Screening: What the cameras saw and remembered—two films by CAMP

We invite you to a rare opportunity to watch two acclaimed films by Mumbai based artist group CAMP.

CAMP’s film works employ distinct video materials and methods to explore entanglements between medium, message and the politics of looking. Al Jaar Qabla Al Daar (The Neighbor before the House) and From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf are emblematic of Camp’s experimentation with the moving image and its technological and production architectures. A foundation of ethics materialises alternate modes of image making, voice, and subject position, responding to fundamental questions around representation of real people particularly those who are either underrepresented or overrepresented in media products in ways that divest personal agency.

The Neighbour Before the House (60 minutes, 2009-2011)

In The Neighbour Before the House, eight Palestinian families in Jerusalem survey their neighbourhood using CCTV cameras mounted on their homes; the returned gaze of surveillance posing disquieting questions about the observer-observed relationship. As the observers narrate their visual exploration, we are invited to consider both, the nature of operational images and subject-positions of citizens.

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf [83 mins. Original format(s): HDV, SDV, VHS, Cellphone videos (variable). Stereo audio and in-cameraphone music]

From Gulf…  is a feature-length travelogue by sea filmed using mobile phones by sea faring traders from Sindh, Baluchistan and Southern Iran over several years. The film provides a rare glimpse into ordinary yet intimate worlds of oceanic trade and media flows beyond the vocabulary of crisis, borders, and sanctions.

The programme includes an introduction by curator, Shweta Kishore and artists, Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran.

The event is programmed by RMIT Culture in partnership with Dr Shweta Kishore (RMIT School of Media and Communication)