About event
Film is full of radical political possibility. From gender politics, land rights and sovereignty, to climate change and the advent of biotechnologies, film makers have been unafraid to address these critical and contentious issues. Indeed, as a medium, artform and practice, film has created vital space for story-telling to emerge from the margins. This workshop aims to explore the political potential of film and to kindle collaborative relations between emerging filmmakers and academics. The workshop includes a panel discussion and short film screenings by the Karrabing Film Collective, Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland (2018) and MyMy (2014) directed by Anna Helme. This workshop asks: how can complex ideas, histories and experiences be communicated creatively and respectfully through film-making? Drawing from these three compelling short films we will open a discussion about the ways in which film is used to communicate and politicise various ideas in imaginative and experimental ways. This will include a focus on the elements of filmmaking (use of genre, character construction, visual representation etc) and how they work together to guide and provoke various audiences. Panel Discussants: Tess Lea, Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Sydney and collaborator Karrabing Film CollectiveAnna Helme, doctoral research at VCA School of Fine Arts and Music and queer moving image makerSean Redmond, Professor of Screen and Design at Deakin University Short Films: Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland (2018) In the near future, the Earth is dead and Europeans can no longer survive outdoors for long periods of time. A young Indigenous man, Aiden, taken away when he was just a baby to be part of a medical experiment to save the white race, is released into the world of his family. As he travels with his father and brother across the landscape he confronts two possible futures and pasts. MyMy (2014) In a mythic cyberfeminist universe, a frustrated young man yearns for affinity and connection. In this age of digital avatars, he crafts a version of himself that is far more corporeal - by stitching together parts of himself to become his own cyborg twin, embracing the radical potential to create the self. However his new clone has been corrupted by a techno-magick virus. This Other self embodies a dangerous idea: that there are parts of ourselves beyond our control. This public workshop is presented as part of the AusSTS Interdisciplinary Workshop. It is sponsored by the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and the Culture, Environment, adn Science research stream of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation. Note: AusSTS workshop participants are required to register using the promotional code to attend
Event Contact:
ssn-info@deakin.edu.auShare