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Serious Undertakings (1983)

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clip Interviews

This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

The interviews with 'experts’ are interrupted by various cinematic devices – sound, graphic questions crawling across the bottom of the screen and the actual image changing optically until the talking head has been removed completely.

Curator’s notes

The filmmaker Helen Grace has used traditional documentary devices to make her point that everything we look at has a point of view and is constructed to support that perspective. She reminds us by introducing a woman washing up in the background that interviews are artificial constructs, with real life edited out, for the purpose of communicating clearly. She asks questions about honesty by scrawling them across the bottom of the frame like a subtitle. Most importantly, by removing the interviewee’s image optically the power and meaning of their words is negated, showing how important context and presentation is to communicating ideas.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

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  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
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  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

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