The Garden

Now that we've said sorry, what do we do with the heritage? Do we demolish and move on, or do we commemorate so we can move on?

  • Katrina Lolicato
    Director
    Her Grace, Terramuri
  • Arc Up Australia
    Producer
  • Phillis Read
    Key Cast
  • Katrina Lolicato
    Editor
  • Gracie Lolicato
    Interveiws
  • Katrina Lolicato
    Interveiws
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 49 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 23, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    2,500 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    8mm
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Katrina Lolicato

Katrina Lolicato is a woman of Sicilian, Calabrese and Abruzzese heritage living and working across Kulan Nation Country. Trained in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Katrina's short experimental films utilise oral history, environmental sound, sonic ethnography, home archives and other lost & found archival footage to cut and paste bits and pieces of the Australian social and cultural experience. In a style that is intentionally unrefined and a little kitsch but always critical and ultimately optimistic, Katrina explores issues of belonging, problems of social justice, the experience of memory-making and mortality.

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Director Statement

When we met Phylis, she was despondent, tired and in ill health. Her plight to save something of the Ballarat Orphanage site had all but failed. Developers had succeeded in avoiding any real acknowledgement of the experiences of the lost and stolen generation. All she wanted was a memorial garden, a place to remember and visit. This film is my way of offering her that place. The hope is that in this form, her rightful desire to have the experience of her orphanage brothers and sisters passed on to future generations will in some small way succeed. I offer this garden, imbued with her memory as a fulfilment of a promise made to do what we could to keep remembering.

Moments of dropped frames and cuts with interruption allude to what is fast becoming unseeable. The audience might interpret the repeated image of the web as symbolic of deceit or of truth in its totality, of danger or beauty. Subtle changes in volume remind the audience of the director's hand in selecting history.

To create this garden, I utilised found footage of several families' holidays across Australia, sourced on online marketplaces. The makers are unknown and their experiences too, it seems were not deemed relevant or worthy of being kept by their original owners. Re-presented in this new context, I also honour those original makers. With their perspectives added to the story, together they create the memorial for all Australians.