Shoppingtown. Livingroom

Two short films by Australian director, David Caesar. “Shoppingtown” (8 mins, 1987) begins with a blank screen and multiple voices on the soundtrack. Next, we are presented by a series of silent moving image portraits of customers, workers and visitors to a large suburban shopping mall. The portraits reveal the humanity behind the “faceless” mob that move around us in suburban space. With “Living Room” (22mins, 1988), Caesar extends the style of “Shoppingtown” to construct a series of portraits of people framed within their homes. From homeless youth in Kings Cross to first home-owners in the Western suburbs to shopkeepers behind their counters, “Living Room” again humanises the everyday. While the people pose for the camera, written text flashes in between portraits to further give us in insight into their thoughts and lives. By interposing video footage of home construction between the filmed sequences, the film also asks us to interrogate the meaning of “home”, “ownership” and “place”.