Alice Bellette

Alice Bellette is a writer and researcher. With an Australian Research Council funded grant she co-produced Welcome?, a limited-series podcast, telling stories about colonised landscapes, and the people who meet in them. Her creative and critical writing has appeared in the Australian Poetry Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Griffith Review, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature and ACMI Stories & Ideas.

Letterboxd: @slightfawn 

Location: Naarm (Melbourne)

Movie location I call home: Elaine’s apartment in The Love Witch (2016).

What was the film or experience that made you want to write about the screen? 
I watched Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) and The Last Wave (1977) in close succession during lockdowns and they presented as this unintentional diptych. The pairing caused me to think a lot about how ‘outsiders’ interact with and interpret non-western ontologies, for lack of a better word. A good example is that Google’s info panel calls Green Ants a documentary. The ways that Herzog and Weir stretched their appropriation of Aboriginal Knowledges around the preconceived shape of their cinematic vision was something worth investigating and articulating. 

Why do you think film criticism matters in 2024? 
I feel like the deluge of media in all forms is attracting lowest common denominator readings and/or analysis with the sheer volume of stuff that is being produced in addition to what’s already existing. Aside from providing an intentional re-engagement in media literacy, I think using criticism to open avenues of dialogue is a great way to slow down and indulge in the richness of texts.  

Who is a critic that inspires you? 
Jeanine Leane – the surgical precision of her observations and the way that she articulates her deep insights are matched only by the tenderness and generosity with which she holds Aboriginal writing. 

In five words, the future of cinema is: A free Palestine.

What’s your favourite film that you’ve seen this year?
I recently caught a screening of a package of restored short documentary films about the early Pride marches, hosted by MQFF. The stand out was Gay Power (1971/2007/2012), a collection of footage taken by filmmakers Sharon Hayes and Kate Millet, who gave their commentary over the images shot some 40 years ago. They described the footage they shot as “an accident of history” which inscribes a certain intimacy as the viewer bears witness to the lives captured in frame. 

My MIFF 2024 theme music is: Cerrone, ‘Supernature’