Empire

Empire leans heavily into experimental filmmaking. While it uses found historic photographs as its source material, its purpose isn't to present a straightforward historical account. Instead, it employs these images to create a new visual experience, manipulating them to achieve a stereoscopic effect and a 'Cubist perceptual maelstrom.' This approach prioritises artistic interpretation and perceptual exploration over documentary factualism.

Empire aims to offer a unique perceptual journey, challenging traditional ways of engaging with historical imagery. By reanimating stereographic photographs, it seeks to evoke a sense of depth and temporal flux, making the past feel both present and strangely distorted. The film invites viewers to consider the nature of memory, representation, and the evolving identity of a city, fostering a contemplative and perhaps unsettling engagement with visual history.

The film transforms familiar Melbourne landmarks, particularly the main Flinders Street Intersection, into something quite unexpected. Through techniques of repetition and flicker, the once recognisable urban landscape is rendered as a 'Cubist perceptual maelstrom.' This approach destabilises the viewer's perception of space and time, presenting a fragmented and abstracted vision of a city undergoing historical change, moving beyond its colonial past.

Empire's central artistic endeavour is the re-animation of historical stereographic photographs, primarily focusing on Melbourne's city centre between 1927 and 1940. This period marks a subtle shift away from colonial influences. The film uses these vintage images to create a stereoscopic effect, essentially bringing static moments back to a form of life. It's an exploration of how we perceive and reconstruct the past through visual artefacts, imbuing them with a new, temporal dimension.