Samples
of work
After almost 30 years work in media production,
I can say with confidence that interviewing has been one of the elements of work that I have found the most rewarding. I have had the opportunity to meet and talk to people from a variety of backgrounds: cultural, professional, socio economic, political, interviewing sports champions, politicians, refugees and migrant labourers, villagers from remote mountains, soldiers, insurgents, comedians, environmentalists, land mine victims, political prisoners, even convicted criminals.
Simply, I have delighted in listening to people talk about their lives, their experiences, their work.
Often, but not always, these interviews have focused on specific elements of a given person’s life. Now, as I myself am not dashing around quite as much as I used to, it is a pleasure to be engaging with more comprehensive life stories.
Jim’s Story
Grape farmer, story teller, dad, husband, very decent guy and one of the hardest working people I have had the opportunity to meet. Personally, I found both Jim and his family quite inspirational and I have little doubt his family will continue to find him so for generations to come.
Burmese Dreaming
A feature length documentary, directed, filmed, scripted and edited by Tim. Described as an American film critic as a documentary poem, the film is the story of a Karen refugee told by interweaving dreams, day dreams and nightmares from her life in Myanmar and then juxtaposing these with with the realities of her day-to-day life in the refugee camp.
Welcome to Burma
(and enjoy the totalitarian experience)
In his first book, ‘Welcome to Burma and Enjoy the Totalitarian Experience’ Timothy Syrota ventures beyond Asia’s bamboo curtain into a country from a bygone era which, at the time, had only recently opened to foreign travel. With a goal of going from Rangoon to Putao, Syrota’s travels soon became much more about the people of Burma – and their predicament under the military regime – than about the places that he visits.
In having ‘Welcome to Burma’ published, Syrota gained the best of support when Aung San Suu Kyi’s late husband, Dr Michael Aris, took a liking to the original manuscript; a manuscript at the time rough, raw, full of expletives and written by a self confessed beach-loving-back-packer of the Pulp Fiction and dance-scene generation. It was, nonetheless, a manuscript with an important place to fill in the body of literature concerning Burma under the military regime.
The wise counsel and sunny optimism of Dr Aris is greatly missed.’
‘Welcome to Burma’ is written with a sense of integrity, simplicity, humanity and with an almost beatnik rhythm to its text. It provides one of the more accessible introductions to the machinations of totalitarian rule and important insight into the realities of life under one of the world’s harshest and most enduring military regimes.
In this context, ‘Welcome to Burma’ is a relevant piece of literature today, tomorrow, and, sadly, perhaps every day until the Burmese military finally release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and genuinely respect the nation’s desire for human rights and democracy.
John Cade
A film made on behalf of the University of Melbourne documenting the professional life of Dr John Cade, whose pioneering research into the use of Lithium in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses has been likened to the impact of the discovery of penicillin in the treatment of physical conditions.
The Migrant Warriors
A work in progress, both written and film, based on having followed the lives of three intriguing characters on the Thai-Myanmar border over a ten year period.
Please contact Tim for more information on this project.
