The film industry is facing an unexpectedly slow recovery from the pandemic, with box office revenues still significantly below pre-pandemic levels. The country has lost thousands of theatre screens, including in Denver, where the historic Esquire and Chez Artiste shuttered in 2024.

Meanwhile, independent cinema is bucking the trend. Denver’s only independent movie theatre, the SIE Film Center, has not just survived but surpassed its strong 2019 performance.

Denver Film CEO Kevin Smith says the independent cinema organization’s success lies in a strong emphasis on community engagement, curated programming, and partnerships with local organizations, because people are hungry for connection and in-person experiences. 

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NICKY REDL: The past five years haven’t been kind to the film industry. Moviegoers are slowly returning, but last year, annual box office revenue was still down by nearly a quarter compared to 2019. 

In Denver alone, two iconic Landmark movie theatres have closed just months apart: the Esquire and Chez Artiste. 

But independent cinema appears to be bucking the trend. 

The SIE Film Center on Colfax Avenue is owned by nonprofit Denver Film, and the city’s only independent movie theatre. 

Denver Film CEO Kevin Smith says their box office sales haven’t just recovered, they are doing better than before the lockdowns. 

KEVIN SMITH: I think it’s different for different types of theatres. Our theater last year, in 2025, had the best year we’ve ever had. We’ve bounced back. We’re above our pre-pandemic numbers of 2019, which was an incredible year. I think that what we’re seeing is that multiplexes are having a harder time because of the types of films, blockbuster films that are being released, and the marketing behind them, and how they’re creating those. 

But in terms of independent cinema, while it’s great to have access to so many different films at your fingertips at home, it’s also nice to have our amazing programming team pick some of the best films that maybe you don’t know exist and be able to share those screenings with someone in the theatre that maybe you don’t know. 

NICKY REDL: Kevin Smith believes a focus on community building sets Denver Film apart. Their membership program offers perks but, more importantly, a space to connect with others. 

Kevin Smith: In terms of benefits, obviously, they have early access to films. We do a lot of promo screenings. So they’re seeing movies before they’re even released, with the Denver Film Festival, they’re getting to the front of the line in almost every single way to be able to see the best films of the year. But I think one of the unique things is that the staff that is here at the Film Center, they know a majority of the members. And so when you’re a member, it’s like you get to come in here and say hi to your friends. Um, and I think that in a communal space makes a very big difference.

NICKY REDL: Denver Film CEO Kevin Smith. Josh Eliot is one of the staff members working at the Sie Film Center box office. 

JOSH ELIOT: I actually ran a little competition with a bunch of other staff members to see who could name the most members. The box officers are the people who have to know the members by name so that we can type their membership in to give them their discounts. And so through that, I end up getting to know a lot of the members by name and by personality as well. There’s absolutely a strong sense of connection. We have very loyal, devoted members, and are very supportive and excited about all of the new things that we’re doing at the theater, all the little changes we do month to month, all of our festivals. This is very community-based, very social-based, very event-based, very festival-based. 

NICKY REDL: Josh Eliot. Denver Film also collaborates with about 150 community partners every year and screens movies at locations like Red Rocks and the Botanic Gardens. One of those partners is Colorado Dragon Boat, a celebration of Asian American heritage and culture. Together, they organize the Dragon Boat film festival each year in March. Denver Film CEO Kevin Smith says the collaboration has been a great success for both organizations.      

KEVIN SMITH: Colorado Dragon Boat is the largest dragon boat festival in the country. I believe it’s been 6 or 7 years now that we’ve partnered. The last year that they produced the festival without us, they had about 300 tickets sold. Now we have over 2000 people who come every year. So it’s grown exponentially. And for us to be able to have like the community saying, these are the types of films, these are the types of experiences, and us just be able to help facilitate making those things happen is a perfect partnership in my mind, and really the big core piece of our mission. 

NICKY REDL: Kevin Smith, CEO of Denver Film. Another community-focused event at the SIE independent cinema is the CinemaQ film festival, held from the 29^th to the 31^st of this year. The founder is SIE Film Center artistic director Keith Garcia. 

