It was a photograph. Flipping through Christopher Lloyd’s The Story of the World in 100 Species (2016), I came across a classic mad scientist image: glass specimen jars, books, a microscope, test tubes and at the centre the scientist, sleeves rolled up above the elbows, wielding a pipette and engrossed in the all-important experiment of…
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Feminism is defined as “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities”. The broad spectrum of feminist ideologies (from radical, Marxist to liberal) have different expressions of this core belief, but they are all fighting to create an egalitarian society. Many branches of feminism also place emphasis on intersectionality, which considers…
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Walking into the CeBIT Conference is not unlike being ushered into some revolutionary space-age marketplace, where suit-and-lanyard-clad businessmen smile knowingly at you from behind a thousand different shimmering screens: laptops, iPads and feature walls with PowerPoints projected across them. CeBIT is APAC’s largest and longest running technology exhibition and conference, and it is an essential…
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Filmmaker Briony Kidd shied away from the camera at film school. She knew she could write and edit, but wasn’t so sure on the filming front: better to leave that to the experts. It wasn’t until later that Kidd realised none of her fellow students had been experts either. Others – namely, the guys –…
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At the Australian box office in 2014, just 8 per cent of the top 250 films had female directors. There were 21 Australian films among the top earners, and women directed only 14 per cent of them. These are just some of the many statistics in Screen Australia’s 2015 Gender Matters report that reveal the…
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Can you make a feature film with $50,000 dollars? Australian filmmaker Sophie Mathisen (Drama) is certain that you can. This is the idea behind the inaugural Big Pineapple Film Competition, launched in February this year by the For Film’s Sake Festival and Women in Film and Television . Mathisen, who is director of both organisations, says…
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Angourie Rice is a young Australian actress known for her roles in These Final Hours and The Nice Guys. Lip’s Sarah Randall recently spoke to Angourie about her experiences in the industry and her role in the film adaptation of Jasper Jones. What drew you to Jasper Jones and the character of Eliza, specifically? I…
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Nora Niasari is an Iranian-Australian film writer and director. Her latest film is Waterfall. Lip’s Rosie Hunt recently talked to Nora about her work. What can you tell me about Waterfall? Waterfall is a short film about a 14-year-old Iranian girl who goes on a road trip with her mother and her mother’s Australian fiancé….
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With today’s power and abundance of social media, it’s very rare to discover an artist’s music without already having some sort of preconceived idea about what you’ll think of them. Lana Del Rey’s music has always been clouded for me with the pervasive opinion that she’s a fake. Little criticism about Lana Del Rey’s career…
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It is unfortunate that archaic traditions still proliferate in many parts of the world despite how much more socially progressive and politically conscious its inhabitants have become. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a procedure often performed to ‘prepare’ girls for adulthood and marriage. You may ask: what exactly are the health benefits of such a…
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Geraldine Brooks is a genius. Historical biographical fiction is difficult to write at the best of times because of issues with source evidence and conflicting views; Brooks does a superlative job in her latest novel, The Secret Chord, taking inspiration from a historical figure from three thousand years ago. King David’s story of rags to…
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Writing a memoir is a monumental task. And I write that as someone who has never attempted to do so. Consolidating decades of one’s life into a work small enough to be held in one hand seems titanic, especially given the complexity of its primary source: memory. The subtle art of memoir has been beautifully…
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Sophie Hardcastle is an inspiring young author who has written a memoir called Running Like China about her struggles with mental health. Lip’s Bridget Conway had a chat with Sophie and found out about how she chose to push through the stigma to write the book in the hopes that it would inspire others to…
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A seventh generation White Witch, Sarah Kulkens uses timeless rituals and spells to help people. This eccentric religion which was once thought of as evil and satanic proves to be quite opposite to its stereotypes. Unfortunately, Sarah is still being bombarded with hate mail for practising witchcraft. Hailing from a long line of witches since…
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