September Screening

"Corpses"

Presented by Dr Chris Muller Dr Helen Wolfenden

6:30-9:30pm, Friday 5 September, 2025

Ararat (2002), dir. Atom Egoyan

The evening brings Atom Egoyan’s critically acclaimed film Ararat into dialogue with the work of the German-Jewish thinker Günther Anders. As a metafictional film about an attempt to make a film about the Armenian genocide, Ararat explores cinema’s capacity to confront the incomprehensible truths and traumas of history. This same question is raised in Anders’ “Washing the Corpses of History”, a 1941 exile diary, which documents its author’s strange job as a cleaner in a Hollywood costume factory.

Earlier this year, Atom Egoyan donated the historical costumes used in Ararat to the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, an occasion he marked by writing a play. In a coincidence that almost defies belief, the lead actor cast in this play about the power of historical movie costumes had formerly starred in Real is Not Real Enough, a dramatized audio version of Anders’ diary about cleaning the fake replicas of the past. This started the conversation between Anders’ ideas and Egoyan’s film, a conversation this screening will further contribute to.

The evening is hosted by Helen Wolfenden, Chris Muller and Ben Nickl (the team who produced Real is Not Real Enough). The screening is framed by short clips from Anders’s Hollywood diary and a small surprise from Berlin.

Donation (Atom Egoyan’s play at Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin)

Real is Not Real Enough (the audio dramatization of Günther Anders’s Hollywood Diary

About your hosts

Dr Helen Wolfenden is a Lecturer in Radio at Macquarie University. A former broadcaster, Helen is deeply curious about the cultural turn toward audio, an enthusiasm she has been able to share with her collaborators Chris Muller and Ben Nickl.

Dr Chris Muller is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Media at Macquarie University and a translator of the work of Günther Anders.

Dr Ben Nickl is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies and has been collaborating with Chris Müller and Helen Wolfenden since 2021.

About Mechanics' Cinema

Mechanics' Cinema is presented by a chorus of filmmakers and thinkers of cinema, reflecting together on the enduring significance of the art form, on cinema’s historical and contemporary conditions, and on a series of remarkable films.

Each film in the program has been selected by a different member of the collective, who will present for 10 minutes prior to the screening.

The night ends in casual and lively conversation between presenters, attendees and guest interlocutors.

Find out more on our Instagram

Details:

📅 Friday 5 September🕰 6.30 PM

📍 Henry Carmichael Theatre, SMSA on Level One

🎟 Free for SMSA members & First Time Visitors

A Quick Note on Attendance

This free event is just for SMSA members- that’s how we stay on the right side of our licensing. We are offering First Timer tickets for those wanting to try before you buy.

Joining is easy and great value, with memberships starting at just $35 a year for concession card holders and students.

As a member, you’ll have access to all film screenings at SMSA, plus a year-round program of author talks, workshops and more. Find out more HERE