KEITH GARCIA: Cinema Q is our queer film festival, which is the only queer film festival in Colorado, and this year will be our 18th year of operating. CinemaQ started with an effort to play at least one queer film a month at the film center. And this started building an audience of its own, which at the time was very hungry for queer film. Essentially, it’s just kind of snowballed since we hit the community immediately, we got the community used to the idea that year we’d have the best selection of new queer film for that year. And, um, it’s become sort of the big, the big party that it is now.

NICKY REDL: SIE artistic director Keith Garcia. Local meetups have also noticed a growing desire for shared experiences. The Denver Cinema club started over 20 years ago as a meetup for people to watch movies together and afterwards meet for discussion over drinks. In the past year or two, the club has seen a strong influx of people of all ages. Aurora Hunt is one of the organizers of the Denver Cinema Club and also a member of the Sie FilmCenter.

AURORA HUNT: Some movies that are just meant to be communally experienced, you know, just that energy in the room and everyone experiencing the same thing. And I had the occasion to sit next to a movie the other day with my friend Dina, and she was just gasping. And it was so, it was such a different movie for having her next to me and kind of experiencing her experience along with my experience. So, in these very fractured times, these very electronic times, being in a room with people is really important, both to watch the movie and, I would say, even more importantly, to be together afterwards.

This radio story about the Denver independent cinema scene aired on KGNU’s Morning Magazine on March 27, 2026. KGNU is an independent, noncommercial community radio station serving Boulder and Denver, Colorado.

An extended audio reel highlighting Nicky Redl’s work as a reporter and host for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation across rural Australia and in international coverage from Mongolia, Timor-Leste, and the United States.

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A selection of full programs of The Rural Report, the daily regional current affairs show I produced and hosted for ABC Rural in Broken Hill, in the Australian Outback.

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In Broken Hill, the format was integrated into the daily Morning Program, while in Mackay, Queensland, it ran as a separate daily slot. Additional Mackay Rural Report programs will be posted as they become available.

Extreme sports were once considered the exclusive domain of men. Nicky Redl explores the trailblazing world of female ultrarunners.

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The sport of ultra trail running has boomed in recent years, with 80,000 ultramarathon finishes in the USA alone last year.

The races are anything longer than the conventional marathon of 42 kilometres—hence the ‘ultra’ prefix.

Often, the races span 100 miles or more. They can take over a day to run in their entirety.

They’re single-stage races, too. On hundred-mile races, cut-off times generally kick in after 30 hours.

That means participants don’t generally get time for much more rest than a sit-down or a quick nap to rest.

The famous Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc series in the European Alps attracts about 10,000 runners across various distances each year.

While the sport is still male-dominated, the number of female competitors has in recent years risen far more than the number of men.

In the USA, women now make up nearly a third of the ultramarathon field.

So what makes extreme distances so attractive to women? One way to find out is to ask a genuine ultramarathon trailblazer

Ann Trason, an American endurance runner, is a legend in the ultrarunning community. She has broken 20 world records. She’s never forgotten the first time she trained on the Western States Trail.

‘It captured something in me. I just felt it was in my blood. I can’t explain the beauty, the freedom.’

Trason started running ultramarathons in the ’80s, when women were still a much rarer sight on the trail. For her, long-distance running is a way of life.

‘My favourite runs are things where I run across the Sierras by myself,’ she says.

‘I would just do these runs and mail my clothes somewhere and spend the night, and then run back to my car a different way. That’s my favorite thing to do in the world.’

Long-distance running hasn’t always been inclusive of women. Until 1971, women were banned from the world-famous Boston Marathon.

When Kathrine Switzer ran it in 1967 after not identifying as a woman on her race registration, the race director tried to physically force her off the course.

Despite finishing the race, Switzer was disqualified because of her gender.

In the ’80s Trason found most people very supportive, although some still had difficulty getting used to female ultrarunners.

One male trail running friend told her that she didn’t have the right genes for what he termed a ‘man’s sport’. Trason would later run into him during the Western States race.

‘When I passed him, I asked him how his genes were doing,’ she chuckles.

Trason won the women’s division that year and every year she ran it thereafter—a total of 14 times.

