be commissioned by the major Aboriginal Institutions in the Kimberley to produce a film which documented the trajectory of Aboriginal organisation in the Kimberley since 1972 as it advanced toward "The Voice" referendum and beyond. A labour of love from Nookenbah to now.
2023
Ben Hall - An ode to a outlaw.
Mark joined forces with his old friend Wil Thomas to create a rare music video about an outlaw with a very human side.
2023
The Boornoornoor Project
After following a science team for 10 years dating rock art in the Kimberley, it was time to document the deep stories connected to the art and therefore begin to date stories. A project very close to Mark's heart following Augie "Boornoornoor' Augustine telling the worlds oldest stories in the magnificent Kimberley region.
2024
Dunkeld - An environmental success story.
Mark was commissioned by Dunkeld to create a film espousing the virtues of their fire and ecological programmes which is groundbreaking within Australia. A great story in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
2022
Ngaranyin Cultural Series
30 years on from his first visit into Ngaranyin country, Mark was commissioned to produce a series of cultural vignettes made with Elders for the future generations in the third archive - film. A subject very close to Mark's heart,
NEWS
Media Buzz
STORIES IN STONE
2024
Writer, Director, Producer.
Producer: Naomi Cleaver
Co-Producers, Co-Writers, Talent: Mitch Torres and Albert Wiggan.
Co-Producer, Co-Writer: Joseph Kiely.
"Stories in Stone" was invited into the AIDC FACTory pitch in March 2021 and set up a series of meetings with national and global production houses, broadcasters, agents and distributors as the word spreads.
UNDERMINED - TALES OF THE KIMBERLEY
2019
DOP and co-Producer.
Producer/Director/Writer: Nic Wrathall.
Producer/Writer: Stephanie King.
A 4 year project of blood, sweat and tears bringing a voice to those who are rarely given one.
Australia’s vast and unspoiled Kimberley region is under threat, with mining, pastoralism and irrigated agriculture driving an unprecedented land grab. UNDERMINED investigates the politics of an area now branded “the future economic powerhouse of Australia,” and what this means for our First People and their unique cultural landscapes. As pressure from industry exposes the limits of Indigenous land rights, what will remain of over 200 remote Aboriginal communities? We follow young leader Albert Wiggan, veteran cattleman Kevin Oscar and Senior Elder June Davis through David-and-Goliath battles to preserve their homelands, asking the question: for whose benefit is this development?
THE SERPENTS TALE
2021
Producer. director. camera. edit. writer.
The Martuwarra - Fitzroy River - is known in the western lexicon as the last 'riverine cosmology' left in Australia and thus the world. It has 7 tribes that call the river home and whose genesis stories are as old, if not older, than most creation stories from around the globe. An ancient parable of survival and communion with the only god we will ever know... Nature. Mark collaborated with the elders and the Martuwarra council to bring these stories to life, a project for which he is immensely proud.
SHARK BAY DOLPHINS
2021
Mark was invited by his good mate Dr Simon Allen to join him in the magical Shark Bay region to film an archive for the dolphin team who have been plying this coast for 50 years to find the second most social animals in the world after humans.
Mark is stoked to have been invited by the WA State Library to archive his collection. "I am honoured to have been invited by the WA State Library to catalogue my material which I have collected over my 30 year career to date. I believe it offers a unique window into regional Australia in a certain window of time". Mark went on to say "... it is a wonderful thought that my great, great grandchildren, who I will never meet, will get to access to our work a hundred years down the track... that makes me very proud.
It is envisaged the collection will be ready in 2022.
Mark collaborated with his old friend, Mitch Torres (Producer) to mentor debut Director Vincent Carter in the short film "In my Father's Country" which was commissioned by NITV/SBS. A beautiful little film about a young indigenous family vlogging their way around country.
Director and Camera mentor.
HOW ART BEGAN - BBC 2
2019
Fixer. Producer. Camera.
Blast Films/BBC.
Director: Morag Tinto.
Mark joined Sir Antony Gormley and the BBC team on their Kimberley leg of their global rock art production - "How art began".
Al Jazeera - Young Black and behind bars"
2020
Field Producer
Mark joined journalist and story teller extraordinaire Drew Ambrose to peel the layers back of a hidden Australia seldom seen. A gut wrenching journey through the forgotten cracks in a wealthy, modern 'society'.
