Theory tutor Rachel O’Reilly's film INFRACTIONS, 2019 is showing online at Arts Catalyst as part of Extractable Matters till Sunday May 31. Refuting capitalist and colonial models of land and water on the driest continent on earth, INFRACTIONS seeks to establish productive connections between disconnected archives of land, memory, activism and research.
INFRACTIONS is a feature documentary in dialogue with frontline Indigenous cultural workers' struggles against threats to more than 50% of Australia's Northern Territory from shale gas fracking, including ancient songlines and groundwater.
The ‘territory’ here is less of a border than a story of two incommensurable legal systems that have their own cinematic, legal, and political archives, while the regime that dominates is inherently extinction-oriented.
Refuting capitalist and colonial models of land and water on the driest continent on earth, INFRACTIONS seeks to establish productive connections between disconnected archives of land, memory, activism and research.
The film features contributions from Dimakarri ‘Ray’ Dixon (Mudburra); Jack Green (Garawa, Gudanji); Gadrian Hoosan (Garrwa, Yanyuwa); Juliri Ingra (Gooreng Gooreng); Jackie Johnson (Gooreng Gooreng); Que Kenny (Western Arrarnta); Robert O’Keefe (Wambaya); Neola Savage (Gooreng Gooreng); the Sandridge Band, and Professor Irene Watson (Tanganekald, Meintangk Bunganditj). The film was commissioned by KW, Berlin, and supported by the Australia Council and ICA London.
Details: INFRACTIONS, 2019, HD video, colour, sound, 62 min.
Director/Research/Camera/Sound: Rachel O'Reilly. Editor/Visual Research: Sebastian Bodirsky. Camera: Tibor Hegedis, Colleen Raven (Nharla Photography). Sound mastering: Jochen Jezussek. Map visuals: Valle Medina, Benjamin Reynolds (Pa.LaC.E). Subtitles: Katharina Habibi.
Indigenous led campaigns: protectcountrynt.org.au and nt.seedmob.org.au.
Presented by the filmmaker and Que Kenny, Western Arrarnta community support worker, law student and activist from Ntaria (Hermannsburg), Northern Territory. Que has been involved in grassroots campaigns against the Northern Territory Emergency Response (‘The Intervention’) since 2007, and against Northern Territory gas fracking with the Protect Country Alliance.
Rachel O’Reilly is a settler Australian poet, researcher, and independent curator. She is a Phd student at Goldsmiths Centre for Research Architecture and has an MA from the University of Amsterdam in Media and Culture. She teaches Theory at the Dutch Art Institute.