Australian War Memorial Gallery & Exhibition Projects – nick lever

USS Firebolt Incident

Animation Editor

24 April 2004. A dhow detonates in the northern Persian Gulf. Three dead. The first Coast Guardsman killed in action since Vietnam.

A stylised animated documentary in film-noir comic book aesthetic recounts the catastrophe. A roving camera glides across intricately illustrated panels, creating claustrophobic tension that evokes the chaos and tragic cost of a single moment in the Iraq War.

4-minute animated film · Anzac Hall

Narrative of the Battle: HMAS Sydney I, SMS Emden Memorial

Animation Editor

In 1914, a single distress signal changed the course of a war. A telegraph operator tapped out a message from a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, calling HMAS Sydney into the first naval battle in Australian history.

The 12-minute animated film places visitors inside that engagement. A roving camera traces the hour and a half duel that left SMS Emden beached and burning, securing the ocean for Allied convoys. Actual salvaged artefacts from the German cruiser sit on display in the same gallery space.

12-minute animated film · First World War Gallery

Connecting With Home

Editor

Two phone booths. Six voices. A continent of static and silence.

Inside authentic 1990s on-base phone booths, visitors pick up retro handsets and listen to deeply personal, archival conversations between veterans and their families. Period-authentic push-button keypads and a 10-inch display with stylised captions complete the experience.

10 × 90-second audio stories, interactive handsets

Mentoring in the Valleys: OMLT-1 in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan

Editor

From 2005 to 2014, Australian forces embedded with Afghan National Army recruits in a province of steep valleys and shifting allegiances. Kriv Stenders’ feature documentary captures the grinding complexity of handing security back to Afghan hands.

Candid interviews with veterans are woven with archival photography, AWM collection footage, and research imagery. The result is a definitive account of Australia’s longest military commitment, told by those who lived it.

20-minute feature documentary · Anzac Hall and Glazed Link

Afghanistan: Complex Land, Complex War

Primary Editor

What happens after the war ends for those who helped wage it? This installation centres on Afghan refugees who rebuilt their lives in Australia, exploring the fault lines of displacement and what it means to belong to two places at once.

By foregrounding refugee voices, the exhibit challenges visitors to sit with the full complexity of the conflict’s legacy. Four intimate films unfold across the gallery.

4 × 3-minute films · Anzac Hall and Glazed Link

Evacuee Stories

Editor & Multimedia Designer

In August 2021, the Taliban entered Kabul. Over nine days, Australia evacuated more than 4,100 people through a gauntlet of crushing crowds and razor-wire checkpoints.

Across eight synchronised screens, the installation blends simulated social feeds, frantic SMS exchanges, and live-stream footage into a unified narrative. By mirroring the fragmented, real-time communication of the evacuation itself, the exhibit creates an almost unbearable immediacy that makes the global feel devastatingly personal.

10-minute multimedia film, 8-screen synchronised installation · Anzac Hall