Bold ideas and discussions about the moving image and its connections to our world, politics, society, culture and art

ACMI Conversations

Interactive digital narratives, fully-immersive VR, open source gaming, robots writing novels – what does the future of storytelling look like? What do emerging technological advances mean for writers and artists creating work in the digital era?

Four artists at the forefront of innovation in digital storytelling kicked off Digital Writers' Festival 2017 with a discussion about the impact of interactive digital narratives, virtual reality, geolocated narratives and more in conversation with artistic director Izzy Roberts-Orr.


Copyright acknowledgements: 

Clips Played

Title: Door Into the Dark Trailer
Copyright: Anagram
Link played: https://vimeo.com/97591942
More info: http://weareanagram.co.uk/project/door-into-the-dark/
Title: The Gardens Between 
Copyright: TheVoxelAgents
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmBXEGmQ_og
More info: http://thegardensbetween.com/
Title: The Gardens Between ~ Slow Trailer TEASER
Copyright: TheVoxelAgents
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_AaniqoqfEMore info: http://thegardensbetween.com/
Title: Way From Home 
Copyright: Misha Myers
Link played: N/A
More info: http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/misha-myers/biography/
Title: Magic in Modern London: iPhone App Trailer
Copyright: Amblr
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RJ77Q-uiKw
More info: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/magic-in-modern-london/id555328123
Title: The Turning Forest Making Of 
Copyright: Vrtov
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6C3TBSqMTw
More info: http://vrtov.com/projects/turning-forest/
Title: IS JAPAN COOL? DOU - 道
Copyright: ANA
Link Played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHukYrVi8M
More info: https://www.ana-cooljapan.com/contents/dou/
Reading List referenced / not played
Title: Our Friends Electric (excerpt)
Copyright: Superflux and Mozilla
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsjunTAH-2A
More info: http://superflux.in/index.php/work/friends-electric/#
Title: Her Story Trailer
Copyright: Sam Barlow
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaHw97l7-Lc
More info: http://www.herstorygame.com/
Title: The story of Replika, the AI app that becomes you
Copyright: Replika by Luka inc 
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQGqMVuAk04
More info: https://replika.ai/
Title: A message from Karen | Blast Theory
Copyright: Blast Theory
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqa2gTj2uYI//
More info: https: www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/karen/

ACMI Conversations: The Future of Storytelling

This talk celebrated International Women’s Day with local filmmakers telling powerful and revealing stories. Filmmakers Sari Braithwaite, Chloe Brugale and Santilla Chingaipe were in  conversation with Eloise Ross about their craft and processes, key collaborations and career pathways.

About the speakers

Santilla Chingaipe is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. She spent nearly a decade working for SBS World News which saw her report from across Africa and interview some of the continent's most prominent leaders. Her work explores cultural identities, contemporary migration and politics. Last year she presented a one-off documentary for SBS, Date My Race. Santilla is currently directing and writing documentary on the complexities of Australia’s South Sudanese community. Her latest film, Black As Me, is a short documentary exploring the perception of beauty and race in Australia. She writes regularly for The Saturday Paper.

Chloe Brugale is a screen practitioner with more than fifteen years' experience working across drama and factual productions, distribution, events and festival programming. As the General Manager of Robert Connolly’s company, Arenamedia, Chloe has contributed to many culturally and artistically innovative features, including The Turning, Spear and the box office hit Paper Planes. She also oversaw the successful release campaign of the documentary Chasing Asylum. Chloe’s producer credits include [CENSORED], an experimental documentary by director Sari Braithwaite, and Black As Me, a short film by director Santilla Chingaipe. Prior to Arenamedia, Chloe held positions at the Melbourne International Film Festival as Next Gen and Short Films programmer, the education department of the Cannes Film Festival and the avant-garde Utopia Cinemas in Avignon, France.

Sari Braithwaite is a filmmaker who works across the disciplines of history and film. Her documentary films have played at MIFF, SFF, Adelaide Film Festival, Canberra Film Festival, Antenna Film Festival, and BFI London.  She was a recipient of the 2015 AFTRS Creative Fellowship to create an experimental work about Australian censorship. In addition to her own practice, Sari has also worked as a professional researcher on a wide variety of film and television documentaries, and continues to work in universities as a researcher.

