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MARK JONES FILMS
director. editor. producer. writer. camera. activist.
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/
NEWS
Media Buzz
"STORIES IN STONE"
2021
Writer, Director.
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
2020
Producer, Director, DOP and Edit.
Partnering with the PEW foundation and the Mardoowarra council, this powerful film will illuminate the ancient story of the creation of one of the last wild rivers on the planet and the people who are charged with keeping that story alive.
STORIES IN STONE - A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY.
2022
Producer, Writer, Director.
LMI Productions: Naomi Cleaver, Joseph Kiely.
“The Kimberley region in Western Australia is described as one of the last great remaining wildernesses’s left on the planet. To the Original people, it is seen as ‘Country’, a vast Cultural landscape where story, song, geography and art meld into an epic story with no beginning… and no end.
And it is here, deep in its heart, that Science and Traditional knowledge are coming together to unlock the secrets of the ancient art, its age, and the messages that have been left by our ancestors for future generations.
Could this be the largest, oldest art gallery in the world? And can the Original people translate for all of humanity what the ancients were telling us?”
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'.
THE DRILL
Stories
From an early age, whilst others were talking of being a fireman or a Doctor, Mark had always told himself that he "wanted to get paid to travel and never wear a suit!" He likes to think that he has done this, although he did wear a suit to his wedding.
Mark began his career behind the camera and now as his career develops, he finds himself being drawn to the art of story telling. Sometimes dark, sometimes light and all manner of shades in between, his work illuminates the stories that live amongst the greatest cultural landscape on the planet.
Stay up to date on all the latest news about productions, events, and community work Mark's involved with by having a look at the articles, clips and links below.
CURRENT BIG PROJECTS
2019
Undermined - Tales from the Kimberley
This film investigates what is behind the government's controversial plan to close 150 remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia and what this means for the Kimberley people, in terms of the social, political and economic complexities of life on country.
JUST RELEASED
Feb 2019
JUNBA - The songs of the Wandjina tribes
The 3 Wandjina tribes of the Kimberley region of Western Australia journeyed to their homelands to perform their ancient songs and dance which are known as JUNBA. Shot amongst stunning vistas with an ethereal intimacy, JUNBA is a record of the continuing culture of the Aboriginal people in Australia's far North West.
NEW MUSEUM OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
2020
Through a partnership with the Wunambal Gaamberra Aboriginal Corporation, Mark is creating a series of films which showcase their land, its people and their ancient cultural ties for the new Museum of Western Australia.
Mark is honoured as well to have invaluable footage released from his archive of the ancient Gaalwa (raft) in collaboration with Goolari media and the Wiggan family.
THE FRENCH ARTIST AND DINOSAUR TRACKS
2020
Mark joined award-winning French video artist and sculptor Angelika Markul who teamed up with a University of Queensland palaeontologist to showcase the dinosaur tracks of Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
UQ’s Dr Steven Salisbury is working with artist Angelika Markul as part of the innovative visual arts project ‘On the Trail of Dinosaurs’.
TURA - A MUSICAL FORCE
2020
The result of five years of musical collaboration, Kimberley Echoes is a powerful cross-cultural celebration of Kimberley country and its people.
Mark has been collaborating with TURA for the past 5 years marrying sweeping imagery with the cutting edge of Australian music.
KIMBERLEY ROCK ART
2020
Mark has been collaborating with the Kimberley's Elders and some of Science's finest in the 'Kimberley Rock Art Dating Project' over the past 5 years.
Join Mark as he follows the team as they slowly uncover some of the oldest art and stories in the world.
NITV - KRIOL KITCHEN
2015 - 2020
Mark joined his friend Mitch Torres and her sister Ali in 4 series of this popular TV show fusing bush tucker with Kriol and Asian influences.
We uncover many more secret family recipes and how cultural backgrounds have given rise to unique cuisines.
AUSTRALIAN BUSH HERITAGE
2019
Mark partnered up with Bush Heritage and the Wunambal Gaamberra people to study the quoll populations of the Mitchell Plateau area during the first ravages of the cane toad.
