Contemporary Art x Cinema — Film and In Conversation: 'Hello Dankness'

Overview

Take American cinema's many depictions of suburbia, splice them together, but morph them into a savage musing on America's political landscape between 2016–21. Hello film lovers, you now have one of the most stunning Australian movies of 2023: Hello Dankness.

Hailing from Soda Jerk and marking the duo's first feature since TERROR NULLIUS roared across screens in 2018, it's another treasure trove of clips edited together to make a statement. It's "a suburban stoner musical rendered in the form of a cybernetic Greek tragedy" as well, as Soda Jerk themselves have dubbed it.

More than 300 film and TV clips get a spin, plus around 250 audio grabs. Among those featured: everything from The Burbs, Wayne's World, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and The Social Network to American Beauty, Friday, Napoleon Dynamite, This Is the End, Euphoria and PEN15 as well. Hello Dankness also includes Donald Trump's Access Hollywood tape and Kendall Jenner's Pepsi ad, and features songs from Cats, Les Misérables, Annie and The Phantom of the Opera, all across a wild 70 minutes.

The film has been doing the festival rounds, enjoying its international premiere at the 2023 Berlinale, winning the Best Narrative Feature Award at this year's Atlanta Film Festival, then hitting Dark Mofo and the Sydney Film Festival. Now, it's Brisbane's turn at the Gallery of Modern Art's Australian Cinematheque on Saturday, July 1.

Head by at 1.30pm for a free screening, plus a Q&A session with Soda Jerk in-person. We guarantee that you'll have plenty of questions.

We did too — read our interview with Soda Jerk.