Southern Climes: Films from AFW Melbourne

Initiated by filmmakers Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie in 2009, Artist Film Workshop (AFW) is a film collective and not-for-profit organization which provides access to knowledge and resources for filmmakers and artists in Melbourne, Australia. AFW holds regular screenings and workshops for people interested in film or working with sound and vision.

Visiting as part of an epic west coast tour, AFW member Paddy Hay will present a selection of recent and brand-new 16mm film works produced by members of AFW. The program reflects the diversity of interests, methodologies and technologies investigated by AFW members, showcasing a wide variety of filmmaking styles across forms of abstraction, archival/ found footage, audio-vision and lo-fi documentary. Techniques including contact and optical printing, DIY cameras and traditional lens-based photography are among the methods and approaches explored. ALL FILMS TO BE PRESENTED ON 16MM.

SHAPESHIFTERS CINEMA FILMMAKING WORKSHOP: This screening will be preceded by an all-day filmmaking workshop--Reversing Reversal: A Filmmaking Workshop--also presented by Paddy Hay. Workshop details here.

SCREENING: Valpi (2019) by Richard Tuohy; 16mm, color, sound, 9 minutes; Is Anybody Coming Over to Dinner (2022) by Audrey Lam; Self Portrait With Bag (2020) by Dianna Barrie; Southern Climes (2018) by Hanna Chetwin; 4000 Frames from Hobart to Queenstown (2020) by Ilona Schneider; Window (2020) by Rowena Crowe; Fade (2017) by Callum Ross-Thomson; Landing (2019) by Sabina Maselli; Sensor Lights in Flemington (2022) by Lucas Haynes; The Gardens (2022) by Paddy Hay & Giles Fielke.
TRT: 74 minutes

Valpi (2019) by Richard Tuohy
The Chilean city of Valparaíso is nestled among hills, overseeing the Pacific Ocean, in the vicinity of active volcanoes and perilously close to the boundary between two tectonic plates. Evoking this fault line, Valpi (Tectonics) is horizontally segmented, creating an immersive yet abstracted chronicle of both the multifaceted layers of human life in this place and the politico-cultural fractures hidden beneath the surface. (Richard Tuohy)

Is Anybody Coming Over to Dinner (2022) by Audrey Lam
The adventures of Yokitom around the home and across the seasons, with a supporting cast of family and friends. (Audrey Lam)

Self Portrait With Bag (2020) by Dianna Barrie
A camera-less portrait of the artist. Super-8 cartridges placed inside a black cotton bag, the film advanced via a hand crank. The tiny gaps in the fabric weave make for dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of tiny pinholes. (Dianna Barrie)

Window (2020) by Rowena Crowe
...made in response to the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Window is a record of light passing around my house, hand-processed in Cafenol (at home of course) in a "domestic" film developer made of coffee, washing powder and vitamin C. The physical labour of analogue film processes reminds one constantly of film as a corporeal image. I live alone and touch became a pronounced theme for me during this time. The hand candle, gently flickering, came to express my hope of future human touch with time opening and closing around me. (Rowena Crowe)

Fade (2017) by Callum Ross-Thomson
Found footage taken from a long forgotten, badly scratched and faded 16mm educational film print on volcanoes, superimposed atop recently shot 16mm macro footage of a human skull. The skull is a similarly neglected teaching aid, once used for anatomy classes many decades ago before the use of real human remains in schools became less common in favour of more durable, socially sustainable plastic models. (Callum Ross-Thomson)

4000 Frames from Hobart to Queenstown (2020) by Ilona Schneider
The idea was to make a film from Hobart (capital of Tasmania) to Queenstown (a remote mining town on the west coast of Tasmania) with one roll of 16mm film, contracting the distance (260 km) and driving time (4 hrs) to 100 feet of film and 3 minutes. I made the film by exposing frame by frame in sync with the pace of the road, triggering the shutter faster or slower, or making long time exposures, depending on the rhythm of the road. (Ilona Schneider)

Sensor Lights in Flemington (2022) by Lucas Haynes
Lights turn on and off in a building in the distance. (Lucas Haynes)

Southern Climes (2018) by Hanna Chetwin
Southern Climes documents and reimagines sedimentary rock forms and other geographical features found in the Tasmanian and Patagonian landscape. Featuring a soundtrack composed by Alexander Garsden and played by Outlier (Lizzy Welsh and Chloe Smith). (Hanna Chetwin)

Landing (2019) by Sabina Maselli
Landing is a ritual in film that performs the return of the celestial body to the terrestrial body, through the act of spinning, mirroring and altering time. Hand processed colour reversal film, accompanied by a soundtrack composed of a single fragment of a woman's voice circling around the image at different speeds. Part of a series of works that are concerned with the nature of time, memory and magic. Through the act of repetition, an animist transformation can occur. A merging of the female and celestial body. (Sabina Maselli)

The Gardens (2022) by Giles Fielke & Paddy Hay; 16mm, color, sound, 7 minutes
The Collingwood Community Garden allotments have been tended by residents living in the area for over four decades on a 3/4 acre block of Crown Land Reserve along the Birrarung (Yarra) River in Naarm/Melbourne. In May 2021 the gardens were abruptly closed, citing safety concerns. In February 2022 the gardens were cleared for redevelopment, against the wishes of community gardeners. The images of the gardens were made during the lockout when no one had been in the gardens for six months. (Paddy Hay & Giles Fielke)