ABOUT
Black Maria Film Collective is an organisation that aims to foster and cultivate a collective interest in film as an art form. In Western Australia alone, there are a myriad of masterminds in the realm of film, however, they might often feel alone and helpless in Australia’s current film industry. Black Maria’s primary objective is to support and encourage film culture in WA and highlight its importance in today’s current society.
What is Black Maria?
Black Maria proposes that the most important aspects in inspiring an independent filmmaking culture is the need to realize and resurface the overlooked and underappreciated cinematic artefacts over the last century. Therefore, one of the quintessential aspects of Black Maria is to screen these forgotten gems for the collective such that it inspires discussion and offers a hub for filmmakers and cinephiles alike.
So, what is it that we actually offer?
We believe that the films curated in our screening catalogue are those in which should be recognized for their context, independence, experimentation and cultural or cinematic significance. As such, none of the films we will be showing will be censored or omitted as we believe in free speech and film as an experience.
Additionally, we aim to offer as much additional content and insight into each film we screen with input from a film's director, producer, cast, crew and/or experts through the inclusion of Q&A's, interviews, exclusive pre-recording introductions, essays and/or additional material from behind the scenes of the film. With this we hope to provide as much insight as possible for our audience to properly understand how some of the most important films were created.
How does this benefit you as a member?
Proceeding each screening, discussion between participants will be inevitable and, in turn, so will networking. All in all, Black Maria’s events will perform multiple functions in order to foster a ‘hub’ for filmmakers and cinephiles to congregate and network, without the connotations of “networking”.
The objectives of the Black Maria Film Collective are to:
i. cultivate interest in film as an art form,
ii. increase opportunities to view and discover overlooked and underappreciated cinematic artefacts,
iii. create a respectful creative ‘hub’ to encourage, promote, and support aspiring and existing local filmmakers,
iv. invite members and expert guests to speak on these subjects,
v. facilitate academic and technical discourse of cinema and filmmaking.
