The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) has announced Jazz Money as the recipient of its RE/Vision Commission, to produce a unique digital work from the national collection.
The Wiradjuri filmmaker and poet will receive $25,000 to create an audiovisual piece, interpreting the national audiovisual collection to offer an authentic and contemporary vision of Australia.
Currently based on sovereign Gadigal land in Sydney, Jazz’s digital work appears online and in various galleries and museums nationally. Her poetry has been published widely across Australia, and reimagined as murals, visual art and video art.
She will work closely with NFSA curatorial and technical experts, utilising the digital collection to answer the question Who Are We Now?
The title of Jazz’s work is Winhanganha – a Wiradjuri word that loosely translates to ‘remember, know, think’ in English. She says the film will provide a “revisioning of Australian audiovisual history that centralises dance, performance, orality, gathering and protest, to celebrate a unique identity that is formed through creative expression, legacy and resilience,” she said.
The Archive presents a place that is loaded with gaze and coloniality, yet records a link to us and our stories. Working with archival footage has lead me to consider the relationship between our recorded knowledges, and how we create new futures through that which we inherit.”
“My concept proposes an Indigenous perspective and lyrical journey through the NFSA archive, focussing on the human body as a location of expression and empowerment,” said Money.
In 2020, Jazz was awarded the David Unaipon Award from the State Library of Queensland and a First Nations Emerging Career Award from the Australian Council for the Arts. Her debut book, how to make a basket, was released earlier this year.
“We love the idea of opening up the collection to audiovisual artists and practitioners. There is such a wealth of material in there that can be used to explore and express many different perspectives on Australian heritage and contemporary culture,” said NFSA Chief Executive Officer, Patrick McIntyre.
“As an artist on an exciting trajectory, we are delighted that Jazz Money will undertake this project with the NFSA and we look forward to premiering Winhanganha.”
The RE/Vision project is supported by the Australian Government through the Office for the Arts. The complete piece will receive premiere screenings at the British Film Institute in the UK, and Arc Cinema in Canberra, and will be brought into the NFSA collection, and made available to the public. For more information, visit: www.nfsa.gov.au for details.
Image: Jazz Money – photo by Kate Geraghty