Here’s a biological quirk: the longer the race, the better chances women seem to have at narrowing the gap to male top runners or even winning races outright.

At the Sydney marathon, the female winner is usually at least 20 minutes behind the male winner. For an ultramarathon covering four times that distance, you’d naturally assume the time difference would multiply—but that’s not always the case.

At the Western States 100, Ann Trason twice came second overall—once, she was minutes behind the male overall winner.

In the 135 Mile Badwater Ultramarathon, where competitors run in boiling temperatures of up to 50 degrees through America’s Death Valley, US competitor Pam Reed crossed the finish line ahead of the fastest men twice.

Making time to train and compete is a challenge in itself, especially when raising a family—but some competitors just get them involved.

Ana Braga-Levaggi, 56, has completed eight of the toughest 100-mile races in the USA. Her husband—a keen cyclist—provides more than moral support. ‘My husband is very involved and hands on, whether he paces me or in giving me what I need.’

It’s a family affair: her daughters time her breaks and make sure she keeps moving, and find plenty of inspiration in their mother’s achievements.

‘Ultrarunning brings us together. My perception of my mom transcends from personal chauffeur/macaroni maker into hero,’ Braga-Levaggi’s daughter Bella wrote in a college essay.

The USA is still the world’s ultrarunning hub, but the sport is growing fast in Australia, with over 100 annual ultras.

The Ultra-Trail Australia is a trail running event that attracts thousands of people to the Blue Mountains for its 100 and 50 kilometre distances each year.

One hundred miles isn’t the limit, either. Australia’s Coast to Kosciuszko ultramarathon is 240 kilometres long, from Twofold Bay in New South Wales to the summit of the country’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko.

Age plays less of a defining role in ultramarathons than it does for other styles of running. Meghan Arbogast holds the Western States record for women over the age of 50 and still finishes races ahead of younger competitors.

She believes older runners have some advantages in endurance sports.

‘Partly, it takes the body a long time to adapt and get that strong,’ she said at a trail running training camp on the Western States course.

‘I think we get mentally more tough the older we are.’

With age, runners can also become more patient and learn to pace themselves better over long distances.

Arbogast runs 100 miles a week and is still as fast as she was years ago.

‘There are a lot of 40 or 50-year-old women who are thinking, “She’s still doing it. I don’t have to slow down when I’m 45 or 50 or 55, I can still do this,”‘ Arbogast says.

‘That matters to me.’

Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Life Matters on February 4, 2016, and published on ABC Online.

An E. coli outbreak in Europe has claimed at least 35 lives and left many more facing long-term health complications. It has also triggered an economic crisis for growers across the region, who have lost more than half a billion euros due to slumping prices, weak demand and the destruction of unsold produce.

After authorities initially blamed salad vegetables before identifying bean sprouts from northern Germany as the likely source, farmers say the damage to consumer confidence has already been done.

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And now to Europe, where at least 35 people have died from an outbreak of E. coli.

As the death toll has mounted and more will likely endure lifelong complications from the infection, the agricultural industry has also been hard hit.

In the rush to identify the source of the deadly E. coli contamination, authorities initially blamed cucumbers, tomatoes and leafy salads.

That warning has now been lifted, with investigators pointing instead to bean sprouts from a farm in northern Germany. But for many growers, the damage has already been done.

Nicky Redl reports from northwest Germany.

(sound of a bustling outdoor market)

NICKY REDL: It’s a busy day on the markets in Münster, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. After weeks of seeing rarely any tomatoes, cucumbers or salads in supermarket shelves because no one would buy them, today, there are plenty on sale again. But consumer confidence takes time to recover. Over the last few weeks, many people have decided to be rather safe than sorry.

BEN UBEN: My name is Ben Uben and I’m from Münster, Germany. So, we stopped eating cucumbers and tomatoes like they suggested. The good thing is we have salads in our yards. We grow salads ourselves, so that’s a good thing.

TRISTAN: I’m Tristan, I’m from Münster.

NICKY REDL: Have you changed your eating habits?

TRISTAN: Oh, yeah, I did, because I don’t eat tomatoes or salad now. Sometimes I go to the market here and then I ask, where are these salads from? Yeah. And if I know that, I eat that, but at the restaurant or something – no.

