Hiroshi Sugimoto, Japan/United States b.1948 / Saint James, New Zealand 1991

Envisioning the black box: The Australian Cinémathèque and BIFF

From 2018 to 2020, QAGOMA will present Queensland’s long-running and much-loved Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF). This is an exciting opportunity for the Gallery’s Australian Cinémathèque and its unique curatorial department to showcase a diverse range of films from around the world. We survey the history of the Gallery of Modern Art’s black box, and…

Cinema: Two minutes to nuclear destruction

We’re closer to nuclear destruction than ever. ‘Two Minutes to Midnight: Nuclear Cinema’ is a free cinema program that brings together a collection of nuclear-themed films to explore how filmmakers have responded to one of the greatest scientific and moral quandaries of the last century. The program offers a collection of films that act as…

Production still from Tarzan and His Mate 1934 / Directors: Cedric Gibbons, James C McKay / Image courtesy: Park Circus

Exotic Hollywood

In 2018 the Gallery’s Australian Cinémathèque presents major film programs complementing exhibitions ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection’ and ‘APT9’ alongside our free stand-alone film programs ‘All the Worlds Memories’ until 24 February, ‘Exotic Hollywood’ 4 – 28 February and ‘Rainer Werner Fassbinder’ (Part 2) 1 June – 4 July. Exotic Hollywood In the 1920s and 1930s cinema audiences craved…

Zheng Guogu China, b.1970 Grand Visionary Transformation of Hevajra 2016

2018 program announced

QAGOMA’s 2018 program has been announced and includes major solo exhibitions of new and recent work by leading contemporary Australian artists Patricia Piccinini and Tony Albert, and ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9). The Gallery welcomed a record 1.73 million visitors in 2016-17, the largest annual attendance in its history, and is…

Production still from Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) 1959 / Dir: Satyajit Ray / Image courtesy: Janus Films

Satyajit Ray: The Restorations

One of the common misconceptions about cinematic history is that in this digital age we can watch almost any film that has screened in a cinema. And even if we can’t get them on DVD, great director’s films are surely lovingly preserved in a film archive somewhere in the world? Unfortunately that’s not always the…

Production still from Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant) 1972 / Image courtesy: Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation

The tenderness of the wolves

The Australian Cinémathèque begins a two-part retrospective of works by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. His films were provocative during his lifetime, and his stories continue to resonate with contemporary audiences. I’d like to be for cinema what Shakespeare was for theatre, Marx for politics and Freud for psychology: someone after whom nothing is as it used to be.1…