Special Retrospective Screening: Two Laws Wednesday, February 6, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Admission: $11 general public; $7 members & students; $7 seniors weekday matinee screenings only. Please note: there is a $1.25 service charge per ticket ordered online and cash only transactions at the box office.
Filmmaker Carolyn Strachan onstage to discuss her groundbreaking look at aboriginal culture with New York University scholars Faye Ginsburg, David B. Krise Professor of Anthropology, and Jonathan Kahana, Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies.
Long unavailable, Two Laws is a powerful intervention in contemporary discussions on issues of representation. It depicts different stages in the history of the Borroloola Aboriginal community, especially with relation to the Australian government. The scenes and the subject matter––including encounters with Australia’s police, courts and welfare system––were selected by the Borroloola themselves. Members of that community discussed the staging of each shot, often objecting to camera positions that felt wrong or unnatural, and worked closely on the editing. Strachan and Cavadini were initiated into the kinship structure of the community, and were thus expected to comply with certain practices dictating the roles and physical placement of men and women in given scenes. The result is a fascinating work that draws the audience into a particular point of view on these incidents and also makes the audience aware of the precise way these stories are being told.
Two Laws
The Borroloola Aboriginal Community with Carolyn Strachan and Alessandro Cavadini, Australia, 1982; 130m
