Exit’s Tim Georgeson Returns to Australia With a Feature Film and Audio-Visual Exhibition
Exit director, Tim Georgeson, is back in Australia and keen to pick up where he left off before Covid closed down his commercials assignments. He spent most of Covid in Canada, in winter, with a 9.30pm to 5am curfew and commercials work that dwindled to nothing as lockdowns were enforced throughout the world. But it wasn’t an unproductive period. He has been working on his feature documentary, Truth in Fire, which explores Indigenous bio-culture, its exemplary land management and its deep understanding of the role that fire plays in the diversity cycle.
Says Georgeson: “I had come came home after the bushfires last year to shoot for Atmos in New York and Noema, a magazine and online enviro-sustainability platform. As a result, I got very close to the Yuin First Nations community and other indigenous communities. Their cultural burning, land management and fire practices completely intrigued me. It makes no sense that they’re not the main way of managing the environment in Australia. The way that they manage the land and have done for tens of thousands of years speaks way more than how we, who have been here for a couple of hundred years, do, and in a way created these catastrophic fire events rather than maintaining the land’s harmony and protecting ecological survival.”
WATCH THE TRUTH IN FIRE TRAILER
Georgeson’s newfound passion provided him with a steady flow of work during lockdown. Back in Sydney now, he is orchestrating the next steps of the film and its accompanying exhibition, which tells the story of the First Nations people’s relationship with fire in video and sound installations, supported by large-format images. The exhibition was curated late last year by the Australian Centre of Photography.
Says Georgeson: “I’m working with a curator here and the exhibition is continuing around Australia. There will be a video exhibition in New South Wales in October, another in West Australia next year and a third in Seoul in Korea next year so far.”
The feature film is also in its final last stages. “Exit has been hugely supportive here in Australia and I am also collaborating with an Indigenous production company called Noble Savage in Sydney to complete it,” he adds.
Environmental issues have become a large part of Georgeson’s work and focus during the last twelve months. He was one of the collaborators on the UN’s 75th anniversary project in September and worked with Nowness on a project for World Earth Day in April.
WATCH THE UNITED NATIONS 75th ANNIVERSARY FILM
Georgeson’s first new work in Australia is shooting a performance installation piece in the desert outside Port Augusta in South Australia, with Indigenous performer Derik Lynch.
Says Leah Churchill-Brown, executive producer, Exit : “Tim’s ability to deliver messages in a way that makes people take notice and stir emotions with his insights has been clearly demonstrated over the last year. We can’t wait to bring those skills to commercials here.”
View Georgeson’s reel here: https://exitfilms.com/directors/tim-georgeson
For enquiries please contact Leah Churchill-Brown via leah@exit.com.au.
