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Presented with RISING and the Wheeler Centre

Lynette Wallworth

In Conversation

“Our most influential filmmaker” — Sydney Morning Herald

This event has been cancelled in line with the Victorian government’s public health announcement on Thursday 27 May. For further information on RISING and their COVID-19 update please visit their website.

In conversation with ACMI Director Katrina Sedgwick, Wallworth reflects on her years of storytelling through art and film, ahead of the world premiere of her show How To Live

Multi-Emmy Award-winning artist Lynette Wallworth is bringing her new solo show How To Live… to RISING, where she turns her distinctive artistic sensibility on herself. How To Live… is a “spiritual search and rescue mission”, which sees Wallworth reflect on her deeply personal coming-of-age in a radical Christian community.

It’s the latest undertaking by Wallworth, whose unflinching focus on compelling and compassionate storytelling has seen her present to audiences of world leaders and corporate giants.

Known for her deft use of cutting-edge technology—from immersive installation to documentary to virtual and augmented reality—Wallworth continually innovates the form of her stories focused on evolving cultural change.

Ahead of her show at RISING, Wallworth will join ACMI Director Katrina Sedgwick in conversation. Sedgwick has watched Wallworth’s upward trajectory as an artist and filmmaker and has commissioned her work in various forms over many years. In this special In Conversation the two will reflect on the deep themes of Wallworths’ works and the evolution of her practice, which has brought her to this point in time where she has decided to turn her laser lens on herself.

Presented with RISING, the Wheeler Centre and RMIT Culture.

Speaker bios

Lynette Wallworth, artist and filmmaker
Lynette Wallworth is a multiple Emmy® Award-winning Australian artist and filmmaker whose immersive video installations and film works reflect on the connections between people and the natural world.  She has been awarded a UNESCO City of Film Award, the Byron Kennedy Award for Innovation and Excellence, and in 2016 she was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the year’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. Wallworth’s most recent VR works have been developed at the invitation of Indigenous communities. Wallworth’s work has shown at the World Economic Forum, Davos, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the American Museum of Natural History, New York, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Smithsonian, the Royal Observatory Greenwich for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad; Auckland Triennial; Adelaide Biennial; Brighton Festival and the Vienna Festival among many others as well as film festivals including – Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, London Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Adelaide Film Festival and Margaret Mead Film Festival. Wallworth’s works include the interactive video installation Evolution of Fearlessness; the DOMIE Award-winning fulldome feature Coral, with its accompanying augmented reality work; the AACTA Award-winning documentary Tender, the Emmy® Award-winning virtual reality narrative Collisions which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the 2016 World Economic Forum, Davos and the Emmy® Award-winning XR work Awavena 2018 which was in competition at Venice film festival after premiering at Sundance Film Festival. Wallworth is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Virtual and Augmented Reality and sits on the Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees. She is currently Artist in Residence at the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW and at AFTRS, Sydney. She directs the New Narratives Lab at the World Economic Forum developed to create opportunities for underrepresented voices to access global decision makers.

Katrina Sedgwick OAM, Director & CEO ACMI 
Katrina has been Director & CEO of ACMI since 2015. She has a particular interest in supporting cross-disciplinary practice and an extensive background as a commissioner, creative producer and festival director. Her previous roles include Head of Arts for the national broadcaster ABC TV as well as founding Director/CEO of Adelaide Film Festival. The Festival’s $1 million AUD AFF Investment Fund was recognised with a week-long celebration at MoMA in 2011. She is on a number of arts and advisory boards, and in 2020 was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to performing arts, screen industries and visual arts administration.

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