LaNCE TV offers free workshops to learn media production skills

LaNCE TV's Deb Lord says the project will give LGBTIQ+ people in regional communities the skills to produce content, learn editing techniques and create video storytelling through a series of free community workshops.

"The project will give remote and regional Victorian LGBTIQ+ communities the capacity to share insights, feel connected and have a place of belonging," Lord said.

"Having a dedicated platform for queer regional voices ensures LGBTIQ+ stories can be told without the level of censorship experienced on social media platforms. Such platforms are often controlled by impossible algorithms and mediated by countries with much stricter moral perceptions of what appropriate content levels are.

"This project offers regional Queer communities a chance to take part in a unique broadcasting opportunity not seen before for LGBTIQ+ communities in Australia. A queer community TV platform offers opportunities for established videographers, sound recordists, visual artists, performers, musicians, script writers and a range of other arts creators to have their work seen, experienced and enjoyed by wider audiences.

"It gives access to new and emerging LGBTIQ+ artists in rural areas who want to explore and develop skills in video storytelling for broadcast, and discover creating video content as a means of storytelling."

LaNCE TV were one of five successful applicants for the Regional Arts Fund project grants awarded in late 2021. The City of Ballarat funding will assist in purchasing items to enhance the content creation of participants.

LaNCE TV Ballarat is a multigenerational, intersectional television show screening on Facebook Live and Channel 31. The show is watched by over 20,000 people every Friday across Melbourne and Geelong on Channel 31, and is viewed over 1000 times a month on Facebook. Repeatedly nominated for the community TV Antenna Awards, it won an Outstanding Technical and Creative Ingenuity award in 2020, as well as a GLOBE Victoria Community Award for LGBTIQ+ Artist of the Year in 2021.

In 2017 LaNCE TV began exploring ways to grow, develop and push the possibilities of online platforms for LGBTIQ+ entertainment, education, and collaboration. Since that time, the program has worked in collaboration with many LGBTQIA individuals and community groups to help them realise their streaming projects, including Pride-Solation (a seven-hour, live-streaming Facebook event during the 2020 lockdown in collaboration with 15 regional Victorian LGBTIQ+ organisations); Ballarat Mental Health Week Collective; Daylesford Chillout Festival; and Midsumma Festival.

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Deb Lord says the project will help address the isolation experienced by LGBTIQ+ individuals living in remote and regional areas.

"Isolation and loneliness have been found to have catastrophic consequences for both physical and mental health, but visibility and community connection has been shown to safeguard against these outcomes," Lord says.

"Closures of regional TV stations such as WIN could be replaced by channels such as SKY news, overall further lessening access to rural community voices. LaNCE TV's growing reach demonstrates the need for more locally produced programming.

"The project is based in giving fair and equitable access to all LGBTIQ+ Victorians including youth, trans and gender-diverse people and older LGBTIQ+ individuals. It's our duty to ensure access for people whose lives intersect with Aboriginal heritage, disability, refugee/ asylum seeker status or with a background that is culturally and linguistically diverse."

Lord says the workshops will be free and delivered as an intensive, two-day program on May 7 and 8 from 9am-5pm. The workshops are open to members of the LGBTIQ+ community ages 12 and up. For under 18 participants, parents are encouraged to come along and meet Deb Lord as workshop facilitator. Participants will require their phone, USB charger, a laptop with 8GB RAM or more and good quality graphics card, and a set of headphones.

Interested members of the Ballarat LGBTIQ+ community who would like secure a place are invited to register at lancetv.com.au before close of business May 5. Further enquiries, email darling@lancetv.com.au

The Australian Government's Regional Arts Fund is provided through Regional Arts Australia, administered in Victoria by Regional Arts Victoria.

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