Page 34 - Annual Review 2008

34 / REwARdS
AuSTRAliAN
CINÉMATHèQUE
The Australian Cinémathèque collects,
presents and interprets film and screen culture.
>600 screenings
in 2008
The Australian Cinémathèque is the only facility
of its kind in an Australian art museum. In 2008,
it presented more than 600 screenings.
Among 2008’s most significant film programs
was Out of the Shadows: German Expressionism
and Beyond (4 September – 30 November
2008). This major retrospective showcased film
in an expressionist vein from Germany’s Weimar
period onwards, and included 86 features and 8
shorts. More than 40 silent films were presented
with live piano, organ and electronic musical
accompaniment, and 28 films with live subtitling.
Another major thematic film program, Visual
Music (28 March – 1 June 2008) featured an
extraordinary range of visual music pioneers
— selections of rarely screened classics and
contemporary works by Oskar Fischinger,
Hans Richter, Len Lye, Norman McLaren,
Stan Brakhage, James and John Whitney,
Jordan Belson and Mary Ellen Bute. It also
included the largest program of the innovative
early Walt Disney animations, the Silly Symphonies.
Other music-related programming included
Icelandic Waves (9–30 May 2008), a series of
documentaries and video programs celebrating
the extraordinary music culture of Iceland.
Highlights included Heima 2007, the first live film
by Sigur Rós, and three curated programs of video
clips and short films.