Eloise Ross (host) is a writer, critic, and lecturer with a range of experience working with Melbourne film culture, both in organisational roles and as a qualified speaker. She has a PhD in cinema studies from La Trobe University and her research specialises in sound studies, Hollywood history, and the phenomenological experience of the cinema. Eloise has been widely published as a film critic, cultural commentator, and academic. She is a co-curator of the Melbourne Cinémathèque, currently teaches in the film department at Swinburne University, is co-host of the Senses of Cinema podcast.

ACMI Conversations: The Future According to Women Documentarians

From the surface of the sun to the depths of the prehistoric seas and the earth's orbit, VR continues to open portals onto worlds we could never physically inhabit. What potential does this technology hold for expanding the realms of human experience?

Erth's Scott Wright (Prehistoric VR), artist Jessie Hughes (Soul Of Sol – La Palma) and astrophysicist Professor Alan Duffy (Swinburne Uni) discussed art, tech and science in their latest VR works.

Copyright acknowledgements: 

Clips Played

Title: Mars 2030 
Copyright: Mars 2030 was created by FUSION in collaboration with NASA and is powered by Nvidia GeForce
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prpQB0nlRV8
Purchase / Experience: http://store.steampowered.com/app/510850/Mars_2030/
Title: the Blu: Whale Encounter | 3D 360 VR
Copyright: Transport Wevr
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUpkVa4UkMg
Purchase / Experience: https://www.transportvr.com/theblu-series
Title: Tree VR – Seedling
Copyright: Rainforest Alliance
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERffRXjTAqM
Purchase / Experience: https://www.treeofficial.com/
Title: Soul of Sol | Inspiration | NASA | Thermonuclear Art – The Sun In Ultra-HD (4K)
Copyright: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 
Link played: https://vimeo.com/167370549
Title: Soul of Sol | La Palma
Copyright: Jessie Hughes
Link played: https://vimeo.com/167207800
Title: Soul of Sol | Artist Residency
Copyright: Jessie Hughes
Link played: https://vimeo.com/167368978
Images Shown
Prehistoric VR, Erth
http://erth.com.au/
Sci VR,http://www.scivr.com.au/

ACMI Conversations: Art, Science and Tech in VR

From the Marvel and DC cinematic universes to small screen caped-crusaders and vigilantes, superheroes are more popular than ever. But how do superheroes reflect our place and power within society?

Whether it’s symbolic representations of asylum seekers and First Nations people on Cleverman, Jessica Jones battling PTSD or The Watchmen exploring the moral ambiguity of individuals with tremendous power, superheroes have the power (dare we say great responsibility?) to tell nuanced, reflective and universal stories.

Join us to discuss how our heroic representations hold a mirror up to contemporary views on ethics, justice and equality.

About the panel

Martyn Pedler

Martyn Pedler is a writer and academic who focuses on superhero stories. He's published chapters and presented internationally on subjects like how the Flash runs in a medium without movement and why Doctor Doom cried after 9/11. He's also been a longtime pop culture critic for Bookslut, Time Out Melbourne, Triple J Magazine and more. He is the writer of the 2012 feature film EXIT, and has several other screenplays in development.

Dr Liam Burke

Dr Liam Burke is the Cinema and Screen Studies coordinator at Swinburne University of Technology. He has written and edited a number of books on comic books and cinema including Superhero Movies, Fan Phenomena Batman, and The Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring Modern Hollywood’s Leading Genre. Liam is a chief investigator on the Superheroes & Me research project with ACMI. He recently directed the documentary short film @HOME, which was screened at a number of international film festivals and was broadcast on Irish television.

Brooke Maggs

Brooke Maggs is a freelance narrative designer and writer for games, VR and other creative industries. She one of the women featured in ACMI's Code Breaker's exhibition where you can play one of her latest projects, The Gardens Between, an adventure puzzle game.Recently, she received the 2017 MCV Pacific XBOX Women in Games Creative Impact award for her work in the games industry. Brooke is writing a science fiction novel for which she was shortlisted for the Ray Koppe Writer’s Residency and awarded a residency at the Varuna House. Her other writing includes academic research in creative writing practice.

