ACMI and the NFSA announce focus seasons spotlighting filmmaker Clara Law

ACMI and the NFSA announce focus seasons spotlighting filmmaker Clara Law

ACMI, in partnership with the National Film and Sound Archive, is delighted to co-present a focus season celebrating the ground-breaking cinema of Clara Law with five formative features selected by the director screening at Australia’s national museum of screen culture in Melbourne from 16–26 February, followed by a bespoke program of events at the NFSA in Canberra. 

Focus on Clara Law at ACMI will include the Melbourne premiere of Law’s latest film Drifting Petals (2021), as well as the NFSA’s full digital restoration screening of Floating Life (1996), with Law introducing selected sessions in person and participating in an in-conversation event. The Clara Law Retrospective at the NFSA will include a screening of The Goddess of 1967, and screenings of Floating Life and Drifting Petals followed by audience Q&As with Clara Law and her creative partner Eddie L.C Fong.

Macau-born, Hong Kong-raised and Melbourne based, Law has always considered filmmaking first and foremost an art. These spotlight seasons will cover the breadth of Law’s filmography, spanning four decades and multiple countries of production.

Filmmaker Clara Law said: “The greatest challenge of our time as a filmmaker is to pursue film as an art-form. In my creative journey, I continue to trust my intuitive understanding, seek for an unfettered connection with the Infinity, to find out what humans exist for, to ‘see’ through the external matter that ties us down and be in touch with the intangible that lifts us up, so as to reveal the poetic beauty in our everyday life, to transcend and reach for the ethereal - the absolute truth.”

ACMI Director and CEO Seb Chan said: “Together with the NFSA we are proud to present this special focus season offering audiences the chance to experience the works of celebrated filmmaker Clara Law on the big screen with Law herself in the cinema. There is a treasure trove of discovery in this season, offering ACMI visitors the chance to revisit or experience Law’s work for the first time. As an Asian-Australian myself, I am also very conscious of the importance of bringing Law’s work to a wider audience and personally excited to see ACMI partner with the NFSA to enable this.” 

NSFA Chief Curator Gayle Lake said: “We are delighted that the NFSA’s restoration of Floating Life will be seen during these upcoming seasons and know it will be received with the same great appreciation and heartfelt enthusiasm by contemporary audiences as when it was originally released."

Law has been instrumental in developing the program with ACMI and the NFSA, selecting the films she feels best represent her career. Alongside her ongoing creative partner and collaborator Eddie L.C Fong, Law will be in attendance for a series of film introductions across select sessions, plus a special Q&A following the NFSA’s full digital restoration screening of Floating Life (1996), along with renowned producer Bridget Ikin. 

Five features and one short will screen as part of ACMI's Focus on Clara Law season:

Floating Life (1996) – credited as one of the first examples of Asian-Australian cinema and Australia’s first submission in the Best Foreign Language (now International Film) category at the Academy Awards, Floating Life follows a migrant Hong Kong family grappling with their new Australian home. Deftly navigating humour and tenderness, and spanning multiple continents, vignettes and decades, Floating Life was recently recognised for its cultural significance by the NFSA with a full digital restoration. 

The Goddess of 1967 (2000) – Acclaimed Australian actor Rose Byrne shines in her first leading role in Law’s mysterious road movie about a blind girl (B.G portrayed by Rose Byrne), an avid Japanese car collector (J.M played by Rikiya Kurokawa) and a 1967 Citroën DS. With Byrne going on to win Best Actress at the 2000 Venice Film Festival for her performance, the film follows J.M who gets more than he bargained for when B.G answers the door and hitches a ride with him to the outback opal mining town where she grew up. This screening is presented in partnership with the Melbourne Women in Film Festival.   

Drifting Petals (2021) – Law’s ongoing collaboration with husband and creative partner Eddie L.C Fong has recently culminated in Drifting Petals (2021), a dream-like piece of alternate cinema made over five years. Shot on a microbudget with Law and Fong taking on the majority of the behind-the-camera roles themselves, Drifting Petals is the story of a filmmaker and a piano student who first meet in Australia, trying to make sense of a past imbued with mystery in Macau and an uncertain future in Hong Kong. 

Autumn Moon (1993) – 15-year-old Chinese student Pui Wai (Li Pui Wai) is about to migrate from her native Hong Kong to join her parents in Canada, when she strikes up a friendship with Japanese tourist Tokio. An exploration of migration, culture and identity, Autumn Moon was Law’s breakout film into the international circuit and won the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival and Best Picture Award European Art Theatres Association. 

They Say the Moon is Fuller Here (1985) – Law’s award-winning directorial debut and graduate film follows two lovers as they grapple with the incongruity between cultures. With Law acting in one of the lead roles, the feature length film explores the cultural gap between the East and West, establishing Law as a filmmaker to watch. The director’s short film Red Earth (2010) will also screen with this feature. 

Focus on Clara Law screens 16 Feb to 26 Feb at ACMI, Fed Square, Melbourne. Three session passes are now on sale. For full program details visit acmi.net.au

The NFSA’s Clara Law Retrospective will screen at Arc Cinema in Canberra on 3-4 March.

NOTES TO EDITORS:
Download media assets here. 

Focus on Clara Law 
16 to 26 Feb 2023 
ACMI Cinemas, Fed Square, Melbourne 
3 Session Pass: 
Full $45 
Concession $39 
ACMI Member $33 

NFSA: A Clara Law Retrospective
Arc Cinema, McCoy Circuit, Acton, ACT 

Friday March 3, 6pm: NFSA Restores: Floating Life, followed by Q&A with Clara Law and writer Eddie L.C Fong 

Saturday March 4, 2pm: The Goddess of 1967

Saturday March 4, 6pm: Drifting Petals, followed by Q&A with Clara Law and writer / producer Eddie L.C Fong

Tickets available at nfsa.gov.au/events

ABOUT ACMI
ACMI is Australia’s national museum of screen culture. The museum reopened in February 2021 after a two-year, $40 million redevelopment – an architectural, programmatic and technological transformation. Navigate the universe of film, TV, videogames and art with us. ACMI celebrates the wonder and power of the world’s most democratic artform – fostering the next generation of makers, players and watchers. ACMI’s vibrant calendar of exhibitions, screenings, commissions, festivals, and industry and education programs explore the stories, technologies and artists that create our shared screen culture. More at acmi.net.au

ABOUT THE NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE OF AUSTRALIA
The NFSA’s mission is to collect, preserve and share Australia’s vibrant and diverse audiovisual culture as embodied by our evolving collection – reflecting who we were, who we are, and who we want to be. Audiovisual technologies enable us to capture moments in time: moving image and sounds in their most vivid forms. At over 3 million items, the NFSA collection transforms these records into ‘living memories’ – the many facets of Australia’s peoples, cultures, ideas and beliefs, both over time and across the land. The collection invites all Australians to connect, no matter their background and life experiences, and find common ground and a shared sense of community. All can access it to celebrate our cultures and learn from our history to build a better future. The NFSA collection dates back to 1700s pre-cinema magic lanterns, and includes everything from the earliest surviving moving images and recorded sounds (both from 1896:Le Patineur Grotesque and The Hen Convention, respectively), through to the latest digital productions across film, TV, radio, music, video games and new media.