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Speaker 1: Now an exhibition from the Australian War Memorial is set

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Speaker 1: to open this month at the Museum and Art Gallery

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Speaker 1: of the Northern Territory with Darwin, the final stop in

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Speaker 1: the national tour. It's called Action Film and War, which

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Speaker 1: features moving images, oral histories, artwork and objects that showcase

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Speaker 1: film technology through the ages. Now joining me on the

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Speaker 1: line to tell us a little bit more is the

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Speaker 1: Australian War Memorials Curator of Photographs, Film and Sound, Daniel Eisenberg.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Daniel.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: How are you yeah, really good, lovely to have you

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Speaker 1: on the show. Thanks so much for your time. Now

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Speaker 1: tell us tell us a little bit more about this

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Speaker 1: touring exhibition. I understand it uses film to document the

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Speaker 1: experiences of our Aussie troops overseas.

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Speaker 2: That's right, so Action Film and War. It's the largest

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Speaker 2: touring exhibition the Memorial has ever put on the road.

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Speaker 2: Has over two hundred and fifty, as you said, objects, artworks,

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Speaker 2: photograph cameras that explore how film has been used to

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Speaker 2: understand to tell the story of Australians in conflict. And

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Speaker 2: we range from historical cinematographers that documented the First World

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Speaker 2: War or the color footage film, then Vietnam through the

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Speaker 2: journalists that you know, worked bringing those stories back home.

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Speaker 2: We look at the stories of how film is screened

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Speaker 2: and watched by those serving overseas. We also have a

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Speaker 2: section dedicated to feature films that have sort of taken

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Speaker 2: the story of our conflicts and reshaped them and retold

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Speaker 2: them for a sort of popular audience.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, so pain a bit of a picture for us.

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Speaker 1: What do people sort of expect when they walk in?

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Speaker 2: Of course, well, we take you through sort of on

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Speaker 2: a historic journey first, kind of looking at the origins

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Speaker 2: of how we filmed the First World War and figures

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Speaker 2: like Frank Curly and Hubert Wilkins armed with big wooden

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Speaker 2: cameras that you're only only film a minute at a time,

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Speaker 2: and we take you through look at the sort of

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Speaker 2: newsreels from the Second World War and that those changes

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Speaker 2: that happened in technology and sort of stories that were

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Speaker 2: coming home right up until the contemporary defense for joint

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Speaker 2: Public Affairs units and other sorts of image specialists and

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Speaker 2: how they go about bringing images moving from those big

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Speaker 2: wooden cameras down to a handicamp, a helmet camp, your

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Speaker 2: phone that sort of change in technology that changes how

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Speaker 2: we get these stories. There's a couple there's a whole

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Speaker 2: bunch of home movie cameras, you know that'll be pretty

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Speaker 2: familiar to people either in Dad or Grammar's addict those

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Speaker 2: sort of how those stories were told. We have Australia's

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Speaker 2: first Academy Award on display here in Darwin Yea, along

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Speaker 2: with then costumes, costumes from the staffhires Jerga high Ground,

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Speaker 2: scripts from Peter Wiz Gallipli, a real mix of objects

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Speaker 2: and stories to explore.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like it's like it sounds like it'll be

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Speaker 1: really interesting for all of our listeners. How popular has

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Speaker 1: it been when it's when it's been in other states.

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Speaker 2: Look, we've had a really really strong reception as we've

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Speaker 2: been to in Queensland and New South Wales. Down in Tasmania.

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Speaker 2: There's a number of key stories from TASMANI It's what's

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Speaker 2: really nice. I think about the topic of finding these

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Speaker 2: intersections between the moving image and conflict is everyone attaches

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Speaker 2: to something different. You know, for someone it's yeah, that's

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Speaker 2: the sort of camera I remember someone using all that's

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Speaker 2: the news relay saw or I remember watching that film

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Speaker 2: and those sort of that, you know, or those sort

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Speaker 2: of connections we make. So it's interesting what draws different

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Speaker 2: audiences in in the different states. You know, We've got

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Speaker 2: a couple of in that feature film section, both Stephen

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Speaker 2: Maxwell Johnson's high Ground that I know was filmed up

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Speaker 2: in the territory and some costume designs from Basloman's Australia

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Speaker 2: as well, to sort of touch on some of the

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Speaker 2: ways Northern Territory history has been told in feature films.

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Speaker 1: Sounds like it'll be awesome. So what do you hope

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Speaker 1: that people take out of the exhibition look?

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Speaker 2: I think for me, one of the aims is to

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Speaker 2: really highlight that role film has played in helping us

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Speaker 2: understand conflict. For many of us that you won't serve

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Speaker 2: and hopefully don't have to be in conflict zones. That's

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Speaker 2: how we understand the experiences of those that are over there,

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Speaker 2: or the experience of what's happening on the far side

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Speaker 2: of the world. And see that sort of tension between

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Speaker 2: truth and fiction, propaganda and storytelling, historical record and just

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Speaker 2: making it sound right and that puny space that moving

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Speaker 2: image exists in between. And I guess the other major

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Speaker 2: thing we want to achieve for the exhibition to take

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Speaker 2: away is the role of the people holding those cameras.

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Speaker 2: A big part of the exhibition was to draw those

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Speaker 2: figures out, you know, their footage, but let's hear about

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Speaker 2: the people that were there. Let's understand our Damien Para

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Speaker 2: helped Australia when its first Academy award with a metal

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Speaker 2: camera in a tree on the Kokoda track, or how

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Speaker 2: the journalists based in Afghanistan have captured the images they

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Speaker 2: brought home and the risks these individuals put themselves to

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Speaker 2: bring those stories back. We've got a documentary that was

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Speaker 2: commissioned as part of the exhibition that plays on it

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Speaker 2: that interviews eleven Australian war cinematographers about the range over

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Speaker 2: the last fifty years of conflict and the places they've

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Speaker 2: been in, the experiences they've had, and I think their

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Speaker 2: stories as told from their perspective, combined with the objects

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Speaker 2: that surround it really kind of bring that narrative of

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Speaker 2: the individuals to put themselves at risk to bring these

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Speaker 2: stories home.

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Speaker 1: Sounds like it's going to be incredible. I think I

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Speaker 1: think Darwin will be like, I think it's going to

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Speaker 1: be really popular, very well attended would be my guess.

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Speaker 2: I hope so I hope some look knowing that being

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Speaker 2: a garrison town and the defense families here, those connections

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Speaker 2: I think hopefully will draw audiences in from that perspective

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Speaker 2: as well.

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Speaker 1: So when does it open and how long do people

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Speaker 1: have to check it out?

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Speaker 2: We are opening this Saturday, the fifteenth, and it'll be

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Speaker 2: on display at the Museum and Art Gallery through till

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Speaker 2: the first of June.

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Speaker 1: Well Australian War Memorial Curator of Photographs, Film and Sound,

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Speaker 1: Daniel Eisenberg, I really appreciate you having a chat with

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Speaker 1: us this morning. Thanks so much.

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Speaker 2: My absolute pleasure, and I hope everyone comes in to

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Speaker 2: see its multiple times wonderful.

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Speaker 1: I reckon they will. I think that you get. I

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Speaker 1: think it's going to be really very popular. So thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for making us aware of it.

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Speaker 2: Absolute pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,