The Span project

Australia, 1981

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The Melbourne suburb of Northcote is a typical egalitarian Australian community. Its residential areas were mainly settled between the wars and are now populated by a higher proportion of retired people than the suburban average. Northcote was chosen by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence as the site for an innovative program designed to involve local older people in self help welfare and community service. Once a week a dozen or so participants in the project run craft classes for local primary school children. Here the children are able to learn skills such as: woodwork; cookery; sewing; knitting; and crochet.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

producer/director

Keith Head

production company

Swinburne Institute of Technology. Film and Television School

Duration

00:19:08:00

Production places

Australia

Production dates

1981

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

017414

Language

English

Subject categories

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - Australia

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Aged - Australia - Social conditions

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Aged - Services for - Australia

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Community centers

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Community development

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Melbourne (Vic.) - Social conditions

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Retirement

Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Aging

Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Children and the aged

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Aging

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Retirement

Short films

Short films → Short films - Australia

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

16mm film; Preservation Print (Section 5)

16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/78724--the-span-project/ |title=The Span project |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=24 June 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}