A long time ago,
The world was simple but magical.
A child’s mind is preoccupied by games to play and a field
of opportunity on how we could spend our day
You could taste colours and smell rainbows.
We could stand on a blue blanket and pretend we were
navigating the seas.
But as you grow up, your priorities change
You find yourself in the middle of a different kind of game.
One with different rules for different people.
Cinematica’s edition #5 is a lineup of female filmmakers that gently explore notions of ‘place’ and ‘displacement’.
Film titles:
A River Twice (Audrey Lam, 14 min, 2017)
Living Room (Jessica Barclay Lawton, 17 min, 2019)
Mayana (Barry Brown & Irene Proebsting, 8 min, 1995-96
Take (Victoria Hunt, 9 min, 2019)
Tether (Eva Justine Torkkola, 11 min, 2018)
Featured Filmmakers:
Victoria Hunt has a BA (Photography, Griffith University 1996) and First Class Honours in Performance Studies (UNSW 2016). After performing for many years with Tess De Quincy’s Body Weather company, Victoria began to create her own dance works. Her work has been presented at national and international festivals such as, Live works (Syd); Dance Massive (Melb); Origins Festival of First Nations (Lon/UK); Ecocentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts (UK); In-between Time Festival (Bristol/UK); IMPACT 15 (On/CA);Scène Contemporaine Autochtone;Festival TransAmériques Arts Centre (Montreal); PuSh Festival (Vancouver); National Arts Centre (Ottawa/CA);Public Energy (Peterborough/CA);Biennale of Sydney, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. BAC Bienale of Body arts, Image and Movement.
Margot Nash is a New Zealand born Australian based producer, writer, director and editor. Her credits include the feature dramas Vacant Possession(1994) and Call Me Mum(2005),the experimental shorts Shadow Panic(1989) and We Aim To Please (1976)and the feature documentaries For Love Or Money(1983) and The Silences(2015). She has worked as a consultant and mentor for Australian Indigenous filmmakers and worked in the Pacific running documentary workshops for Pacific Island women producers. Her 2015 personal essay documentary The Silences premiered at NZIFF and went on to screen nationally and internationally. In 2016 she won an Australian Writers’ Guild AWGIE Award for the screenplay.
Eva Justine Torkkola is an ADG nominated director and AWGIE nominated writer. A 2019 graduate from the Masters of Film and Television (Directing – Narrative) course at the Victorian College of the Arts, she is also an acting teacher for the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA Open) and sessional marker of Film at The University of Melbourne.
In 2019 Eva was selected as one of 20 emerging filmmakers from around the world to attend the International Filmmaking Academy in Bologna, Italy with masterclass teacher Jane Campion. Eva was also chosen for the Looking China filmmaking program and invited to Xi’An to make a documentary.
In 2020 Eva was a Leading Lights recipient at the Australian International Documentary Conference. She was also nominated for an Australian Directors’ Guild award for Best Direction in a Student Film and an Australian Writers’ Guild award for Best Short Film, both for her VCA graduate drama short SOMETHING HAS DIED IN THE FOREST.
Audrey Lam studied screen production and photography at Queensland College of Art. Her films have screened around the world, including at Melbourne International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Centre Pompidou and Austrian Film Museum. In 2015, she undertook an Asialink arts residency at Green Papaya Art Projects in Manila. Audrey has participated in art and film labs including Fondazione Antonio Ratti Advanced Course, Locarno Filmmakers Academy and Adelaide Film Festival Hive Lab. She is a member of Artist Film Workshop in Melbourne and a Meat Market Studio Program resident at Melbourne City Council.
Jessica Barclay Lawton is a Naarm (Melbourne) based Writer + Director. Her directorial style is raw and intimate, motivated by a desire to capture nuanced and genuine moments of characters and subjects as they unpack the complex relationship between self and society. As a recipient of the 2019 Creative Victoria Creators Fund, Jessica is currently in development on her debut hybrid feature film.
Irene Proebsting studied Fine Art at RMIT before obtaining a Diploma in Visual Arts (Painting) from the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education in the late ’70s. In the ’90s Irene was a member of the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group and regularly participated in monthly open screenings and festivals. She was also active within the group assisting with production of monthly newsletters and designing posters and catalogues for several MS8FG film festivals. Irene participated in Ultraprojections, a collective initiated by Arthur & Corinne Cantrill which organised and promoted independent film screenings at La Mama and Dancehouse in Carlton, and she also exhibited multimedia work with Modern Image Makers’ Association and New Media Network.
Holding a strong belief in creative play, Felise Lyon relishes in the freedom of experimental film. As an explorative artist they believe filmmaking is a limitless art form incorporating the written word, silence and stillness to create work which encourages reflection. They spend their energy creating films as they appreciate the healing qualities of sharing experience through story. Their films Cul-de-sac (2020) and Back Home, Baby (2021) were official selections for LA based film festival Octopus Marquee.
Curated by Tessa Spooner with support from Chris Luscri
Poetry by Yogashree Thirunavukarasu.
Image by Jessica Barclay Lawton