BE HERE NOWRA

How Do You Be Here Nowra? When is Nowra? Where is Nowra?

Well, Now(ra) is the time. And Nowra, Australia is an idyllic town built on the Shoalhaven River. Lit up with natural beauty, Nowra sits nestled ten kilometres inland from the famous NSW South Coast. But like many rural towns across Australia (and the globe), Nowra faces brutal socio-economic disadvantages. Unemployment, methamphetamine use and suicide are all over represented in the local population. Plus, in 2019/20, the town was traumatised by the worst bushfires in Australian history, an apocalyptic flood and mental health crisis ignited by COVID-19.

Unusually bad times call for unconventionally good solutions. That’s our take. Be Here Nowra is a documentary about an unconventional (but science-backed) solution to the social problems Nowra faces: meditation. And lots of it.

The documentary follows Barron Hanson--filmmaker, newly-minted Vedic meditation teacher, CONVICTS’ Vibe Director, Nowra native and wearer of many bucket hats--as he explores the intersection of meditation and the current mental health crisis. See, Barron returned home from overseas to investigate how meditation can change behaviour and promote healing in a hard-luck town populated by very good people. The film will follow individuals from Nowra (or “unlikely heroes”) who learn to meditate.

The documentary will chart the stories of these characters as they personally evolve and transform through meditation. These stories will be woven into a collective tapestry that tells the story of a town changed through the power of its community members.

Because Be Here Nowra isn’t just a community happiness project, but a social experiment rooted in empirical evidence and real stories. Current research suggests that if 1% of a given population begins meditating, a seismic change can occur within the community as a whole. Sounds like something you’d hear at a wellness retreat, but it has the benefit of empirical evidence.

We call this phenomenon the “Community Coherence Effect”...but it’s never been captured on film. To that end, we aim to get 1% of the population of Nowra meditating in order to answer the question: can the science of meditation transform a town?

We’ll partner with local university researchers to conduct qualitative and quantitative studies to evidence the transformation's credibility. Which will, ultimately, further the science and implementation of meditation the world over.

At its core, Be Here Nowra isn’t just a story about a town coming together to meditate…it’s a story about a community coming together to heal itself.