Rehearsing catastrophe: the Ark in Avoca (video version)

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This single screen video engages with contemporary concerns of the documentary film genre, combining the traditional poetic (Dziga Vertov) with live unrehearsed coverage of an event (sporting events) using ambient light (car headlights, torches etc) and pre-performance portraits of participants staged for the video work and intercut through editing.

This was the first work in a developing relationship between Federation Square and The Avoca Project in presenting works made in Avoca then shown to a different (Melbourne) audience. It thus extends the reach of the project from regional to urban, providing a greater sense of community between both in addressing important concerns. Several hundred people watched in the square as it was shown twice.
It was supported with a grant from the Australia Council (Community Cultural Development).

Following the Relational Aesthetics that govern The Avoca Project generally, this research methodology is here extended to the documentary form of video production to create new knowledge in communication adaptation in this field. An event is here `recorded¿ but participants are also formally recorded beforehand. These 2 forms are edited together to create a work for a different context in order to extend the project /the discussion through a different medium.