90s feminism that saw the rise of cyberfeminists, zine counter culture and high-octane post-punk gestures on screen will be revisited in a new exhibition FemFlix at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA), the University of Sydney, from 10 August to 3 September 2016. Femflix features the work of Australian filmmakers who led a new wave of feminism amid the transformation of screen cultures by the arrival of the internet and global use of personal computers.
Curated by SCA’s Dr Jacqueline Millner alongside filmmakers Jane Schneider and Deborah Szapiro, FemFlix features live action shorts, digital interactive works, animation and video from the 1990s that capture the dynamic voices and ideas of more than 40 filmmakers and artists.
“Nineties feminism was sophisticated and influential through its affinities with queer culture, activism and experimentation with new digital technologies. Femflix plugs us into the infectious, subversive energy of 90s feminism as expressed through its manifold screen cultures from short film to animation, computer games to digital works, and reminds us of powerful feminist visions that remain all too relevant today,” Dr Millner commented.
Independent filmmaker and co-curator of FemFlix Jane Schneider said that the 90s was also a time of rapid change in technology, which now means that many of the filmmakers do not have playable copies of their films, resulting in a loss of the art, history and women’s voices of this time. “It was a time when queer aesthetics exploded onto the screen, an exciting new generation of Indigenous filmmakers hit the mainstream, and women were making edgy, experimental work as well as feature films that competed successfully at the Cannes International Film Festival”. Shneider added.
FemFlix will be officially opened on 10 August in SCA Galleries by Samantha Lang, President of the Australian Directors Guild, who is part of Screen Australia’s new taskforce on gender equity and who made her first films in the 90s.
“One of the things I have realised is that while my film The Well was made almost 20 years ago, and it went to Cannes where I was the only woman director in competition that year and therefore it was significant, it is almost impossible to find copies of The Well today. That got me thinking that as women film makers, we must make sure our work is archived. We need to ensure our work is visible, so that it is part of our social and cultural history,” Samantha Lang commented.