Memory Film: A Filmmaker's Diary

Memory Film: A Filmmaker's Diary

An immersive, poetic diary film about transformation and ‘the personal is political’.

2023 · 80 min · Documentary

‘memory film: a filmmaker’s diary’ is an immersive poetic documentary based on Jeni Thornley’s Super8 archive (1974-2003) filmed during the decades of her political and personal filmmaking, while producing ‘Maidens’, ‘To the Other Shore’, ‘Island Home Country’ and the collaborative feature ‘For Love or Money’. Documenting the activism of three decades amidst the intense sexual politics of radical feminism and social change, ‘memory film’ tells the inner story of a journey of liberation – gender fluidity, utopian feminism, love and its tribulations, the pleasure and pain of motherhood, violence against women, the desire for a world free of war and colonizing, and ultimately mortality and impermanence.

Directed by Jeni Thornley

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Jeni Thornley Self

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Breathing Under Water

Breathing Under Water · 1993

Breathing Under Water

BREATHING UNDER WATER is the story of a woman's journey into an imaginary underworld city. The birth of her daughter into an increasingly perilous world has unsettled everything in Beatrice's (Anne Louise Lambert) life. Her growing unease prompts Beatrice to undertake a journey - an investigation into human nature, a confrontation with the fears of our time, and a search for clues that will ultimately give her an answer to the central riddle of the film: why has humankind set the stage for its own extinction? The director’s preoccupation with humankind’s tendency to self-destruct was one factor that lead to the creation of this complex film.

Island Home Country

Island Home Country · 2008

Island Home Country

MovieDocumentaryHistory

A poetic cine-essay about race and Australia’s colonised history and how it impacts into the present offering insights into how various individuals deal with the traumatic legacies of British colonialism and its race-based policies. The film’s consultative process, with ‘Respecting Cultures’ (Tasmanian Aboriginal Protocols), offers an evolving shift in Australian historical narratives from the frontier wars, to one of diverse peoples working through historical trauma in a process of decolonisation.

Maidens

Maidens · 1978

MovieHistoryDocumentary

Maidens(1978) is an autobiographical essay film, using personal archives, still and moving image, from both domestic and other sources, lyrical narration and emotive music to trace the filmmaking journey of one feminist (the filmmaker herself). Almost four years in the making, Maidens picked up local and international short film awards and became compulsory viewing in women and film courses around the country -- where it sparked much impassioned debate. It remains essential viewing for an enhanced understanding of the moment of awakened consciousness that characterised 1970s feminism.

For Love or Money

For Love or Money · 1983

For Love or Money

MovieDocumentary

Using almost totally historical material, For Love or Money encompasses the role of Australian women in both paid and unpaid work, over a 200 year period.

To The Other Shore

To The Other Shore · 1996

To The Other Shore

A deeply personal study of motherhood as a ‘rite of passage’. It interweaves moments from the filmmaker’s childhood, family life and psychotherapy with world events, including the Holocaust, the Vietnam War and the Chernobyl nuclear accident, to evoke the complex inner world of maternal experience. Grethel’s tale from the fairy story Hansel and Grethel juxtaposes the personal story with a mythical exploration of freedom and individual responsibility.

A Film for Discussion

A Film for Discussion · 1973

A Film for Discussion

MovieDocumentaryDrama

A docu-drama shot in 1970, but not completed until 1973, the film sought to encapsulate in an experimental form issues that were under discussion within the Women’s Liberation Movement at this time and to thus contribute to action for change. In its numerous community screenings, active debate was encouraged as part of the viewing experience.

Thanks Girls and Goodbye

Thanks Girls and Goodbye · 1988

Thanks Girls and Goodbye

MovieDocumentaryWar

Documentary using archival footage, newsreels and contemporary interviews with women of the WW2 Australian Women's Land Army.

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