COLLECTORS/COLLECTIONS: WAIKERIE FILMS

Project collaboration with Nadia Cusimano, The Waikerie Film Club Restoration Group, the Waikerie District Historical Society and OSCA.

Collectors/Collections: Waikerie Films (CCWF) focuses on the preservation and presentation of super 8 films belonging to the collections of local Waikerie residents. These films form an integral part in recording the town’s cultural and social history and poetically frame the relationship to the river and local environment as well as highlighting a time when the Waikerie Filmo club was actively making short artistic films in the area. The films we seek to preserve are now over 50 years old and at great risk of deterioration.

In 2017 CCWF began to gather, digitise and edit film collections into multiple DVDs that capture the historical and social events of Waikerie to share for generations to come. Local collectors have begun to be interviewed about their knowledge of the filmmakers, the events and the people. An accompanying booklet is planned that will enlighten readers as to how the films evolved as well as give historical insights into the people who appear in them, locating not only images of the time but memory through their stories. The series of DVD’s & booklet will form part of a large-scale film event during the 2018 SA History Festival.

See a short edit here

COLLECTORS/COLLECTIONS is an continuing investigation into the aesthetics of rural culture through the eyes of local individuals and their personal collections. Here knowledge, specialization and the personal become the key motivators and catalysts for cultural discourse and visibility. CC explores the parallels and similarities between the high-art collector and those whose fascination lie within the everyday.

This project has been funded by The Regional Arts Fund, Country Arts SA, Arts SA and the History Trust of South Australia with support from the Loxton Waikerie Council, The River News & local Waikerie residents.