Elsie (2024) is an artefact of experimental, collaborative film making - capturing both a realised design on screen, and the process of making it. 

Subverting traditional film production structures and processes, three co-designers - Rikkili Clark, Genevieve Douthwaite, and Ella Drinkwater - responded to archival materials to understand and imagine the interior of Australia’s first domestic violence refuge for women and children, which began in 1974 as a squat in the Sydney suburb of Glebe. 

This project aimed to orient itself towards openness, alterity and collaboration over hierarchical authority or individual creative authorship. Alongside Rikki, Gen, and Ella, it was created by: Jem Batley, Jasmine Bishop, Finbarr Collins, Kath Davis, Barnaby Lewer, Ivan Ordenes, Genevieve Patrick, Ruby Reardon, Devamanikandan Kannaya Somu, Azi Wallmeyer, and Jordan Yankov. 

If you’d like to reference Elsie, please use: Clark, R., Douthwaite, G., Drinkwater, E., et al. (2024) Elsie. [Video work]

This project was created in the course of Ella Drinkwater’s exegesis research, which explored possibilties of feminist practice for production designers, as a part of the Master of Arts Screen: Production Design at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. 

If you’d like to chat more about our project, or about Ella’s exegesis, get in touch: 
ella.drinkwater@live.com