The Second Journey (To Uluru)
This film will screen with English subtitles in-house
Join us for a rare screening of Corinne and Arthur Cantrill’s extraordinary The Second Journey (to Uluru), shot on 16mm film and recently digitally restored by Arsenal in Berlin. Screening in the context of Sayan Chanda’s exhibition Between the Two Fires, the film meditates on Uluru as an ancient and deeply spiritual natural monument, sacred to the Aṉangu people.
As the camera moves gently from afar into the very heart of the monolith, the magic of Uluru unfolds in shimmering nuances of light. Shot at different times of day, and following the diurnal rhythm, the close-up and panorama shots of this more than 500-million-year-old stone formation combine silence and acoustically altered birdsong to convey a feeling of timelessness into which a sense of loss is also inscribed. The areas of discolouration in the film material caused by problems in the developing process were deliberately left in the film as a metaphor for the looming threat to this natural environment through bushfires and tourism.
The Second Journey (To Uluru) was a continuation of the Touching the Earth films, in which Arthur and Corinne turned their full attention to the Australian landscape. The films found little resonance at the time they were made, with this tribute to the outback coming across as too disconcerting and unsettling, both formally and thematically: an indication of the political dimension of the film.
Doors open at 6.30pm. Please join us for some refreshments before the film begins.
About the filmmakers
Arthur (b 1938) and Corinne Cantrill (1928-2025) were both born in Sydney, Australia. They met in Brisbane in the late 1950s, and from 1960 onwards, they made more than 100 films together. Their work covers different forms and genres: documentary, experimental cinema, expanded cinema, performance and sound art.
Their first films were educational documentaries for children about nature, literature and art – short 16mm films that led them to experiment with image and sound and to become interested in the abstract potential of cinema. Their filmmaking practice produced a body of research on the history of cinema, a rigorous examination of the photochemical nature of film, and a study of the forms in the Australian landscape made through cinema. By exploring the formal possibilities of separating colours, the Cantrills have created unique views of the world with their images.
They also set up Cantrills Filmnotes, an independent magazine devoted to experimental cinema and contemporary arts, which the filmmakers published between 1971 and 2000.
The Second Journey (to Uluru)
Dir. Arthur Cantrill, Corinne Cantrill
Australia
1981, 74m
English with English subtitles
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£5 / £3 / £2
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