How I See It – Film Program

Celebrating the films that exist in-between, that question the notions of place and national identity, and reflect on the historical representations of First Nations peoples and communities surviving colonialism.

These surreal, genre-bending films weave histories, perspectives and timelines to empower the storyteller. Coinciding with the How I See It: Blak Art and Film exhibition (showing at ACMI 16 Dec 2022 – 19 Feb 2023), this program subverts traditional Western storytelling, while acknowledging the limits in capturing the breadth of histories enacted upon First Nations and communities experiencing colonisation and forced migration.

How do you show the presence of your ancestors through film?

How do filmmakers explore themes of colonisation, forced migration and war without giving power to the coloniser and such acts of violence?

First Nations peoples and those who have resisted colonisation globally embody these histories as they shape our very identity.

This selection of films interrogates notions of national and cultural identity to imagine new futures, employing nonlinear time and archival content. It speaks to an ever-evolving practice; as we live in an age of globalisation and technologies, stories that have been told for thousands of years can often seem in opposition or at odds with such a world. Yet, as evidenced in these films, ancestral recollections are all around and are more impactful on national and cultural identity than is often credited. We have always been storytellers, have always been avant-garde and genre-bending, and these films highlight this.

– Jenna Rain Warwick (Luritja); Curator, ACMI