About a week and a half ago, I made a brief visit to the ACMI centre in Melbourne’s Federation Square. I skipped the featured exhibition, Game On, as it had already showed in London, and explored some of it’s permanent show instead – some 200-odd short films, presented in a variety of public and private settings – from intimate pods to screens set up in the reception area of the building. I’d love to say I stayed for all the pieces, but, well, I am of the MTV generation. Regrettably.
Two films did however strike me. The first was Never Done: Women, Work and History, which chartered the emancipation of women in the workplace since the First World War. The film suggested women were introduced into subordinate positions, taking on the roles men could no longer be bothered to do. It appealed to the feminist (not feminazi) in me. I also saw Projected Memories – Work in Old Film piqued my retroscopic-nostalgic interests, and pretty much explored what the title suggests – the history of cinema.