NICKY REDL: One thing the warnings have done is increase trust in local produce. At least some farmers selling predominantly on local markets, say their business has been up because people have faith in their production techniques. But anyone who grows produce authorities have been warning about has been doing it tough.

SONIA: My name is Sonia and I’m working on the market on Saturdays.

NICKY REDL: So have you noticed that people have changed their habits or what they buy in the last few weeks since the E. coli alert came out?

SONIA: Yes, we we sell less than half of normal that we sell on a Saturday. And it’s a big decline for us.

NICKY REDL: Have you got any plans for the future, how you can deal better with these kind of situations?

SONIA: Yes. We made some testings, and now we have some sheets on each vegetable, like salads or tomatoes, where it is written that it’s not with E. coli. And I think that’s, that’s good for the people that they see this, that we test the vegetables.

NICKY REDL: Farming organizations say the E. coli crisis has cost farmers across Europe more than half a billion euros. That’s about A$700 million, due to slumping prices, and because many farmers had to destroy produce they couldn’t sell. One of them is Hugo Rundenberg, tomato and salad grower near Münster.

Hugo Rundenberg: Hugo Rundenberg, Gärtnermeister in Gartenbau, Gemüsebau. Also, wir denken, dass wir so ungefähr… (continues in German)

NICKY REDL: He says supermarket chains stopped buying as soon as the E. coli warnings were out in mid-May. He says he had to shred his salad and couldn’t offer his staff much work, and that in what’s usually his busiest season. He says every day he’s been losing more than $3,000. That’s half of what his business usually makes. And despite the warnings being lifted now, he expects consumer demand to pick up only slowly because once people are worried about a product, regaining trust takes time.

The European Union is planning to offer financial support for farmers, but Mr. Rundenberg says he hasn’t seen anything yet and if his business survives, remains to be seen. All he can do is hope for the best.

Nicky Redl, ABC Rural, Münster.

Broadcast on ABC Radio in June, 2011.

From marshmallow brews to oyster-infused stouts, brewers are pushing the boundaries of craft beer, experimenting with unconventional ingredients in a booming American beer scene.

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COUNTRY HOUR HOST: How would you feel about a pint of marshmallow beer?

It might not sound all that appealing, but you’d be surprised about the ingredients in some beers that have gained popularity around the world.

On her toughest assignment yet, Nicky Redl went along to Boston’s Harpoon Brewery to find out what comes out of American beer labs.

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COREY JOHNSON: How are you doing? My name is Corey Johnson. Would you like a beer?

NICKY REDL: Yeah, sure, what do you recommend here, what’s special?

COREY JOHNSON: What kind of beers do you normally like?

NICKY REDL: I quite like dark beers.

COREY JOHNSON: Right, absolutely. We are going to get you a pint of our 100 Barrel Series, produced using 200 oysters. It’s beautiful, kind of mineraly, a little bit peaty, almost like a fresh ocean taste… (continues)

Broadcast on ABC Local Radio’s Country Hour in April 2011.

Proposed U.S. budget cuts could deepen global hunger, as nearly one billion people already struggle to access enough food worldwide, aid agencies have warned at the Envision forum in New York.

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International aid agencies warn global food insecurity could worsen following $38 billion in U.S. federal budget cuts.

There are concerns American food security and food aid programs could be reduced by up to a third, prompting UN agencies and NGOs to meet in New York at the Envision forum to discuss poverty solutions and the need to support agriculture worldwide.

Nicky Redl reports from New York.

NICKY REDL: Nearly one billion people globally don’t have enough to eat – 98 percent of those live in developing countries. And most live in rural areas. Bettina Luescher from the UN’s World Food Program says, despite the efforts of aid agencies, the number of people suffering hunger has actually increased due to rising food prices, conflict, and droughts or floods. And that is going to affect developed nations.

BETTINA LUESCHER: What I always say is that a hungry man is an angry man, that old saying. And it is so true. If you look here at the situation in the U.S. for example, how many people immigrate from other countries, from Central and Latin America, because they see a chance here in the US, because they want to make a living. That’s what everybody just wants – people want to make a living, they want to feed their families.

