The Melbourne Women in Film Festival returns for another year of screenings, panels and workshops featuring some fantastic films, filmmakers and film critics. The festival will be hosted at the Australian Centre of the Moving Image (ACMI) from March 21st – 25th.
The festival kicks off in style with a screening of Winhanganha from acclaimed Wiradjuri poet and artist Jazz Money.
WINHANGANHA, a Wiradjuri word that can be translated to ‘remember, know, think’, is inspired by Jazz Money’s desire to interrogate the complex and intersecting ways in which archives represent and affect the lives of First Nations peoples. The film has emerged from the NFSA’s Re/Vision project, which invited a female Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander creative to create a new work from the national digital audiovisual collection.
From early audio recordings to contemporary television, including feature films, sports programs, and music clips, Jazz Money has built a narrative from the voices in the audiovisual content held and preserved by the NFSA. Featuring a new and original score by Filipino-Aboriginal Drapper and composer Rhyan Clapham a.k.a. DOBBY.
The full program for MWIFF is available now, featuring a lineup of film screenings, panels, workshops and a school program. This year’s festival will focus on filmmakers and how they respond to their environments through storytelling.
Friday night will feature a screening of The Royal Hotel with a special introduction from film critic Nadine Whitney. Nadine is an incredible critic with a knack for the perfect words and has mentored and encouraged a lot of local critics (including some who write for Novastream!) In addition Nadine is a MWFF 2024 Critics Lab mentor, reflecting on the film’s intersecting themes of gender dynamics and Australian culture. Nadine will be joined by from In Review Online, Senses of Cinema and Metro.
Closing out the festival is Memory Film complete with a QANDA with filmmaker and writer Jeni Thornley. The film was nominated for the 2024 Best Sound in a Documentary AACTA Award (Tristan Meredith) and the 2023 Australian Innovation Award (Black Magic) at MIFF, Memory film is a contemplative journey of personal and political change.
The Melbourne Women in Film Festival is happening in Melbourne this weekend, you can buy individual tickets and a Festival Pass via the website here
