Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 09 July
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In February this year ISIS released a video, Healing the Believers’ Chests, which showed Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burnt alive. Around the world, people were shocked by the torture and murder shown in the video – but also surprised by the production’s Hollywood aesthetic, with its slick aerial shots, use of montage and sophisticated animations.
What does it mean when a terror cell adopts the aesthetic of the enemy it seeks to unravel?
If Hollywood is the opposite of reality, why have those in the Western media been so quick to accept the veracity of slick ISIS productions? Do facts even matter, or is the threat of violence – as opposed to the inflicting of violence – the point of all horror movies? How do we understand the difference between performed and documentary horror if the vision is near-identical?
Join renowned visual artist and filmmaker Philip Brophy for a discussion of terror, reality and the Hollywood/ISIS feedback loop. Hosted by Helen Hughes.
Graphic content warning: While this event will not include the screening of footage depicting actual violence or confronting imagery, it may include still images (of dubious veracity) which some attendees may find disturbing or uncomfortable.
Featuring
Philip Brophy
Philip Brophy is a respected academic, filmmaker, writer and musician. He writes for Frieze, The Wire, Film Comment, and Real Time.
After a series of Super 8 shorts with Tsk-Tsk-Tsk in the early ‘80s, and the experimental short feature Salt, Saliva, Sperm & Sweat in 1988, Philip Brophy made his feature directorial debut with Body Melt in 1993, funded by the Australian Film Commission and Film Victoria. He has scored and sound-designed most of his films, and designed the sound and composed music for numerous shorts. In this field Brophy specializes in Dolby Surround applications and contemporary soundscapes.
He was also instigator and director of the Cinesonic International Conference on Film Scores & Sound Design held annually in Melbourne, and has edited 3 books from the conference published by the Australian Film TV & Radio School. Having created the Soundtrack stream in Media Arts at RMIT, Melbourne, he continues to lecture and present on film sound and music internationally.
As a writer and speaker on film, Philip Brophy specializes in three distinct areas: (i) horror, sex & exploitation; (ii) film sound & music; and (iii) Japanese animation. He is widely published in all three areas internationally, and has curated numerous programmes for the Melbourne International Film Festival. His most recent book is 100 Modern Soundtracks for the British Film Institute, London. His forthcoming book is 100 Anime, also for the BFI.
Helen Hughes
Helen Hughes is co-founder and co-editor of Discipline journal and a curator at Gertrude Contemporary. She recently submitted her PhD in Art History at the University of Melbourne.