SEAN O’KEEFFE Punarjanman
Single-channel video, screened as part of Lumière at Mount Vic Flicks. 15min 34sec 2021-22
Real To Reel Mentorship : Katoomba High School, Mount Victoria Primary School and Community
Punarjanman explores concepts of liminality with direct reference to the town of Mt Victoria and the wider Blue Mountains and the collective experiences of significant and unpredictable change. It is a collaborative work that brought together Stage 3,4,5 and 6 students, and staff of predominantly two NSW schools (Mt Victoria Primary School and Katoomba High School), and the wider Blue Mountains community.
The title Punjarnman पुनर्जन्मन्. is a Sanskrit word that refers to the concept of "repeated birth", "transmigration", "re-birth" or "a principle of diachronic ontogeny". It is used as a metaphorical reference to the constant change and rebirth that has taken place in the past three years, culturally, environmentally and emotionally.
At once fragile, vibrant, melancholic and life-affirming, Punjarnman showcases the talents of students from Katoomba High School’s Creative Arts programs and Support Unit, Mount Victoria Public School, and the local community. Collaborating and adapting throughout the pandemic to create an original music video, Punjarnman is a unique and touching response to our collective trauma experiences over the past few years as a result of multiple natural disasters and the prolonged impacts of the pandemic. However, it is ultimately a celebration of our capacity for resilience, hope and strength, and the persistence of the human spirit. It honours the extraordinary tenacity of our Blue Mountains children, young adults, families and communities, who kept going and stayed connected, even in the face of life-altering experiences.
Sean O’Keeffe is a multi-disciplinary artist working in video, painting and site-specific sculpture. His time-based works reference formal and experimental cinematic histories of the moving image, and often depict a scene or event viewed from multiple perspectives, as he captures real-life moments via patient observation. His interest in ‘le moment decisive’ aligns his practice with early Realist photography, employing practices common to the observational documentary style, Cinéma Vérité. His films are concomitant with self-documentation and external surveillance, distorting moments to align with the subjective memory of occurrences, as he remembers them. Sean’s works have featured in Electro Fringe, was highly commended in the 2002 Blake Prize, and acquired by The ACMI in 2004. Sean teaches film-making to young people, and with them, has produced a number of award winning films.