NICKY REDL: In Australia, foreign aid is set to increase, but still, at the moment, it is no more than 1.2 percent of the federal budget. Australia sits on an unglamorous 16th place out of 23 OECD donor countries. In the US, it’s worse. Proposed federal budget cuts mean that its funding for aid projects will most likely decrease significantly. And that, even though less than 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget goes into foreign aid.

To Remi Cole, director of agriculture and food security at Africare, and aid organization working in Sub-Saharan Africa, those budget cuts are deeply worrisome.

REMI COLE: The programs we implement are very successful, because we go to the very remote areas of Africa where TV and cameras and development people are not going to, and we make a big difference in whatever we do. The thing that gets in the way of our work is funding. Our largest funder is USAID. And given the budget cuts right now, we are very, very skeptical, we are really at a bind how to continue our programs and to ensure that people sustainably become food secure… (continues)

Broadcast on ABC Radio National on April 12, 2011.

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Cyclone Yasi hasn’t just wrought havoc on land in northern Queensland.

The destructive winds of the category five system have destroyed coral and marine life in the Great Barrier Reef and disturbed fish stocks.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is assessing the state of the reef, but reef line fishermen along the Queensland coast are already feeling the impact. They say the fish have vanished.

Nicky Redl reports from the Queensland town of Bowen.

NICKY REDL: The Bowen Marina between Mackay and Townsville is full of fishing boats. Nobody is heading to sea. The only work to be done is maintenance.

Reef line fishermen catch fish like coral trout by hand, and sell them alive to local and overseas markets. But since the cyclone, their usual catch is nowhere to be found.

On his last trip, Wayne Teakel didn’t even catch enough to cover fuel costs.

WAYNE TEAKEL: Our boat was one of the first boats to head out after the cyclone, and we’ve done two-and-a-half days for one coral trout, and 20 red throat emperor, and three stripies, which, we used 700 liters of diesel, outboard fuel, ice, bait, so you can tell we are definitely going backwards fast.

NICKY REDL: Further south has been less affected, but not everyone can travel the distance.

JAMIE LAIRD: This boat is too small to relocate. We haven’t got the fuel capacity to run out of Mackay some of the bigger boats. And the majority of the reef is damaged, basically from Cairns to Mackay, so we can’t really go anywhere.

All my savings, life savings, went into this boat so I could become a fisherman, and basically, the cyclone has taken it all away from us.

NICKY REDL: The state government has acknowledged fishermen have been affected, but says they don’t qualify for extra assistance. That means that fishermen like Jamie Laird can’t apply for loans or grants like banana or cane growers hit by cyclone Yasi, because fishermen aren’t classified as primary producers.

He says the wage subsidies they get from Centrelink are not enough to live on.

JAMIE LAIRD: You know, we are husband and wife with three children. They have offered us 400 dollars a fortnight to survive on. Like that, that wouldn’t pay your grocery bill.

I was the main money earner. My wife was at home looking after the kids. Now it’s had to change around, she’s had to go back to work, and I’m actually daddy daycare at the moment.

There is just no money coming in at all for anyone.

NICKY REDL: Seafood wholesaler Brett Bauer already had to close his business, because there is nothing to sell.

BRETT BOWER: We only sell local product, we don’t sell any imported stuff or anything, so with no catches with the boats, we’ve had nothing to do, I’ve had to lay off just about all my staff bar two people.

NICKY REDL: Some are lucky enough to have boats big enough to relocate further south, but that means a huge hike in fuel costs.

Boat owner Tanya Giles.

TANYA GILES: You know, we’ve got further distances to get to the reef, as well as the fact that we had to get down there in the first place.

You know, we’re lucky enough to have been quite welcomed by the Mackay community and the Mackay harbor, but it just means that the traveling distances for us compared to what we are used to are phenomenal. So our fuel bill has doubled.

NICKY REDL: And with all the extra boats heading south, the industry is worried that it’s only a matter of time until that area is overfished, while those who can’t relocate are left to wonder why they are being treated differently than other producers. Nicky Redl, ABC Rural, Bowen.

