AIDC Day 3

After our late night of inspiration how did the final day play out? Read on...

Day 3: Friday

Peter Greenaway was the keynote speaker of the conference and his session was well worth the wait. He spoke very provocatively about Documentary itself as a form and challenged everyone’s notion of the context of cinema in contemporary life. He sees the idea of “the frame” as a limited way of shooting and exhibiting films and has begun to test new ways of viewing films and on new subjects. He has been working with artists in Italy who have been projecting work on massive surfaces, from museum walls and ceilings to 10m high boards. The most interesting clip he showed featured Rembrandt’s The Nightwatchman and was originally played during a Rembrandt exhibition in Amsterdam. Digital composting was used to bring the painting to life, adding a whole new aspect of light, sound and vision to the work.

I came away from Greenaway's talk feeling that I had experienced something new. It is hard to describe but it is as if something in the new age of cinema is a foot and Peter Greenaway is onto it.

I went to a session run by Bruno Felix, from submarine channel, about the way documentary and the virtual world is evolving together. Later, Phil and I both sat in on the session, Basement Tapes by Brett Gaylor. He is a young director from Canada, making a groundbreaking documentary on Piracy and copyright in the digital world. He helped establish this idea of open source cinema, which encourages re-mixing and re-mashing of one filmmakers work by another. Another session, another glimpse at what the future of filmmaking may look like.

The day ended with some padded out sessions including listening to the people behind ABC and SBS explain what they are programming and looking for over the coming year and according to Matt Campbell Australia's Top Gear did not cost $11m. I was able to meet Jennifer Collins from ABC and chat about our project, she was interested in it and recommended we apply for the JTV DOCS funding round.

The day ended on a high note going for drinks at the Beach Bar, meeting and greeting other producers, directors and people from state agencies. With plenty of Little Creatures on offer and a cool setting it was a great way to end a very full three days.

It was then time to say good bye to the Ole B&B and fly back to the East side to our homes in Canberra. With new deadlines to meet and plenty of business cards to sort through it’s back in front of the computer and into it all over again.