Travis Beard (AUS)
Director
Combat Comms

Travis Beard first visited Afghanistan in November 2001, he worked as a teacher of photojournalism at country’s first ever media school – the Aina Media Institute.

In 2007 Travis co-founded a skateboard school – Skateistan, which is an award-winning international non-profit organization that used skateboarding and education for youth empowerment. In same year Travis co-founded the Kabul Knights Motorcycle Club. In 2008 he founded an arts collective – Combat Communications; which included among its projects a street art school – Wallords.
Travis most audacious and successful project was the country’s first Music & Arts festival in 35 years – Sound Central Festival [BBC], which ran for three years 2011 – 2013. The festival was funded by 10 different embassy public diplomacy grants and incorporated multiple art disciplines such as dance, painting, graffiti, poetry, fashion, female handicrafts and music.
Travis camera skills have also been utilized in other documentary films such as: Jirga, Afghan Cycles, Motely’s Law, and Frame By Frame.
Since returning to his hometown of Melbourne Australia, Travis’ completed his debut feature documentary, Rockabul, which focuses on the music scene in Afghanistan told through the perspective of the Afghan band, District Unknown. The film received funding from US State Dept Kabul, Screen Australia and Film Victoria and had its World Premiere at the prestigious Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2018. Rockabul was also nominated for Australian Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival, 2018. The film has since been screened at over 30 film festivals around the world.
Travis is currently working as a co-producer on a documentary from South Korea called K-Pop Killers about heavy metal in the religiously strict Korean society. His other projects include a sequel film to Rockabul called The Afghan Bug, as well as podcast by the same name and a book called ‘The Bullet is Faster than the Bike”.