Backstory: I was working as an ABC Rural Reporter in Queensland when cyclone Yasi hit, and we only had audio recorders, not video cameras. I used my small automatic Canon camera with video function on a tripod for the footage, and recorded the audio separately on a Marantz recorder, later syncing audio and video in Premiere. I hadn’t been trained in Premier either at that point, so it was a long night in the studio. It was worth it, though, as the footage and audio were ultimately broadcast on state-wide and national radio and TV, and the plight of fishermen in the region received more widespread attention. The government subsequently offered fishermen the financial assistance it had previously denied them on the grounds that they were not primary producers.

Video broadcast on ABC national television channel News 24, and audio on ABC Radio National.

Online news story on the ABC website: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2011-03-02/one-month-on—still-no-catch/6189192

Audio version on ABC Rural: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-02/reef-line-fishermen-along-the-qld-coast-say-reef/6189204

In East Timor, where many subsistence farmers face an annual “hungry season,” Australian-funded aid program Seeds of Life is boosting crop yields by distributing higher-yielding seed varieties.

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Poor yields and unpredictable weather are part and parcel of any farming operation, but imagine the impact it can have when your average income is less than a dollar a day.

That’s what farmers earn in East Timor, where hunger has a season of its own. Australian aid agencies are working closely with locals to improve the situation.

Nicky Redl reports from East Timor.

NICKY REDL: Food insecurity is a serious issue for people in rural areas of East Timor in Southeast Asia.

Farmers don’t have big acreages, and the dry season lasts for eight months of the year. Having enough food to feed their families is for many people a constant struggle.

One of the ways to improve living standards is to plant crops that produce more than the traditional varieties.

The identification, testing, and distribution of such seed varieties are what the Australian-funded aid organization Seeds of Life has been working on for the past ten years.

Rob Williams is the program’s team leader.

ROB WILLIAMS: It’s been a very steep learning curve for me, coming from an Australian business model of farming to a subsistence style of farming.

Telling people to put on fertilizer or putting this pesticide here doesn’t work in Timor. People have no access to fertilizer. People have no access to herbicides.

So you have to look at technologies that are suitable for subsistence farmers, and varieties are a very good technology that way. The technology reproduces itself.

Each farming family here farms their one hectare of land and they plant a large range of crops. It is not just corn, but it’s beans, it’s pumpkin, sweet potatoes, cassava. They harvest each species in turn and store them away for the whole of the dry season.

So they get one shot at producing enough food for themselves.

NICKY REDL: And how many people manage that, to produce enough food for themselves and their family?

ROB WILLIAMS: We suspect that most of them don’t produce enough food for their family for the twelve months of the year. Most families have what we call a hungry season here in East Timor, where there is not enough food produced to feed their families.

NICKY REDL: What are the key focus areas at the moment that you are looking at?

ROB WILLIAMS: For us, corn is one of the biggest focuses. Most people in East Timor eat corn every day.

Our current release corn varieties are yielding 40 percent more than the traditional local varieties that people grow. That means for the same amount of work, the same amount of land, they produce 1.4 ton per hectare instead of the 1 ton per hectare.

This brings families from barely enough food to having a surplus of corn for the twelve months of the year.

Our focus in the next few years is to identify even higher-yielding maize varieties that keep well, that taste good, and giving farmers access to those seeds across the whole country.

NICKY REDL: Glen da Costa has been testing new varieties of corn on his farm near Baucau a few hours drive east of Dili.

He says the variety called Sele is very strong. It’s not getting knocked down by wind as easily as local varieties, and it has a very high yield. He says one plant can have two or three cobs, and each cob is big.

So after receiving five kilos of this corn variety from Seeds of Life last year, this year, he could harvest enough to plant the stronger variety on his whole farm.

Rob Williams says the program’s biggest achievement is that they have been able to distribute enough seed to farmers that the government didn’t need to import any this year.

ROB WILLIAMS: Last year, we distributed more than 80 tons of rice seed to farming families and 20 tons of maize seed. Every year since 1999, which is when East Timor separated from Indonesia, the government of East Timor has important maize seed and rice seed to distribute to farming families in need.

