Decadence: Decline of the Western World, a film co-written by Pria Viswalingam and Armidale local Jacinta Dunn, is opening at the Belgrave Twin Cinema in Armidale on March 8, and both Pria and Jacinta will be at the Belgrave for the opening. There will be an introduction by the filmmakers at 6pm with the film starting at 6.30pm.
Both are past SBS stalwarts as well as having wide industry experience. Pria is one of the most experienced presenters and international television and film makers in Australia.
Jacinta left Armidale to go straight to SBS after finishing her Arts Degree majoring in Communications at UNE. As well as SBS she has worked for the ABC and other commercial film makers here and overseas ever since.
On assignment to locations from Paris to Zanzibar, Jacinta has an intimate knowledge of all aspects of the industry.
She and Pria have had a close history in production over many years and this is a film made from the heart.
The film highlights many of the crisis points now facing the western world. It looks at the underlying temper of the times when a backlash of self-examination is building as we face the apparent realities of the future. Its purpose does not include in-depth analysis of such problems as climate change.
Thoughtful and beautifully produced this is a film that raises big questions for us all in a gentle and reflective way. It has been described as “a discursive political and cultural essay in filmic form”.
Decadence: Decline of the Western World is written and presented from the point of view of Pria – an Asian who has been educated in and loves what the West has embodied, but who questions what it seems to have lost and why people do not seem to have found happiness through their material wealth. He takes us to look at what he sees as a civilisation adrift.
The politics of the film come from many angles, and Pria says it aims to “rise above the usual left and right political pigeon-holing”.
He comments that “Universities were the guardians of intellectual adventurism, but are now relegated to mendicancy.”
He asks “Is this as good as it gets?”.
And he reflects more sadly on what will be lost if the civilisation of the West is totally subsumed into a new movement of history and loses “such hard-won western values as liberalism, law and freedoms that we now take for granted” along with the dominant rise of Asia.
“Pria and I accept that everyone will see the film differently and take different things from it,” Jacinta said.
Decadence: Decline of the Western World is the first official selection at the 2012 Byron Bay International Film Festival after a successful five week season in Sydney and Melbourne. http://www.decadencedocumentary.com
