Our World
Saturday 23rd March, 4pm
100 mins, Cinema 2, ACMI
This session is Unclassified 15+.
The Melbourne Women in Film Festival is proud to showcase the work of women and gender diverse filmmakers and storytellers. This means that we sometimes include films or panel topics that may explore difficult subjects and be confronting for some audiences. Our aim is to ensure our audience has a safe and enjoyable experience when coming along to our festival and so we have included content warnings, classification and cultural information throughout the program.
Please take the time to read the film synopses below to determine whether the session is suitable for you.
Join us for this special themed short film session examining contemporary women and gender diverse perspectives of the world around us. A thought provoking mix of fiction and documentary stories exploring our natural and social environments, locally and globally, and not to be missed.
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Russian Spy
A Russian-Australian Cinematographer travels to Albany to find out about the time that a 19th Century town at the end of the world was put on high alert of a Russian Invasion.
Australia, 2023, 5 minutes
English
Director: Jennifer (JP) Piper
Writers: Jennifer (JP) Piper, Dasha Melnik
Producer: Jennifer (JP) Piper -
The Politics of Toheroa Soup
The Politics of Toheroa Soup is Tiana Trego Hall’s personal story of her whānau and their traditional kai, the protected giant surf clam, toheroa. Once a plentiful food source for iwi across Aotearoa, toheroa were gathered to near collapse after word of their deliciousness spread around the world.
Aotearoa NZ, 2022, 8 minutes
English
Director: Tiana Trego Hall
Producers: Libby Hakaraia, Madeleine Hakaraia de Young, Matilda Poasa -
Tō Te Wai
Renaye's life is unsettled when her plan to create a nature reserve is halted due to lack of consultation and her disregard for local iwi, and when she needs to return to her old home and her marae, she is uncertain she can face the shame and hurt that follows her.
Aotearoa NZ, 2023, 12 minutes
English
Director: Georgia-May Russ
Writer: Georgia-May Russ
Producer: Jewels King
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The Ripple Effect
The 'floating village' where Dany grew up drives her to become a teacher and inspire a ripple effect. After fire ravaged her home still reeling from a genocide that wiped out both the educated and the educators, Dany is determined to teach, and to restore education to Cambodia.
Australia/Cambodia, 2022, 5 minutes
English
Director: Ana Culanic
Writer: Dany Thai
Producers: Franx Ann, Kaylene Tyler -
To Be Silent
Noongar and Spinifex Aboriginal woman Tace Stevens explores the impact of code-switching on her identity, before revealing what led her to embrace the power of standing firm in who she is, no matter where she is.
Australia, 2023, 10 minutes
English
Director: Tace Stevens
Writer: Tace Stevens
Producer: Skye Leon -
Undercurrents: meditations on power
A cautionary poem or ‘song’ for the dark times. Made from reimagined/recycled images and sounds from the filmmaker’s archive and other found materials, Undercurrents is a poetic essay documentary about the undercurrents of history playing out in the present. It is a meditation on the global rise of the far-right, war and the nuclear threat. It explores links between patriarchal power, the environmental crisis, racism and colonisation and pays tribute to the life affirming power of resistance.
Australia, 2023, 19 minutes
English
Director: Margot Nash
Writer: Margot Nash
Producer: Margot Nash
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He Pounamu Ko Āu
He Pounamu Ko Āu (I am Pounamu) is a kaupapa Māori experimental short film that explores wahine Māori identity. The film unfolds through moving image, pounamu pūrākau (storytelling), mōteatea (sung Māori poetry), and ambient sound. Created for healing and artistically expressing a story of overcoming the adversity of colonisation and the reconnection to Indigenous woman's identity. Drawing on maternal whakapapa (genealogy) to celebrate intergenerational wāhine talent.
Aotearoa NZ, 2022, 5 minutes
English, Māori
Director: Tia Barrett
Writer: Tia Barrett
Producer: Tia Barrett -
Burning of the Gods
With his island at risk from industrial tourism and environmental degradation, a boy travels back in time to reconnect with his ancestors.
Aotearoa NZ/Cook Islands, 2022, 7 minutes
English
Director: Karin Williams
Producer: Sharlene George -
Sometimes, It's Grey in Manila
A woman who has moved from Manila to Melbourne after the global pandemic reads a journal entry as she muses on her experiences in a foreign country, grappling with the guilt of leaving her home country for personal ambitions.
Australia, 2023, 7 minutes
English
Director: Danielle Francisco
Writer: Danielle Francisco
Producer: Danielle Francisco
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Get to the Wire
In a dystopian future, an Australian-Iraqi woman held captive in a chaotic and brutal British immigration detention centre takes up severe measures to survive and reconnect with her estranged family.
Australia, 2022, 15 minutes
Arabic, English
Director: Paul Burns
Writers: Paul Burns, Maggie Brittingham
Producers: Maggie Brittingham, Paul Burns -
Babanil
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons.
Filmmaker Marlikka Perdrisat forms a dreamlike expression of her intergenerational connection to Country; a connection available to everyone who loves and cares for a place. This film is about knowing Country, creating memories with Country, and maintaining Country for the next generation.
Australia, 2021, 11 minutes
English, Nyikina
Director: Marlikka Perdrisat
Producer: Marlikka Perdrisat