Now that we’re finally back in business and the festival is getting closer, we can announce our trusty Youth Intern that will help us pull everything off!
Say hello to Jess Nipperess, our smart, savvy, and eager young intern. Jess is a Year 10 student at St Matthews in Mudgee and has a passion for big ideas, finer details, and being involved in the production of of interesting arts and literature projects.
Jess has been been launching and facilitating her own projects such as Mudgee Mystery, funded and independent films, and social and environmental justice initiatives at her school like Mini Vinnies and the Eco-Wellbeing Team.
We’re excited to bring such a voracious and thoughtful intern onto our team in 2021. Now, we’ll pass the mic to Jess and let her introduce herself…
MRF: Firstly, please tell us a little bit about yourself!
JN: Well, the thing that most people know about me is that I'm obsessed with filmmaking! I love making my own stories and film is such an immersive way of storytelling. When I was younger though, I really wanted to be an author. My biggest achievement was 'publishing' (laminating and stapling together) my own picture book which I proudly presented to Mem Fox at a Mudgee Readers Festival event. I don't mean to brag, but Mem Fox did say that we were "two authors getting our photo taken together".
Whether my dream is to be an author, filmmaker or something in between, I think I'll always be a little obsessed with storytelling.
But other than my ingrained love for stories, I also care a lot about the environment and making a change in the world. I hope that I can unite my drives for the environment and storytelling, but for now I'm just taking little steps in both directions.
MRF: You’ve been to Festival events before, but what motivated you to get more involved with the Festival this year?
JN: It feels exciting to be behind the scenes to see how it's pulled together. I think I'm going to get a lot of valuable experience from understanding how it's coordinated and the admin side of things, as well as meet some really cool people.
MRF: Which sessions are you most excited to see from the current program?
TN: The top two on my list are Tim Dean's talk on How We Became Human and the one on Climate, Country and Culture. I'm prepping my brain to absorb knowledge!
MRF: And what have you been reading lately? Any recommendations for our audience?
JN: I'm going through a bit of a classics phase at the moment. Currently, I'm working my way through Crime and Punishment (It's definitely a slog, but I'm too invested in the story to stop now).
I've also recently developed an affinity with poetry, and my absolute favourite is Howl by Allen Ginsberg. It's an apocalyptic view on Cold War America, industrialisation, capitalism, but focused on the 'rejects' of society - the crazy people, the protestors. Incredibly visceral imagery; I cried the first time I read it.