VHS Tracking Presents... Decasia: The State of Decay (2002) w/ Simon Miraudo

Please join us for the next edition of VHS Tracking Presents - Goolugatup's film club

The program invites local artists to present a wide-ranging selection of art films, classics, and new wave cinema. Curated by iconic Boorloo film critic Tristan Fidler, the creator of the celebrated local VHS Tracking film zine, and hosted by Goolugatup Gallery monthly.

In this edition, writer Simon Miraudo will be presenting Decasia: The State Of Decay (2002) which is featured in his new book, Last Rites for Lost Films: Charred Celluloid, Digital Decay and the Certain Death of Cinema

Film: DECASIA: THE STATE OF DECAY (2002)

Decasia is composed entirely of decaying, nitrate-based archival footage. But Decasia does more than merely celebrate the psychedelic beauty of decay, as Morrison has deliberately chosen images which seem to push back against their own physical disintegration. This inspiring, haunting tapestry of long lost, partially erased images – nuns leading a slow-moving cortege of schoolchildren, the rescue of a man from drowning, a boxer relentlessly targeting his mysteriously obliterated opponent – testifies not only to the fragile nature of film but to the transience of all human endeavour. Set to an eerie symphonic score by Michael Gordon, Decasia reminds us, as Morrison himself puts it, of the many dreams we forget upon waking."

Presenter: SIMON MIRAUDO
Simon Miraudo is a Western Australian writer, broadcaster and film critic. He is the General Manager of RTRFM, which is an independent, non-profit community radio station that provides an alternative voice for WA through innovative music and talks programming, with a strong focus on the arts, culture, social justice, politics and the environment. Simon has presented a film review segment on RTRFM since 2010, and has covered films extensively for the ABC and The Guardian, among other outlets.

Simon is the author of Book of the Banned: Devilish Movies, Dastardly Censors and the Scenes That Made Australia Sweat (2023). This year, Simon is publishing Last Rites for Lost Films: Charred Celluloid, Digital Decay and the Certain Death of Cinema (out October 6), which features an interview with Bill Morrison and discusses Decasia among Morrison's other films, Dawson City: Frozen Time, The Village Detective and the Oscar-nominated Incident.

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