Zoom lens

April 29-May 4 2023 | Zoom lens was an innovative digital program to engage Gen Z young people with timely topical and important issues

Zoom lens was an innovative digital program to engage Gen Z young people (15-25 years) with timely topical and important issues.

Over the course of six weeks of intensive workshops, five emerging artists and creatives created their own video artworks and short films using only their smartphones. These works respond to important issues to them, including safe spaces, inclusivity, mental health and what it means to be from marginalised communities. These workshop sessions were facilitated by Angela Blake, Co-Founder of SF3 – SmartFone Flick Fest, Australia's international smartphone film festival along with facilitators Roxy Prophet, Talin Agon and Kate Vinen.

The final works were shown at CB City's Youth Week event, The Area: World Tour on April 29 2023.

Lucia Lobsey, He, She, They, 2023

Duration: 3:13

“I wanted to make this film about my personal experience as a non-binary person; To tell the story about how it can be really challenging, but also really beautiful.” - Lucia

Aisata Bah, How to be an actor, 2023

Duration: 1:57

To be an actor: is a short video created particularly for artistic lovers of performance who feel the need to constantly fit within a criteria or limitation. The short video highlights principles such as self-appreciation, expressing pride in being unique, and standing up to those who restrict your imaginative toolkit.

Lucia Guo, It’s not for you, 2023

Duration: 4:38

This piece delves into deconstructing the entertainment value of dance while subverting the male gaze. Dance is often viewed as a source of performance rather than an expressive dialogue that is in conversation with the world. This is emphasized through the close-up shots of the eyes paired with the overlay of the dancers, highlighting the sense of being watched. With the eyes fading away, the focus becomes the dancers that are illuminated with a spotlight, gradually turning from yellow to red, becoming more focused on their body movement than expression. This is combined with the slow transition from long shots to close-up shots that exclude their face. Coming to a climax, the male gaze is subverted through the sudden reveal of a male dancer in heels, sustaining an emphasis that dance does not have to be sexualised from to the individual wearing heels. With the jump cut to a child, the embodiment of innocence, guides the audience into ‘what dance actually is’. From a change of setting and lighting to the outside environment the dancers move and come together, forming an empowering reclaimant of dance as a form of dialogue, finding comfort from the support of the community.

San May, My Week as a Ghost, 2023

Duration: 04:57

My Week as a Ghost explores the complexities of personal struggles with depression and trauma. Delving into the fear of leaving the house, the fear of being misunderstood, and the fear of losing those around you as you lose yourself.

Sarah Anstee, Motion, 2023

Duration: 05:37

The work reads as an individual effort to find promise and comfort within the limits of their environment. It accents hopes and fears, thoughts and actions that are shown through moments of isolation. Mournful loops, fusions, fragments and repeats glean textures rather than meanings, delving into memory, distress, anxieties and miseries, embracing complexities and ambiguities of seemingly imposed pressures and expectation. The drive is a vulnerable triumph - embracing a dark side in a movement of pulling oneself out of a mania ultimately towards strong moments of euphoria. It becomes a hope towards finding abundance and plunging into the unknown.