This last wet season, the East Timorese government didn’t import any seed. So this year, because of seeds of life, this country was self-sufficient for modern, high-yielding seed.

NICKY REDL: Generally, this country is still a food importer. Do you think it has the capability in the future to be self-reliant there?

ROB WILLIAMS: It certainly does. It’s a country of 1.1 million people, with 44,000 hectares of rice, about 80,000 hectares of corn production. With the appropriate inputs, the appropriate guidance, the appropriate direction to the farmers, there is no reason why this country couldn’t be food sufficient.

(Farmers talking and laughing)

NICKY REDL: And while life on the land is very tough for farmers here, they still find always plenty to laugh about – for example, my name. In the local language called Tetum, Nicky means bat, like the nocturnal flying mammal, and that, they reckon, is pretty funny.

(More laughing)

Broadcast in June 2010 on ABC Radio Australia, an ABC international broadcast service

More than a thousand runners from 28 countries competed in the Dili City of Peace Marathon, an event championed by President José Ramos-Horta to promote national pride, peace and international engagement in Timor-Leste.

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People from around the world braved the scorching heat in Timor-Leste‘s capital this weekend to participate in the country’s first-ever marathon.

In an effort to promote peace and understanding, the nation’s best athletes have come together to run the streets of Dili with competitors from Australia, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Before Timor’s independence in 2002, its occupation by neighboring Indonesia was marked by decades of violent conflicts between separatists and the Indonesian military.

The Dili City of Peace Marathon is one of several initiatives launched by Timorese President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient José Ramos-Horta to restore a sense of national identity.

Nicky Redl reports from the Timorese capital, Dili.

(drums and music)

It’s been a big weekend for the people in Timor-Leste’s capital. Over 1,000 competitors from 28 countries braved heat and humidity to compete in running events from 5 kilometers to the full marathon length of 42 kilometers.

Timor’s national team, made up of the country’s 20 best runners, has been training especially hard for the past few months.

(Zeferino Mira Belo speaking in Tetum)

Zeferino Mira Belo is a Timorese farmer who was selected to represent his country as part of the national team.

He told me he works in the fields every morning, but at 2 pm every day, it’s time for his training, for one or two hours. Afterwards, it’s back to farm work.

It’s hard work in a country where many people struggle to even harvest enough to feed themselves and their families for the whole year. But he says running is important to him, because he wants to be a strong person, and because it is his talent.

He says he feels very happy that Timor Leste now has its own marathon.

(drums and music)

The idea for the Dili Marathon came from the country’s President, José Ramos-Horta.

JOSÉ RAMOS-HORTA: When I conceived these initiatives, the Dili Marathon, the Tour de Timor bike race, and numerous other sports initiatives, of course, these have to do with physical endurance, mental endurance, but it’s also part of my program to promote peace in the communities in the country.

And one way to do this is that to heal the wounds, to bring peace to the country, you need to restore a sense of national identity, pride, sense of dignity. Sport is part of all of this, to restore people’s faith.

And you can see, you can see a whole different sense of security, of hope, and it helps a lot psychology.

Timorese are very sports-minded. If you give them a space, an opportunity, a door, a window, they participate enthusiastically. This happens throughout the country. You go to some remote area, they improvise a soccer field, a volleyball, basketball field. And Marathon is one of the easiest.

And my ambition is, and pledge is, that from the Dili Marathon, those Timorese who do very good in the timing, I will arrange for them to go to Sydney Marathon, New York, Boston, because I think they will be Timor goodwill ambassadors to the world, but also they will be the pride of East Timor.

NICKY REDL: What do you hope international competitors will take away from this?

JOSÉ RAMOS-HORTA: Some, they come out of a challenge. Others, I believe that they also share my concern about building peace in a country, but also in opening up to international competitors, it is always my belief to build bridges among communities.

Broadcast on ABC Radio National on June 23, 2010.

PLAY AUDIO:

Audio Script:

JANE PATERSON: The resources sector says that the new tax will thwart investment in mining and drive investment overseas, but this morning, the man behind Waratah Coal, Clive Palmer, said he plans to go ahead with the thermal coal project north of Alpha, as planned.

