Adelaide, Australia, 2023

What are movies for? They are for money, prestige, careers, and propaganda, so they say. They are functions of The System, the Provence of an elect few, a space where certain rules must be obeyed, so they say. Movies unlike this died many years ago, along with hope, change, and the idea of alternatives. So they say.

Be this is as it may, we do not agree.

Hard as it is to remember some days (there are those who are eager for you to forget), the world is more than a marketplace, art is more than a product, and we are part of a community larger than ourselves. Even in this strange and often terrible moment in which we find ourselves, the world is overflowing with possibilities for connection and transcendence. It is moviejuice’s belief that this connection and transcendence is what film (what all art) is really for.

The world is more than a marketplace, art is more than a product ... we must create our own art and our own communities.

As so many sinister institutions continue to consolidate their power and consequently crush the possibility of this transcendence in even the outer fringes of the cultural mainstream, our only possibility now, as artists and as people, is to turn towards the community for our reasons for creating and for being. Though social and technological forces have conspired to keep us separated and alone, to make us believe as if it is just 8 billion individuals and an endless sea of data, the truth is no matter how much power stacks the deck, it cannot truly obliterate that essential transcendence of art and connection. All it can do is hide it.

So, we must resist this hiding, and create our own art and our own communities. This is what moviejuice is for.

moviejuice is an independent film collective dedicated to the screening, distribution, and production of alternative and experimental cinema. We seek to remind people of that oft-forgotten truth: the democratisation of cinema has already happened. More than ever before, anyone can (and should) make a movie. Yes, the forces of power may deem these truly democratic works unfit for the standards of a sick and decaying marketplace, discarding those films that transgress industrial norms to explore realms of richer aesthetic and ideological possibility, but so what? The means to create a cinema that is outside the marketplace have never been more available. For so long this artform has been inextricably tied to the forces of money, but if we allow the signifiers of capital’s values to fall by the wayside, we can see a limitless future of infinite possibility.

In our view, it is the making, sharing, and discussion of our art and our history that is the foundation of the deepest bonds between people.

The hope is that this collective can be part of an alternative world inside the world. To us, moviejuice is a moving place where culture is not just a homogenous glob of whatever Al G. Rhythm has served up to us that day, but one wherein genuine and diverse expression can be encouraged and seen. These screenings will be zones wherein the possibilities of a truly independent production and distribution model will be explored and explicated. At the same time, they will be opportunities to encounter officially discarded histories, which in their resurrection will reveal themselves to be one thousand times richer than the sickly veneer of respectability and good taste that has defined so much of the canon. But above all else, it is a community, because in our view, it is the making, sharing, and discussion of our art and our history that is the foundation of the deepest bonds between people.

You may say that this all sounds rather ambitious and self-important. Perhaps you are right. But nothing happens without belief, and in a world like this, you have to believe in something. And hey, if enough of us keep believing in art, cinema, and each other, keep making and sharing beautiful things with each other for nothing but the sake of it, well maybe that’s enough proof that there’s more to this whole life thing than satisfying the demands of some faceless corporate overlord.

moviejuice’s next event is taking place on September the 16^th at the Mercury Cinema. It will be a screening of the Adelaide-produced experimental feature Paco, a rapturous and incredibly funny tale of a soundman’s quest for a lost radio-mic. The screening will be followed by a Q and A with the filmmaker Tim Carlier and an afterparty at the Lab with the incredible local bands Bromham and The Empty Threats (both of whom are featured in the film!). You can find tickets for the whole event here. There will also be individual cheaper tickets for just the film available on the door if you aren’t keen for a late night.

If you’d like to be involved with moviejuice, whether that be through screening your work, helping to organise events, or anything else, not only would we love to have you on board, we NEED to have you on board. Nothing happens without co-operation. Get in contact with us via our email address (moviejuicefestival@gmail.com), our Instagram (@juicemoviejuice), or our Facebook.

Louis Campbell, Shea Gallagher, Daniel Tune, Venus

moviejuice is based in Adelaide, Australia.