A groundbreaking Virtual Reality Film by Lynette Wallworth
Following a simultaneous world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival New Frontiers programme and the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Adelaide Film Festival and the Art Gallery of South Australia together present the Australian Premiere of artist Lynette Wallworth’s bold new VR screen project COLLISIONS, a stunning, deeply poetic and immersive live‐action/animated experience, from October 5 to October 30, 2016.
Supported by the visionary Adelaide Film Festival Fund, COLLISIONS is a highly personal journey to the homeland of first contact indigenous elder Nyarri Nyarri Morgan and the Martu people in the remote Western Australian Pilbara desert.
Nyarri’s first contact with western culture came in the 1950’s via a dramatic collision between his traditional world view and the cutting edge of Western science and technology when he witnessed firsthand and with no context, an atomic test.
Now the most cutting edge, innovative technology allows the viewer to join Nyarri Nyarri Morgan in an unprecedented way, by the fire, where he intimately shares the story that he has been waiting to tell.
Artist Lynette Wallworth said: “Since it’s premiere at Davos in January this year we have been waiting for the moment we could show COLLISIONS in Australia. It is a powerful parable for the country. Support from Adelaide Film Festival helped us make the work possible so I am tremendously happy we can start our national tour here.”
Adelaide Film Festival CEO and Artistic Director Amanda Duthie said “This is a rare and very special project which illustrates the importance of connection with country from an extraordinary Indigenous leader. This is a genuine collaboration between Nyarri Nyarri Morgan and Lynette Wallworth and its world tour is a demonstration of its impact on audiences everywhere. ADL Film Fest is thrilled we have the chance to work again with Lynette Wallworth as she is a leading Australian artist, filmmaker and innovator”.
Presenting partner Art Gallery South Australia Director Nick Mitzevich said “Three years ago we presented Still Walking Country a moving image and painting collaboration between Wallworth, Martu artists and Antony Hegarty as part of the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart. This work had a powerful effect on our audiences. Providing our audiences with the rare chance to travel to Country, albeit via technology, will be transformative.”
COLLISONS is Wallworth’s third work with the Martu people of the Western Desert. It is narrated by Wallworth and Nyarri Nyarri Morgan’s grandson Curtis Taylor. We are reminded that everything we are about to see is what Nyarri Nyarri Morgan wants to show us. “He has,” Wallworth informs us, “a story he wants to share.”
Wallworth will be joined at the Australian premiere by Nyarri Nyarri Morgan, Nola Taylor, Curtis Taylor and Producer Nicole Newnham.
Lynette Wallworth was selected as the inaugural artist of the Sundance Institute New Frontier | Jaunt VR Residency Program and COLLISONS, funded with the support of the Adelaide Film Festival Fund, is the first project to be created as part of the program.
COLLISIONS world premiered in simultaneous presentation at the at both the World Economic Forum in Davos and the 2016 Sundance Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre, with the audiences in Switzerland and Sundance all starting and finishing their COLLISIONS experience together. Lynette Wallworth was joined by Nyarri Nyarri Morgan, travelling out of Australia for the first time, with his wife and grandson.
Since then, COLLISIONS has been selected to screen at some of the world’s most prestigious screen events, congresses and venues including the Tribeca Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Climate Action Summit in Washington, D.C., the World Science Festival at the American Museum of Natural History, Encounters Documentary Film Festival (South Africa), the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization Meetings in Vienna, “Summer Davos” – Meeting of the New Champions, Tianjin, China, the Mongolian Cultural Festival, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and the Timbie Forum (on disarmament) at the US State Department, among many others.
Following the Australian Premiere in Adelaide COLLISIONS will screen in festivals and events around Australia with the next stop being ACMI for the Melbourne Arts Festival.
COLLISIONS is produced by Infinite Field with support from the World Economic Forum, the Sundance Institute, the MacArthur Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Fledgling Fund, the Pritzker Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Adelaide Film Festival Fund, in partnership with Jaunt VR.
Directed by Lynette Wallworth
Featuring Nyarri Nyarri Morgan
Narration by Lynette Wallworth, Curtis Taylor
Produced by Nicole Newnham
About COLLISIONS: http://www.collisionsvr.com
Art Gallery of South Australia Season: Wednesday 5 October to Sunday 30 October, 2016
Media Preview & Official Opening: Tuesday 4 October, 2016
MEDIA CONTACT:
Cathy Gallagher [email protected] 0416 22 72 82
Download the COLLISIONS press release
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