Session 01 Wrap-Up
Stinger Sessions is off to a solid start. The crowd wasn’t huge, but a very interesting set of folks turned out and an excellent time was reported by all. Came away feeling very positive about the viability of this project.
We began by introducing ourselves and the series, and to frame the type of approach we are bringing to the sessions, we screened Subcomandante Marcos’ address to the Free Media Conference (held in NYC 1997). Then on to the substance of the evening’s program, two videos at the intersection of heavy metal music/culture and social movements (notably anti-colonialism). For fun and some historical context we screened Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” music video as a short before the feature presentation, Denise Gaberman’s “Welcome to Metal Kingdom”.
Post-screening discussion was lively and more inclusive than I’d dared hope for. Topics ranged all over the shop: working as a woman in male dominated spaces, the viability of creative business in criminalised immigrant communities, satanism as decolonisation, options for distribution in corporate-dominated cyberspace… fun & important stuff.
Thanks to Zanny Begg and Serial Space for hosting the first round, to all those folks who helped get the word out, and to the party people who showed up (from as far away as Canberra!) and made it live.
Watch this space for a call for submissions and announcements leading up to Stinger Sessions 02, to be held sometime mid-September.
