GetUp! Action For Australia

What are the credits for the film?

The ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER This one is a little different …….Two Different Versions ……..
OLD VERSION:The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house andlaying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs and dances andplays the summer away.Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed.The grasshopper has no food or shelter,so he dies out in the cold.MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:Be responsible for yourself!MODERN VERSION:The Ant works hard in the withering heat and the rainall summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs and dances andplays the summer away.Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference anddemands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fedwhile he is cold and starving.TV 2,7,9,10 Skynews etc, and Mr David Spears from Sky news Liveshow up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to avideo of the Ant in his comfortable home witha table filled with food.The country is stunned by the sharp contrast.How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper isallowed to suffer so?Simon Sheakit (Getup)appears on Paul Murray Livewith the grasshopper and everybody cries .Then Bob Brown & Sara Hanson of the Green Party stage a demonstration in front of the Ant’s housewhere the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome”.Green Party Leader Bob Brown condemns the antand blames Tony Abbot , John Howard , Peter Costelo , Capitalism andGlobal warming for the grasshopper’s plight.Senator  Doug Cameron exclaims in an interview with TV News that the ant hasgotten rich off the back of the grasshopper,and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay hisfair share.Finally to gain votes to win an election , Julia (Obama’s) Gilaaard’s!  Government, drafts theEconomic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act and being retrospective to the beginning of the summer.The Ant is fined for failing to consider how his hard work andpreparation has affected the Grasshopper’s standard of living as an Aussie battler and,having nothing left to pay his retrospective taxes, his home is confiscated under the Government Land (big polluters) tax & Resources Rent Tax andgiven to the grasshopper.The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friendsfinishing up the last bits of the Ant’s food while the government confiscated the house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to bethe Ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.The ant has disappeared to New Zealand and protected by John Key (that has just put Grasshoppers government further into the ground),the ant was never to be seen again.The grasshopper is found dead in a drugs related incident, and thehouse, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of Homeboy spiders whoterrorize the once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.MORAL OF THE STORY:Be careful how you vote in 2013You may wish to pass this on to other ants, but don’t bother sendingit on to any grasshoppers because they wouldn’t understand it, anyway. 

Great video – really powerful. Just wondering what the soundtrack is/by if possible?

Hi Tom,

Glad you liked it! Soundtrack is “Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion” by Oliver Tank – a great young Sydney musician. You can find his stuff here:

https://www.facebook.com/olivertankmusic?sk=app_19507961798

Hi Jono,

This was a team effort, co-produced by GetUp and Motion Picture Company: http://www.motionpicturecompany.com.au. Pretty proud of what we’ve put together.

love the history and love the soundrack… would love to know who plays?

Found the soundtrack details for any others interested: Oliver Tank – Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion. Really is a superbly powerful video, thanks again!

It’s funny how @getup can spend a LOT of money on a video for gays (good one too), though won’t lift a finger to give Trans/Intersex people a voice.

I understand that sometime it can feel like your cause is being left behind, however the reality is that there can only be a focus on a certain amount of campaigns at any one time for them to remain effective. Gays too have had to wait to have people standing in solidarity to join them in the fight, I hope once this fight is over we can then fight for better understanding of transgender/intersex people.

Who are the actors in this?  Well done!!!  (and adorable) 

The sad thing is that this is an issue that Trans & Intersex people have a big concern in as well. The idea that people can’t have a voice over something that concerns them as much as it concerns gays is nothing short of astounding.

The lead is Julian Shaw. You can follow him on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/#!/JulianRShaw

I’m not sure who the others were unfortunately. Glad you liked it!

That’s the one Tom. Here’s where you can check out his stuff if you want:

https://www.facebook.com/olivertankmusic?sk=app_19507961798

Thanks for the kind words.

Glad you like it. His name is Oliver Tank. See the comments below.

This was a team effort, co-produced by GetUp and Motion Picture Company:

http://www.motionpicturecompany.com.au

Produced by Peter Slee & Michael Pontin at Motion Picture Company
Lead: Julian Shaw
Creative Director: GetUp’s own Simon Duncan Watt
Director: Stephen McCallum

Hi Kate. Absolutely understand your frustration but as above commenter suggested, we’re taking it one campaign at a time. I’ll pass on your thoughts to our campaigners though.

Is this running on TV? If so, when, where?

That wasn’t just the best marriage equality ad I’ve seen, it was the best ad I’ve seen!  Absolutely, without exception, first class stuff.  Well done GetUp.   I hope it makes it to our TV screens and The Gruen Transfer so that more people get to see it and enjoy it.  Stunning.

I had this emailed to me and I have watched this approximately 3 times and then showed my husband. He loved it as well. This has been done so wonderfully and just shows how people are in love and the up’s and down’s that comes with that, no matter what sexual orientation you are. Thank you.

Thank you for the soundtrack info! So moving.

fantastic! great work….lovely message this story tells

As a practising “born again” Christian. I do not agree with same sex marriage. It is against Biblical teachings and totally un-natural. I have just signed a petition against same sex marriage 

This ad is beautiful and just reinforces that homosexual (I would like to include my gorgeous transgender and intersex compatriates) men and women have the same loves, hates, joys and disappointments as heterosexuals. We’re all made from the same blood and DNA.

