Film Screening: Sovereign Pacific / Pacific Sovereigns

Circuit presents Sovereign Pacific / Pacific Sovereigns, a new screening of 5 short films from Aotearoa and the Philippines. Using poetry, science fiction and documentary, each artist has made a 10 minute short film which responds to questions of artistic sovereignty, the environment and spiritual practice.

Commissioned by Wellington arts organization Circuit, Sovereign Pacific / Pacific Sovereigns is presented as a free screening at Pātaka Art + Museum. The programme is curated by David Teh, a Singapore-based curator who first visited Aotearoa in 2018, and was later engaged by CIRCUIT as their 2020 curator-at-large. For this new programme of works Teh asked the artists to consider how sovereignty is inscribed in art – on-page, on-screen, in space, on bodies, and in the natural world. He also asked the artists to imagine how the sovereignty of artists and artworks might change in a world beset by global crises, a world that might require us to consider new relationships with other communities, both human and non-human.

Artists include:

Rangituhia Hollis, Sione Monu, Ana Iti, Alex Monteith and Gary Ross Pastrana.

Several artists will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screenings alongside David Teh via zoom from his home in Singapore.

Nau mai Haere mai!