Copyright Acknowledgments:

Title: The Avengers (2012)
Copyright: Marvel Studios / Walt Disney Production Company

Title: Spiderman (2002)
Copyright: Marvel Enterprises / Columbia Pictures

Title: Superman (1978)
Copyright: Warner Bros

Title: Man of Steel (2013)
Copyright: DC Entertainment / Warner Bros Pictures

Title: Daredevil Season 1 Episode 2
Copyright: Marvel Television / Netflix

Title: Cleverman Season 1 Episode 2
Copyright: Sundance Studios / ABC TV

Title: Superman Returns (2006)
Copyright: Legendary Pictures / DC Comics / Warner Bros Pictures

ACMI Conversations: Superheroes, Ethics and Justice

Is the recent trend in 80s retro films and TV symbolic of a nostalgia for a simpler era?

The 80s was a decade renowned for its excess - think money, drugs, eyeshadow and lycra. From Stranger Things and Glow to Spielberg’s upcoming Ready Player One, we look at contemporary TV and films that transport us back to the decade defined by  ET, The Goonies, big hair, pastels and 12-sided dice.

But what does this recent trend in 80s retro nostalgia tell us about ourselves? Are we nostalgic for a simpler pre-Trump age?

Join filmmaker Glendyn Ivin, academic Dr Lauren Rosewarne and critic Mel Campbell in a neon-coloured, synth-scored exploration of our yearning for 80s small town America.

Copyright Acknowledgments 

Title: Stranger Things, Series One, Episode One
Copyright: Netflix

Title: Stranger Things, Series One, Episode Two
Copyright: Netflix

Title: Glow, Series One, Episode Seven
Copyright: Netflix

Title: Wet Hot American Summer
Copyright: USA Films

Title: E.T.
Copyright: Universal Pictures

Title: The Goonies
Copyright: Warner Bros.

Title: Stand By Me
Copyright: Columbia Pictures

Title: Puberty Blues, Season One, Episode One
Copyright: Endemol Australia

Title: Puberty Blues, Season One, Episode Three
Copyright: Endemol Australia


Title: Cracker Bag
Copyright: Glendyn Ivin

ACMI Conversations: Retro Nostalgia

In our uncertain era full of real life horror, what's driving our appetite for true crime and fascination with the macabre? From recent documentaries The Jinx, Making a Murderer and The Family to serial killer anti-heroes in film and TV, and the stark brutality of Scandi-noir, we examined our obsession with the dark side of human nature, the psychology of fear and how recent technological advances like biometric analysis are providing unique findings into our physiological response to on-screen horror.

Copyright acknowledgements: 

Images & Clips Played

Title: Westwood Family Photograph
Copyright: Westwood Family

Title: IT MAKES YOU JUMP OF FRIGHT
Copyright: DWS93
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t80sdBtB-Gc

Title: car commercial - sun roof feature, cat gets a suprise
Copyright: lakers777
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz-sC-vSIXk

Title: Most Scariest Video Ever
Copyright: Social Dunya News
Link played: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTn90dTakOE

Title: Caving Claustrophobia Kill or Cure
Copyright: Keith Edwards
Link played: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG0WJkmOwd0

Title: Horrific moment massive spider extracted from woman's ear
Copyright: SWNS TV
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri2OrRdlxtY

Title: The Family Trailer
Copyright: Dogwoof
Link played: https://www.thefamilysect.com/

Title: Haunted Toaster
Copyright: US Today Show, 1984
Link played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSwnWw65Wo


AFTRS Credits
IMOTIONS IMAGES WITH PERMISSION
ECLIPSE IMAGE: NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.IT ACCESSED 28.07.17 DROWNING IMAGE: EYESOFODYSSEUS.COM ACCESSED 28.07.17 MIRROR NEURON IMAGE: IMTERACTIVE-BIOLOGY.COM ACCESSED 29.07.17

ACMI Conversations:The Psychology of Fear

ACMI presents Changing the Game, where speakers Steph Convery, Clem Ford, Leena van Deventer and Rae Johnston talk survival strategies for being a woman with an opinion on the internet.
 
Online games and social media have dramatically changed the way we interact, creating communities with common passions and interests that transcend geographical, socio/cultural and political boundaries. However, the online world has a dark underbelly where trolling, racism, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, doxing and misogyny are rife. In this provocative and proactive panel discussion, we explore the current landscape of social interactions through technology and the ways diverse players are taking the power back.

