Published
2-7-2025
Type of Work
Conference Presentation
Abstract
Through the Glass Darkly is an experimental Australian-Indonesian film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, employing fragmented narratives, hallucinatory imagery, and cross-cultural spiritual frameworks to explore violence, guilt, and moral corruption. The project emerged from a collaboration between Australian and Indonesian film professionals and educators. Drawing on trauma cinema aesthetics and Indonesian mystical traditions (Kebatinan, Rangda masks), the adaptation structures itself around five vignettes: prophecy, murder, hallucination, retribution, and washing. The filmmaker employs a "heuretic" research methodology, prioritizing exploration over interpretation, to create a hybrid cultural text that interrogates Western canonical literature through postcolonial perspectives while navigating censorship through international collaboration.
Citation
Thompson, J. (2025). Through the Glass Darkly: Cross-Cultural Collaboration and the Experimental Adaptation of Shakespeare. Revelation Perth International Film Festival Academic Conference. Creo.
Included in
Film Production Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Screenwriting Commons, Visual Studies Commons