Ivan Sen reckons he is running out of time.
asserted
he → reckon → time
The acclaimed Kamilaroi director of such films as Beneath Clouds (2002), Mystery Road (2013), Goldstone (2016), Loveland (2022) and Limbo (2023) is impatient to step up the pace of his filmmaking.
asserted
director → step → filmmaking
He is already prolific but, turning 55 soon, Sen wants to finish The Servant, a horror film starring Sigrid Thornton that he shot this year, and get back to This Winter, revisiting the characters he started filming for a drama a decade ago.
asserted
he → turn → drama
“I need to keep moving,” he says.
asserted
he → need → ?
“I’m opening my own horror studio.
asserted
I → open → studio
I’ve got one to do for the next three or four years at least.
asserted
I → get → years
So when Sen was approached to shoot a series of short films for one of the centrepiece exhibitions at the opening of Powerhouse Parramatta, the new museum in western Sydney that has become the centre of controversy, he had no interest.
asserted
he → approach → interest
“I said no, of course,” he says.
asserted
he → say → course
“I was just not interested because I was focusing on narrative [films].
asserted
I → focus → films
The last non-narrative thing I did was [a 2009 documentary] on Charlie Perkins.”
asserted
I → do → Perkins
The Powerhouse had commissioned seven Indigenous communities around NSW to create projects about caring for their water country for an undisclosed sum.
asserted
Powerhouse → commission → sum
Many focus on sharing cultural knowledge about the stewardship of waterways and passing it on to younger generations.
asserted
Many → focus → generations
The museum’s executives wanted Sen to shoot short films with each of these communities for the exhibition Overflow.
asserted
Sen → want → exhibition
What convinced him to get involved was the simplicity of the idea.
asserted
convinced → convince → idea
He also realised there was a personal benefit.
asserted
He → realise → ?
“I just wanted to get back out on country and spend time with mob,” he says.
asserted
he → want → mob
“You get wrapped up in your own world and you don’t really know what’s going on unless you get out into places and talk to people.
asserted
you → wrap → people
And as a filmmaker, that’s everything.
asserted
that → ’ → filmmaker
Otherwise, you’re just at home making stuff up.”
asserted
you → ’re → stuff
A month before the exhibition opens, the museum is still a construction site that requires visitors to don high-vis vests, hardhats, boots and eye protection.
asserted
that → open → vests
Once that’s done, it’s time to head through a maze and up three floors to an auditorium where Sen is casting an eye over a large LCD screen playing stunning images he has shot over the past year.
asserted
he → do → year
Now and then there are signs of environmental damage that Indigenous communities are working to improve ... clusters of native sea urchins that are degrading the rocky reef around Narooma on the south coast, plastic bottles washed up along a riverbank, a sign saying “no swimming”.
asserted
that → be → swimming
“I got to go to places I’ve never been before,” Sen says.
asserted
Sen → got → places
In front of the screen is an ingenious shallow lake – tidal despite being three floors up – that visitors can paddle in when Overflow opens.
asserted
Overflow → paddle → that
Benches lying to the side during construction will be installed so visitors can take in an experience about Indigenous care for the state’s salt and freshwater ecosystems.
asserted
visitors → lie → ecosystems
Members of Baramadagal community from Dharug country are monitoring the ecology and helping clean up the Parramatta River.
asserted
Members → monitor → River
Across the city, the Gamay Rangers from Dharawal country at La Perouse are conducting the first dedicated study of marine mammals in Botany Bay and surrounding coastal waters to support their conservation work.
asserted
Rangers → conduct → work
At Lightning Ridge in the state’s north, Goondee Aboriginal Keeping Place & Museum/Woganurra Aboriginal Corporation have created a new space to share Yuwaalaraay cultural knowledge of sky, water, country and creation.
asserted
Place → create → sky
Not far away at Brewarrina, Moogahlin Performing Arts from Ngemba country is exploring the relationship between river health and community wellbeing in an arts project called Big Rivers, No Fish Feast.
asserted
Arts → explore → project
Also involved in water care projects are the Jagun Alliance from Bundjalung country (Lismore in the Northern Rivers), Joonga Land and Water Aboriginal Corporation from Yuin country (Narooma) and Naru Indigenous Corporation from Gumbaynggirr country (Coffs Harbour).
asserted
Alliance → involve → country
The Powerhouse – a billion-dollar project that has been attracting negative headlines throughout its construction – will open on November 7.
asserted
that → attract → November
Acting chief executive Abbie Galvin and senior adviser Louise Herron have been working to deliver it since chief executive Lisa Havilah was stood aside in August pending an investigation into “governance and procurement practices”.
asserted
Havilah → act → practices
Undisclosed misconduct allegations involving Powerhouse executives have also been referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
asserted
allegations → involve → Corruption
The son of an Aboriginal mother and Croatian father, the quietly spoken Sen grew up in the NSW country towns of Tamworth and Inverell then, after studying at TAFE, trained at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
asserted
Sen → speak → School
He lives at Tamborine Mountain, inland from the Gold Coast, with his wife, Chen Xi, and sons aged 12 and 14.
asserted
He → live → wife
Sen’s famously intense devotion to filmmaking has made him almost a one-man crew on many of his films.
asserted
him → make → films
He is often writer, director, producer, casting agent, cinematographer, sound recordist, stills photographer, editor, composer, sound designer, distributor and – since teaching himself by watching YouTube videos – visual effects artist.
asserted
He → teach → videos
His challenge on Overflow was “finding the cinema in locations I didn’t choose”.
asserted
I → find → locations
He decided to focus on faces, stunning landscapes and magical wildlife moments, captured at times by drone and underwater camera.
asserted
He → decide → drone
“Out west the rivers are just a mess,” he says.
asserted
he → say → ?
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
