2024 | Dirs: Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss | USA, Canada | 94 mins
ACMI with AIDC are proud to present War Game, co-directed by Jesse Moss (The Mission, Boys State) and Tony Gerber, a real-life political thriller set on January 6, 2025. War Game imagines a nationwide insurrection in which members of the US military defect to support the losing Presidential candidate, while the winning candidate and his advisors – played by an all-star roster of senior officials from the last five administrations – war game the crisis in the White House situation room. They have six hours to save democracy as the country teeters on the brink of civil war.
SCREENING + Q&A WITH DIRECTORS JESSE MOSS & TONY GERBER: 2PM, SUNDAY 27 OCTOBER 2024, ACMI
After two films that document teenagers role-playing political process in 2020’s Boys State and 2024’s Girls State, co-director Jesse Moss teams up with Tony Gerber to document a far more chilling exercise. Government officials from both sides of politics meet to roleplay a situation that is not only possible but in many minds likely. The resulting experience is a chamber documentary-cum-thriller with stakes so high they’re horrific.
War Game premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
You can find tickets and all screening and Q&A details on the ACMI website.
Reviews:
“Something between a standard fly-on-the-wall documentary paced like a political thriller and a horror movie” – Rolling Stone
SPEAKERS
| Jesse Moss is an Emmy and Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentarian who, alongside his regular filmmaking partner Amanda McBaine, is responsible for such films as Girls State (2024), Boys State (2020), Mayor Pete (2021), The Mission (2023), and The Overnighters (2014). In 2008, he co-directed Full Battle Rattle with Tony Gerber, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize at SXSW. |  |
| Tony Gerber is an Emmy and PGA award-winning writer, producer, and director, with credits including Full Battle Rattle with Jesse Moss, The Notorious Mr. Bout (BBC Storyville,) CNN Films’ We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the World (Television Academy Honors, CINÉ Golden Eagle) and Kingdom of the White Wolf filmed on location in the High Arctic for Nat Geo and streaming on Disney+. |  |
2023 | Dirs: Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss | USA | 103 mins
AIDC and ACMI are proud to present the Australian Premiere of Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’s (Boys State) gripping documentary on John Chau, an American missionary who was killed while attempting to illegally make contact with one of the world’s most isolated Indigenous communities. Join us on Saturday 2 December for a zoom Q&A with directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, moderated by Santilla Chingaipe, following the 2:30pm screening.
SCREENING + Q&A WITH DIRECTORS JESSE MOSS AND AMANDA MCBAINE, MODERATED BY SANTILLA CHINGAIPE: 2:30PM SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER 2023
In 2018, a shocking event made headlines around the world: a young American missionary, John Chau, was killed by arrows while illegally attempting to contact one of the world’s most isolated Indigenous peoples on remote North Sentinel Island.
From Emmy-winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State) with Oscar-winning producer Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugar Man, Man on Wire) and Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn (American High), comes The Mission, which uncovers the story beyond the news headlines.
Through exclusive interviews and with unprecedented access to Chau’s personal diaries, plans, and video archives, this intriguing documentary examines the mythology of exploration that inspired him, the evangelical community that supported his quest, and reveals his own father’s heartbreak as Chau’s youthful thirst for adventure became a fatal obsession.
Be sure to catch this Australian premiere screening, presented by AIDC and ACMI. And don’t miss an exclusive Q&A moderated by Santilla Chingaipe with directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, who will share insights into the making of The Mission and the complexities of telling a story deeply rooted in the legacy of religious imperialism.
You can find tickets and all screening details on the ACMI website.
Courtesy of National Geographic.
Reviews:
“A marvelous documentary.” – NPR Los Angeles
“A troubling, smart, must-see documentary.” – Vox
“A seismic cultural reckoning.” – Vanity Fair
“Expertly tuned.” – Los Angeles Times
SPEAKERS
| Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss have been filmmaking partners for 20 years. They directed the Sundance and Emmy award-winning Boys State (Apple), which was also Oscar-shortlisted. They are currently working on the follow-up, Girls State for Apple. Past credits include Mayor Pete (Amazon Studios) and The Overnighters (Netflix). |  |
MODERATOR
| Santilla Chingaipe is a Zambian-born, Melbourne-based filmmaker, historian and author, whose work explores settler colonialism, slavery, and contemporary migration in Australia. Her work has been featured internationally in The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC, as well as various Australian news organisations, and includes the award-winning SBS documentary Our African Roots. She is a descendant of the Lamba and Namwanga people, who inhabit present-day Zambia and Tanzania. |  |
2023 | Dir: Amanda Kim | USA | 107 mins
AIDC and ACMI are proud to present the Melbourne Premiere season of Amanda Kim’s meticulous and highly entertaining documentary on the life and career of Korean artist Nam June Paik, the groundbreaking ‘father of video art’. Join us on Saturday 23 September for a Q&A with director Amanda Kim following the 4pm screening, moderated by Dr Flick Ford.
SEASON: 21 SEPTEMBER – 1 OCTOBER 2023
SCREENING + Q&A WITH DIRECTOR AMANDA KIM: 4PM SATURDAY 23 SEPTEMBER
Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV is a vital documentary portrait of a one-of-a-kind artist whose undeniable legacy reverberated throughout the art world.
Irrepressible video artist and avant-garde musician Nam June Paik was the Nostradamus of the digital age. Alongside his genre-defying music experimentations, the Korean artist’s multi-screen installations presciently forecasted the ubiquity of digital screens in our lives.
In a seminal 1974 report for the Rockefeller Foundation, Paik speculated the emergence of an “Electronic Superhighway” (a term he coined), essentially predicting the internet and seeing it as an ocean of information telecasted in a constant stream. It was a theme he would return to many times throughout his illustrious career and through his multi-media installations.
Premiering to acclaim at Sundance 2023, Amanda Kim’s meticulous and highly entertaining documentary portrait lays out Paik’s journey in becoming a cutting-edge artist, from his lightbulb moment meeting avant-garde composer and lifelong friend John Cage, to his involvement with the anarchic art group Fluxus and his prolific era conquering the New York art scene.
Later in his career, Paik’s groundbreaking experimentations with TV broadcasts and portable video cameras came across as too chaotic for some critics but the film never loses sight of Paik’s impish sense of mischief and his abundant spirit to innovate and challenge. As Paik famously stated, “It’s the artist’s job to think about the future”.
Be sure to catch this eye-popping profile of an artistic one-of-a-kind in the ACMI and AIDC-presented exclusive season. And if you’re looking for further insight, don’t miss the Q&A with Amanda Kim, moderated by Flick Ford, after the 4pm Saturday 23 September session.
You can find tickets and all screening details on the ACMI website
Audience Advisory: This film contains strobe effects and may potentially trigger seizures. Viewer discretion is advised.
SPEAKER
| Amanda Kim is a Korean-American director and producer. A former creative director at Vice Media, she led U.S. video direction for i-D, Creators, and Garage magazine. Kim also worked on Viceland, Vice’s TV channel, as a creative producer in an experimental incubator where she directed a nimble production crew to test out pilots and innovative content formats. |  |
MODERATOR
| Dr. Flick Ford is the host and producer of Triple R’s weekly film show and podcast, Primal Screen. She has a PhD in Screen and Cultural Studies and has been a board member of Australia’s longest running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque since 2017. Her work has appeared in publications such as Film Philosophy, Screen Education, and Metro Magazine, and she is one of the contributing authors of A Companion to Australian Cinema (2019). |  |