Fringe | Window on Collections: Vali Myers

Explore the life and work of beloved Melbourne artist, dancer and free spirit Vali Myers in this special Window on Collections event.

Cutting her own unique path, Vali Myers lived a bohemian life that was true to herself. With her bright red hair, dramatic eyeliner and facial tattoos, Vali turned heads wherever she went. She was known not only for her exquisite art but for an approach to life that continues to captivate our imaginations.

Join us for a screening of The painted lady (2002) documentary, in which director Ruth Cullen captures Vali Myers at her iconic studio in the Nicholas Building in the heart of Melbourne, a lively environment where she painted, drew, drank and danced with those who her rare soul enchanted. In Vali’s own words, ‘When you’ve lived like I have, you’ve done it all.’

The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Library staff member Fiona Jeffery with guests Ruth Cullen and art historian Tracy Spinks. A viewing of Vali’s artworks, diaries and artefacts in the State Collection will also be available, as well as live folk and Romany music performed by Vardos, who feature in the film. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn more about an incredible figure in Melbourne’s art history.

Please note: this event will be livestreamed and recorded, including the film screening. The 26-minute film will be available to watch online for one week after the event, after which it will be removed. The panel discussion will remain online to watch at any time.

If you would like to know more about the film The Tightrope Dancer, or purchase the film, please head to Ruth Cullen's website: www.ruthcullen.com/product-page/the-tightrope-dancer-the-painted-lady

This film is unrated and includes sexual references. Viewer discretion is advised.

Jimi Hendrix Experience | Live in Maui | Full Concert 1970

 

The Jimi Hendrix Experience on July 30, 1970 live in Maui. Some footage and audio has never been heard in 50 years. Just click on the image and it will take you there.......

Begotten (Full Film 1990)

Begotten is a 1989 American film written, produced, edited, shot, and directed by Edmund Elias Merhige. It stars Brian Salsberg, Donna Dempsy, Stephen Charles Barry, and members of Merhige's theatre company, Theatreofmaterial. The film contains no dialogue and employs a style similar in some ways to early silent films. Its enigmatic plot, drawn from elements of various creation myths, opens with the suicide of a godlike figure and the births of Mother Earth and the Son of Earth, who set out on a journey of death and rebirth through a barren landscape. According to art historian Scott MacDonald, the film's allegorical qualities and purposeful ambiguity invite multiple interpretations.

Begotten was first conceived as an experimental theatre piece with dance and live musical accompaniment, but Merhige switched to film after deciding that his vision would be too expensive to achieve as a production for live audiences. Antonin Artaud and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche were major influences on Begotten, as Merhige believed their ideas and theories had not been explored in film to their full extent. The film's visual style was inspired by Georges Franju's documentary short Blood of the Beasts, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Stan Brakhage's The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes, and the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Begotten was shot on location in New York and New Jersey over a period generally thought to have been three and a half years – although, in an interview, Merhige said filming took only five and a half months.

Once the film was finished, Merhige spent the next two years trying to find a distributor willing to market it. Following its debut at the Montreal World Film Festival, it was screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it was seen by film critics Tom Luddy and Peter Scarlet. They brought it to the attention of fellow critic Susan Sontag, whose enthusiastic praise and private screenings of the film in her own home were instrumental to its eventual release. Though largely ignored by main-stream critics, it attained cult film status and influenced several avant-garde film-makers, visual artists and musicians. The film's scarcity on home video prompted its fans to spread their own bootleg copies, a phenomenon described as a "copy-cult" by film studies scholar Ernest Mathijs. As the first part of a planned series, Begotten was followed in 2006 by Din of Celestial Birds, a short sequel with the theory of evolution as its dominant theme.

Trouble (1993)

Berlin, 1992 - squats, music and the global mind.

Trouble (1993)

The story centers on a young Canadian woman who lives in a politically active flat-sharing community in Kreuzberg Berlin and works in a squat bar whilst also singing in a rock band. Due to the new capital situation, occupied buildings suddenly become sought-after investments. The living and working situation of the musicians and other scene-people deteriorates massively. The band wants to draw attention to their situation with a street concert, so the apartment community hijacks the entire broadcasting van of a television station. The film was broadcast on TV on 23 March 1993 and was released on DVD a few years later. The film culminates in an act of broadcast signal intrusion. An authentic neighborhood portrait of Berlin at the time with an excellent soundtrack. The 'Rockhaus' squat of the film is actually the Køpi squat at 137 Köpenicker Straße in Mitte, that was first occupied in 1990 and continues today. 

Køpi was squatted on 23 February 1990 by Autonomen from West Berlin . Despite the terrible state of the building, the squatters were attracted by the large rooms. The police did not attempt to evict the occupation, which marked the first time people from West Berlin had squatted in East Berlin. The squatters legalized their occupation with the district council of Mitte in 1991.

From the very beginning, Køpi was a radical left space where anarchists , socialists , queers and musicians were welcome. The building itself is covered in banners and graffiti. It became known as Køpi because the squatters chose to use the Danish ø despite the name coming from the name of the street (Köpenicker Straße). Køpi is also spelled Koepi, Köpi and even occasionally Kopi in English or Spanish texts. Køpi has become an important symbol for the radical left in Berlin, linked to projects elsewhere such as the Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen and Rozbrat in Poznań.

"Whoever buys Køpi, buys trouble".

Director - Penelope Buitenhuis

Writers - Penelope BuitenhuisMaureen KelleherIlja Schellenschmidt

Stars - Yvonne Ducksworth, Jan Erik Engel, Gode Benedix

German with English subtitles.