Jack

2012 Short Film

Emile Zile’s film focuses on a figure lost, or purposely drifting through, the light industrial non-site of suburban Footscray. Footscray acts here as a non-site that could be almost anywhere: Queens in New York or Salford in Manchester. The figure we follow emerging from a crepuscular time is recognisably ubiquitous the world over – a disenfranchised youth, a wanderer, a young and listless man. This figure is feared the world over for his seemingly wanton disregard for systems, rules and consequences. Of course the reality here is much different and possibly too complex for simple narratives. In the aftermath of the recent London riots, a whole pseudoscience seemed to appear almost immediately in the papers asking ‘how did this happen?’ Zile’s film shows that, possibly more than anything else, this figure somehow evades appropriate representation, both politically and aesthetically.
– Matthew Shannon 2012

Jack, 2012
4K RED video, 12 minutes.
Director of Photography Mikael Brain
Sound designer Philip Brophy

Premiere screening at Rijksakademie Open, December 1-2 2012
Produced as a WestSpace commission ‘Tyger Tyger’ by Phip Murray
Supported by Australia Council, Footscray Arts, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten

Screenings:
IDFA Amsterdam, 30 November 2013. Amsterdam Art Weekend at IDFA, 2PM-4PM, Cinema Tuchinski.
National Gallery of Victoria, 22 November – 23 March 2013. NGV Australia.
ICA London, 19 January 2013. Curated by Elsa Coustou, Lucia Garavaglia and Alana Kushnir in collaboration with the ICA. Supported by MFA Curating, Goldsmiths College, University of London.