Warning: Contains strong language and content that some might find upsetting or disturbing. 
 
Copyright acknowledgements:

Title: Damsels in Distress: Part 1 – Tropes vs Women in Video Games
Copyright: Feminist Frequency
 
Please visit www.acmi.net.au for further information.

ACMI Conversations: Changing The Game

The representation of gender diversity on screen has a complex history, from invisibility to stereotypical representations of otherness, including the sexually mischievous to the homicidal maniac.

In this conversation our panel of  filmmakers, critics, festival directors and artists to talked about the history and politics of gender diverse representation in films like Funeral Parade of Roses, Tomboy, The Crying Game and Boys Don’t Cry, as well as Orange is the New Black, Transparent and Billions. The panel will explore the problematic casting and stereotyping of gender diverse characters to the more progressive titles that have paved the way for more positive and nuanced gender expression on screen.

About The Panel

Bobuq Sayed (Host)

Bobuq Sayed is a writer, multi-media artist and community organiser of the Afghan diaspora. They co-edit Archer Magazine and they are the co-founder of the Australian QTPoC activist collective, Colour Tongues.

They are one-half of the sound art project, SWALLOW, and an active member of performance art vehicle, Embittered Swish. Their work highlights the unresolved and the grotesque; the ugliness of marginality.

Amos Gebhardt

Gebhardt’s cinematic portraits of humanness invoke multiple art forms including dance, documentary and performance. Drawn to disruptive representations of identity, Gebhardt has created moving image works for gallery exhibitions, cinema and broadcast exhibiting at ACMI, MONA, Gertrude Contemporary, M+, Monash Gallery of Art, SBS and ABC. Gebhardt is a recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, given to select artists who demonstrate outstanding talent and exceptional courage in their practice and is currently working on two video installations to be presented at the Adelaide Biennial 2018.

Cerise Howard

Cerise Howard is the Artistic Director of the Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia. A co-founding member of tilde: Melbourne Trans & Gender Diverse Film Festival and a committee member of the Melbourne Cinémathèque, she is also a freelance writer and critic who reports for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival daily newspaper and co-hosts Plato's Cave, broadcast live and podcast weekly by 3RRR.

Cerise is also the bassist for punk, performance art, queer rock band Queen Kong and The HOMOsapiens. They will be launching "You Come from a DFO, I Come from a UFO" Thursday February 1st at the Northcote Social Club.

Copyright Acknowlegments

Title: Eat the Rich
Copyright: New Line Cinema
 
Title: Rocky Horror Picture Show
Copyright: 20th Century Fox
 
Title: Dallas Buyers Club
Copyright: Focus Features
 
Title: Women in Revolt
Copyright: Morrissey
 
Title: Funeral Parade of Roses
Copyright: Art Theatre Guild
 
Title: The Crying Game
Copyright: Palace Pictures / Miramax
 
Title: Orlando
Copyright: Sony Pictures Classics
 
Title: Tangerine
Copyright: Magnolia Pictures
 
Title: Something Must Break
Copyright: Garagefilm International / Fasad Postproduktion
 
Title: There are no others
Copyright: Amos Gebhardt

ACMI Conversations: Beyond the Binary

Are the heroines of modern anime confronting the stereotyped female characters that preceded them? Or are they still designed merely to service the fantastical and unrealistic desires of male fans?

In this traditionally male-dominated genre, the growing trend of empowered female protagonists is a welcome development. Still, there’s no shortage of anime productions that feature excessive ‘fan-service’ – highly objectified representations of women. For every baddass heroine like Princess Mononoke’s San, there are the subjugated female characters in Keijo, designed purely for the male gaze.

Our panel of academics, critics and cultural commentators unraveled anime’s approach to women and tested whether it could become a new ground for feminism.  

About The Panel

Jessica McCallum

Jessica McCallum currently works with Madman Entertainment, a Melbourne founded and leading Australian independent entertainment company. As the Head of Social Media and Anime Marketing, Jess is responsible for social media strategies and marketing initiatives. She has played an instrumental part in propelling the growth of Madman's anime audience and community by developing effective and engaging campaigns for key product categories and releases. Working alongside peers who are pushing the organisation in exciting new directions, both in theatrical (Your Name, A Silent Voice), national anime festivals and direct-to-consumer digital streaming via AnimeLab, Jess is extremely passionate about bringing the latest and greatest anime content to Aussie and NZ fans.

