As we looked back, we saw the future
18:30, Fri 9 May
Brunswick Mechanics Institute | VIC
Free, ticketed
This program presents two works (Accounts of a Whistleblower and Warburdar Bununu: Water Shield) that skilfully utilise archival footage, documents, and photographic materials to inspire reflection on enduring continuities — the persistence of environmentally harmful policies, colonial extraction-based attitudes, and the complex ways archival materials represent long-term ecological and social phenomena - going beyond merely substantiating historical events to actively co-constitute our understanding of the present.
Referencing iconic Australian visual histories in Two Laws (1982) and state archives of the nuclear testing at Maralinga in the 1950s-60s, the programme engages with questions of representation, positionality, and ethical modes of image making involving vulnerable communities and the historical record.
This event is presented by Re-vision Ethical Futures Moving Image Network, in partnership with Environmental Films Australia and Composite. Re-vision is based at RMIT University and led by Dr Shweta Kishore and Dr Polly Stanton. The Network explores a variety of approaches and debates from practice, industry and academia to help foster inclusive, accountable and sustainable production and exhibition practices in Australian contemporary moving image culture. It does this by identifying gaps and best practices to promote inclusive representation, equitable practice and sustainable relationships with at-risk environments and social groups.