Northern Void

Overview

Societies used to have forums, then markets, then the High street — a main shopping road and gossip factory, where people got together to talk about this and that, and especially each other. Now, as these older places wane, people have the internet to get together and talk about forums, markets, High streets and the future of the Internet, and especially each other. For Philip Brophy's film Northern Void, that meeting place is Preston in Melbourne's north. Set in the lite, consumer haze of its sleeping suburbs, Northern Void imagines the tramless slow transformation of the High street he lived in as a child. Or something like it.

Stretched over the near, far and furthest future to a soundtrack by Brophy and Philip Samartzis, the film was originally presented taking advantage of the flash new facilities of Melbourne's national film centre, the ACMI. As part of their Clubhouse series, the Performance Space is putting it on here as well. If the need for a vibrant public space consumes you, or if the yen for good experimental film absorbs you, Brophy offers you a piece to talk about.

Photos from Northern Void by Pancho Calladetti.