Current Issue #488

Film Festival Moving Image Partnership Evolves

Film Festival Moving Image Partnership Evolves

The Adelaide Film Festival’s (AFF) moving image commission will have a national focus from next year, as two interstate galleries have partnered with the biennial festival and the Samstag Museum.

The Adelaide Film Festival’s (AFF) moving image commission will have a national focus from next year, as two interstate galleries have partnered with the biennial festival and the Samstag Museum.

The commission, which traditionally has been a partnership between the AFF and Samstag, from next year will include Sydney’s Carriageworks and the University of Western Australia Cultural Precinct. The partnership means the commission will travel nationally in 2016 after premiering at Samstag on North Terrace in 2015. AFF CEO and Festival Director Amanda Duthie (pictured) says next year’s three-city national moving image tour is a fantastic new project for the AFF. “There aren’t that many arts commissions for original work for Australian artists, especially for them to create work that is screen-based and none of them, to my knowledge, guarantee a national tour,” Duthie explains to The Adelaide Review. “It’s coming from a fantastic and unique place anyway – that a film festival collaborates with an art gallery and a museum space – and this time we will times it by three and evolve it.” The 2015-commissioned artist will receive $50,000 to develop their work. “We’ve had a fantastic three-round partnership with Samstag, where the work gets commissioned and obviously premieres in Adelaide,” Duthie says. “That’s been fantastic, working with great artists like Lynette Wallworth, Warwick Thornton and Daniel Crooks, I love working with Erica [Green] and Samstag. Erica and myself have both admired and respected Lisa Havilah and her curatorial vision for Carriageworks in Sydney and the same for Ted Snell at the University of Western Australia. We think they are adventurous, audacious and great programmers and curators and we know they both support Australian art and new commissions. Now, we’ve got a fantastic new project for the Adelaide Film Festival that is also a three-city national tour for an Australian artist.” Applications for the 2015 commission are now open. Samstag Director Erica Green says the national tour not only puts Adelaide on the map but enables wider critical debate about the nexus between art and film. “Following the success of the art and moving image commissions at Samstag, Amanda Duthie, who had recently taken up the role as Festival Director, said, ‘Let’s take these commissions further and present to a wider audience in other venues’. By extending the partnership to include Carriageworks and Lawrence Wilson Gallery [at the University of WA], the commissions have increased national visibility, which is good for the artists’ profile and promoting the commissions, but most importantly extending the partnerships enables wider critical debate around that very dynamic nexus between art and film. “Carriageworks in Sydney and Lawrence Wilson Gallery in Perth means we are taking the commission from coast to coast across the country!  We are celebrating this initiative and putting Adelaide on the map!” Says Carriageworks’ Lisa Havilah: “Carriageworks is based in Sydney but works both nationally and internationally to commission and present the very best contemporary practice. Adelaide has always been a leader in the area of ambitious commissioning and our partnership will support both our strategic directions.” The 2015 AFF will be Duthie’s second at the helm of the biennial festival. Looking back on last year’s AFF, the former ABC Head of Arts and Entertainment says the results from the investment fund slate, which includes the HIVE program, were extraordinary, as films such as 52 Tuesdays, Charlie’s Country, The Darkside and Tracks received national and international acclaim, including Sundance and Berlin Film Festival awards for 52 Tuesdays. “One couldn’t have asked for more, in terms of the projects from the investment slate, it was fantastic.” Duthie hopes the AFF will become an annual event, as it “makes sense in terms of the natural cycles of festivals but also screen productions.” The commissioned artist will be announced later this year. For more information go to adelaidefilmfestival.org Images: Amanda Duthie Lynette Wallworth, Duality of Light (from the 2009 Moving Image collaboration)

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