Phillip Brophy

Philip Brophy curated the first major retrospective of manga artist Osamu Tezuka for the National Gallery of Victoria in 2006. The exhibition toured to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco the following year. In 2005, he was commissioned to write “100 Anime” for the British Film Institute in London. In previous years he has curated film retrospective programmes for the Melbourne International Film Festival on Tezuka (1995) and Studio Ghibli (1997). He interviewed Hayao Miyazaki in Tokyo for the exhibition he curated on Japanese and American animation for the Museum of Contemporary Art, “Kaboom!” (1993). He has been published extensively in international journals on anime and manga.

Nikki Lam

Nikki Lam is a visual artist, curator and programmer based in Melbourne. Working primarily with the moving image, she is passionate about the cross-sections of screen cultures, media arts and representations. Born in Hong Kong, she is interested in exploring the translations of post-colonial identities and narratives in the hybrid world, often through the studies of rituals, language, time and space. She is the former Artistic Director of Channels Video Art Festival (2014-2016) and has worked in a range of arts organisations including Footscray Community Arts Centre, Peril Magazine and Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT). She is currently ACMI X Coordinator for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Nikki grew up with anime in Hong Kong and would consider the medium as the fundamental ingredient of her formative years.

Title: Kill La Kill Season One
Copyright: Madman Entertainment
 
Title: Keijo!!!!!! Season One
Copyright: Crunchyroll
 
Title: Psycho Pass Season One
Copyright: Madman Entertainment
 
Title: Attack on Titan Season One
Copyright: Madman Entertainment
 
Title: Perfume Live @ Tokyo Dome
Copyright: Perfume Records

ACMI Conversations: Anime and Feminism

In this talk we explore the creative, technical, cultural and collaborative practice of creating VR from personal histories for this moving new work.

A Thin Black Line is an immersive VR experience that follows one family in the aftermath of the bombing of Darwin in 1942, when half the population fled believing a Japanese invasion was imminent. Among them was Indigenous filmmaker Douglas Watkin’s mother, just five-years old at the time.

Director Douglas Watkin, VRTOV's VR director Oscar Raby, artist Vernon Ah Kee and lead 3D artist Kalonica Quigley shared behind-the-scenes footage and early drawings from their unique journey bringing oral storytelling to digital life through graphic and game design.

See A Thin Black Line free from 3 March in the Untold Australia VR Showcase in our permanent exhibition Screen Worlds.

About The Speakers

Douglas Watkin
Brisbane-based Indigenous filmmaker Douglas Watkin was born in Cairns, Far North Queensland. His broadcasting and filmmaking career began in television doing small news reports and producing various corporate videos, and has progressed to feature films, broadcast series and multimedia works for a range of clients and audiences. Douglas has been actively working in the film and television industry for over twenty years, including producing and directing multiple series for ABC and NiTV.

Oscar Raby
Oscar Raby is an award-winning multimedia artist and Creative Director of independent digital production studio VRTOV. His Virtual Reality documentary Assent (2013), about the Chilean dictatorship, has been exhibited world-wide including screening at Sundance New Frontier, IDFA DocLab and Sheffield Doc/Fest where it received the Audience Choice Award for Cross-platform.

Kalonica Quigley
Kalonica is a 3D Artist and Game Developer who has developed award-winning games with small teams and independently. She currently works as Lead 3D Artist at VRTOV, an independent studio that crafts virtual reality experiences at the borderline of film and games.

Vernon Ah Kee
Born in Far North Queensland and currently living in Brisbane, Vernon is a member of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples.

Vernon’s multi-faceted practice includes works that range from large-scale drawings of his ancestors to hard-hitting text-based works and installations. In his work Ah Kee fuses the history and language of colonisation with contemporary black/white political issues in an ongoing investigation of race, colour and politics. Through clever puns and plays on words and objects Ah Kee fuses the history and language of colonisation with contemporary black/white political issues to expose degrees of underlying racism in Australian society.