To those who support the ACL and other discriminatory groups, this advertisement is love. Love deserves the same cultural and societal expression regardless of gender.

This is your prerogative, but not everyone believes your little book of fairy tales. And you have no authority to comment on what is natural and what is unnatural. Thank you for taking the time to visit this page. If only your friends at the ACL would allow comments from their opposition.

if it gets in then who cares if they call it a marriage or not, normal people will now call their marriage a” Real Marriage “so people will know we are not gay.

i hope it gets through cos i want to marry my dog who sleeps with me on the bed every night and i want the world to know i love my dog by having a marriage certificate.

hope you bleeding hearts , naive gullible’s, thick’os are watching the ALP conference today cos its aimed at trying to talk up membership out of you useful idiots so the useful idiots that calls itself a government can get some numbers.

May be they might see the light and kick the underbelly razor unions out of their party, the mastodons . 

Marriage should be between a man and women, same sex marriage is wrong!

Fogot lovers………Leave marriage alone. I am the silent majority and its  not on.

By forcing the wider Australian public to accept a redefinition of the term marriage by the homosexual population, this will only serve to increase animosity against them. I’m not against couples who live together getting government benefits like a marriage couple, such as in a de-facto relationship, but that is all it is – de-facto. Understand that most Australians still find homosexual acts vile and perverse, and do not want to be associated with them in any way, shape, or form.  Certainly I will never, ever refer to a same sex relationship as a marriage, as with most of the people I know; changing the law might be one thing but changing attitudes of the people on the street is another. Homosexuals would do well to choose their battles wisely, they may gain a small victory of semantics here, but in the long run it will be to their overall disadvantage and alienation.

I live in New York City where the state of NY just legalized gay marriage in the last year. I hope the same is right around the corner for you all. I have to say that the video posted, A Love Story, is such a lovely, compelling, and wonderful video. I’ve watched it at least a dozen times since I discovered in last night from a friend of mine on Facebook and I get tearey eyed every time. My partner and I have been together for more than 9 years and we are finally getting married on our 10th year anniversary. It’s going to be a wonderful amazing day and I can’t wait. I hope that soon that everyone can marry their partner regardless of where they live and enjoy the same rights as hetrosexual couples. To all those straight people out there who ferverently believe it’s wrong….stop having gay babies.

Hi I’m Larz from the Netherlands, I justed wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your initiative, I have showed the movie to some friends as a way of coming out of the closet at the same time. Thank you for making my life happier big hug

OK – who’s responsible for that bloody video?  I just watched it at work, and it made me cry, it was so gorgeous – always a good look in the office!

when is Pet marriage coming in??? i want to show the world my love for my dog??????

i might add, it’s a great way to stop population growth, lets ban hav’in kids, theres enough young one to keep pay’in taxes to keep my pension going for a few more years , you idiots.

on another subject 200% more important.
Howard would not sign Kyoto until they sorted it out and it bought every country into the fold, well it’s interesting to hear that Canada has pulled out of Kyoto, you idiot little naive labour voters all voted for that idiot Crudd, you got sucked in well and truly with Kyoto and saying blood sorry,you silly little gullible peasants.Well the red head has done it again, reshuffle,    the union boss get a bit stronger, they have just about kicked all the real labour part members out that were once for rights of the workers.i would like to investigate the now labour party, check for socialist/Muslim background ,shes worried about non union KevinO7,  before you people vote this lot back in , beware, you are being duped, lied to, cheated on and processed, are you people that thick that you can’t see whats going down.never in all the years of watching politics have I seen such a bigger bunch of idiots as this.You stupid neanderthal unions, the days are gone boys, you have priced yourselves out of the market with your high wades, cheaper to buy online from overseas, stuff Harvey Norman anf the rest of them that have overpricing their goods for years, 500% markup, do something good neanderthals and put a profit tax on banks. you idiots.Had my say for today, back next week to give my oll mate Simion the sheek a bit of advice, got to go walk the dog.

love it

greg… statment
“stop having gay babies”
Your right, one day we will be able to weed out the sick gene and have no more of it,    until then we need more psychologists to help our young out,   mental health is a big concern (getting bigger by the year).

Hey just a thought… with 4 million views on YouTube, could you turn on the YouTube ads, and make money from the video views that then can be used to put the ad on air? Not sure if there’s some law that stops you from making money in that way, but it seems like a simple thing to do to, and earn some $$$ for the cause…      It still makes me cry like a baby, even after the 5th, 6th, 7th view – a sign of an absolutely brilliant video production. Well done!

So GetUp is viewing “Marriage Equality” as a Gays-only affair? Did Australian Marriage Equality put you guys up to this, or did GetUp! decide to exclude Trans & intersex people from this campaign on their own accord?

Hi Kate,

Thanks for your feedback on this – sorry to hear we’ve misunderstood one another. It’s by no means the intention of GetUp’s campaign to be exclusive in this way – it is intended to be a campaign to challenge discrimination at large. While this video may focus on the area of same-sex marriage, it’s by no means the limits of the fight, and we intend all of our campaigns to be respectful of the LGBTIQ community at large. I hope you can help us to do our best on this one.

Further comments? Drop us a line – info@getup.org.au.