Our reporter Nicky Redl went to a business breakfast in Mackay this morning, where the guest speaker was one of the head honchos at Waratah. G’Day Nicky, how are you?

NICKY REDL: Yeah, I’m well, Jane.

JANE PATERSON: Who was at this breakfast this morning?

NICKY REDL: The speaker at the breakfast was the managing director of Waratah Coal, Phil McNamara. And the room was actually quite full, so a good turnout for that breakfast.

JANE PATERSON: Did he provide any new details on the Waratah Coal project?

NICKY REDL: Look, I think most of the things he said we already knew. The only thing that was really different from what I saw on the website, the estimated cost was around $7.5 billion Australian dollars; he now estimated that at around over 8 billion US dollars.

But apart from that, the China First Project, as it will be called, will be based 50 kilometers north of Alpha in the Galilee Basin. They are planning to mine 50 million tons a year of thermal coal. They are also saying the quality of the coal is not the same as in the Bowen Basin, so it’s a mixed quality, but with some very good quality amongst it.

And the general resource they are quoting is nearly 4 billion tons of coal, but because of that varying quality of that, the target amount they are planning to mine is about 1.4 billion tons.

JANE PATERSON: So, where is the money going to come from for them to undertake the Waratah project?

NICKY REDL: They are working with several Chinese construction companies. They have Chinese customers and Chinese banks as well to come up with the money needed for this massive project. Seventy percent will come through debt funding and the remaining 30 percent they want to access through capital raising.

They say they also have a 30 million tons sale contract to export coal back into China for the next 20 years, but Mr. McNamara said those contracts will still be finalized over the next few weeks.

JANE PATERSON: So, who is their major partner in this project?

NICKY REDL: Their main partner is a Chinese engineering and construction company called China Metallurgical Group Corporation, MCC, but there are also three other Chinese companies, including Sinosteel.

JANE PATERSON: So did Mr. McNamara say anything about the infrastructure that will be needed for this project to get up and running?

NICKY REDL: Well, at the moment, there is no infrastructure at the Galilee Basin, so they will have to build a 490-kilometer railway and a port as well as the mines.

So they didn’t give any comment so far if they are planning to share any of that infrastructure, but they are planning to build accommodation for about 6,000 construction employees, 1,500 of those jobs will be permanent, so those facilities will stay at the site.

And a lot of those people will later be on a fly-in, fly-out basis. From what I understand, workers will mostly then be based in Brisbane, Mackay, and Rockhampton, and be flown in and flown out.

JANE PATERSON: Interesting if the main part of the funding for this project is coming from China, Nicky, what does that mean for employment of locals from Central Queensland itself?

NICKY REDL: Look, that was one of the questions asked, and he simply didn’t give a clear answer to that.

He was acknowledging that some of the engineering work, or quite a lot of the engineering work, would be done overseas and also quite a lot of the equipment would be coming from China, but he was also said, obviously, a lot of the maintenance and work on the mine won’t be possible without Australian engineers and also without Australian companies being involved.

But, he really didn’t give any clear figures, and he simply didn’t give a clear answer to that question.

JANE PATERSON: So it’s still a bit up in the air as to whether or not those 6,000 construction jobs that we talked about and the 1,500 permanent jobs would be filled by Australians?

NICKY REDL: Yeah, no, he certainly didn’t give a clear answer to that, no.

JANE PATERSON: Okay, so what’s the timeline then for the project to actually begin, because there is a lot of talk about it, but when is it actually, the first sod sod turned, if you like?

NICKY REDL: Well, he was saying they are planning to start construction at the end of this year, and they are hoping to get into production by late 2013.

JANE PATERSON: Alright, interesting, given all the talk from all the other major miners that they won’t be going ahead with projects with the new tax that the federal government has placed on them. Thanks for that Nicky.

NICKY REDL: Thank you.

JANE PATERSON: Reporter Nicky Redl from a business breakfast address by Phil McNamara, the managing director of Waratah Coal, that was held in Mackay this morning. Waratah is, of course, planning to build a brand new thermal coal mine near Alpha in central Queensland.

Broadcast on ABC Queensland’s Country Hour on May 7, 2010.

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