ACMI Conversations: A Thin Black Line

Did you know that twenty percent of Australians live with disability? You probably wouldn't guess that from our media.

But things are gradually improving. In 2018, more people with disability and appearance diversity are writing and starring in TV and film, influencing on social media and getting opportunities as brand ambassadors. Young people today have a much greater chance of seeing themselves represented, knowing what's possible.

We'll be talking representation of people with disability on screens and behind the scenes, and why it's vital to give us a place at the table.

ACMI Conversations: Mainstreaming Disability and Appearance Diversity on Screen

Decolonising the Australian film industry and how First Nations people want to be portrayed are the current debates with Aboriginal and Torres Strait actors, directors and producers. Join our host Leila Gurruwiwi (from Marngrook Football Show) along with guest panelists; award winning author Uncle Bruce Pascoe, playwright and filmmaker Tracey Rigney  and academic Crystal McKinnon in a provocative discussion on Aboriginal identity and the Australian film and television industry. Our panelists will explore how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been showcased within the industry  and what needs to be achieved by Indigenous film and television practitioners to take control of their identity.

ACMI Conversations: Decolonising Aboriginal Representation

There are innumerable theories of Alice, Wonderland and the characters she meets along the way.

Was Lewis Carroll inspired by hallucinogens? Reacting to new maths standards? Or having a personal identity crisis?

Perhaps the way we see the text tells us as much as our ourselves as it does about the enigmatic author.

Join us for a lively dissection of the text's myriad meanings with science communicator Stephanie Pradier, psychedelic VR artist Roger Essig and psychologist Professor Nick Haslam, hosted by author and critic Mel Campbell.

ACMI Conversations: Interpreting Alice

Video games can transport players into ethereal experiences, create unique communities and become a medium for interactive and experimental art.

Join game designer and curator Chad Toprak (Freeplay), experimental games designers Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey (Tale of Tales) and cultural curator Zuraida Buter (Zo-ii) for a deep dive into beautiful, wonderous and experiential game worlds.

ACMI Conversations: Pleasure Of Pixels

How does a museum collect WeChat? Or show a laptop that was destroyed by security agencies because it held government secrets leaked by whistleblowers?

How could a museum collect computer viruses, or use source code to reveal decisions made by designers when a product was being made?

Digital design, game design and media design are all important aspects of contemporary design, yet institutions have struggled to effectively exhibit and collect, let alone 'preserve' them for future generations.

Seb and Natalie discuss current institutional approaches, including the V&A's rapid response collecting initiatives and ACMI's digital preservation.

ACMI Conversations: Preserving the Artefacts of the Future

With each technological advancement, from early documentaries to social issue games and immersive VR, we've heard the promise of being able to step into alternate perspectives, to feel and share and experience a more complex type of understanding. But are these supposed "empathy machines" distancing us from true empathy and closer to voyeurism?

In this talk we interrogate the ethics, assumptions and privileges associated with technological storytelling.

Hosted by Santilla Chingaipe with Dr Fincina Hopgood, Brett Leavy and Amani Naseem.

ACMI Conversations: Empathy Machines

Alice was first brought to life by Lewis Carroll, but she's sparked imaginations and been immortalised on screen many times since.

Join film critic and author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas in conversation with Dr Michelle Smith (Monash University) and Dr Dan Golding (Swinburne University of Technology) as they discuss these 'electric' Alices and the unique representations of girlhood across time, space and media, exploring historical significance, contemporary potency and what Alice might mean in the future.

ACMI Conversations: Electric Girlhoods and Alices Past and Future

Join artists Gabrielle De Vietri, Hanna Brontë and Eugenia Lim to talk video art and challenging provocations in the spheres of identity, immigration, race, nationalism and politics.

From exploring issues of gender and racial identity through the lens of hip-hop aesthetics to deconstructing the nature of globalisation and economics through video and performance, the artists will discuss their own practice in contemporary video art and film, and what excites them about the form's potential for political expression and social commentary.

ACMI Conversations: Art Politics Protest

Australia's only national museum of film, video games, digital culture and art - situated at the heart of Melbourne in Fed Square. Listen to our latest podcasts of live events, playlists associated with exhibitions, and more.

Located at Fed Square. Open daily. #acmimelbourne www.acmi.net.au

ACMI Conversations

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