All Wedding Wishes
 
 

ALL WEDDING WISHES (2016)

Featuring Nahren Georges, the Georges family & Sonia Odisho

Artist/Director Kate Blackmore
Cinematographer Bonnie Elliott
Editor Kate Blackmore
Camera Assistants Jamie Gray & Michael Filocamo
Sound Design & Mix Fred Rodrigues
Community/Cultural Consultants Layla Naji & Delilah Shinko
Translators Delilah Shinko & Nohara Odicho

2-Channel Video Installation, 18mins

This project was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art in partnership with PYT Fairfield and the Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture & Trauma Survivors (STARTTS).

 

Fairfield, in Sydney’s South Western suburbs, is home to Australia’s largest Assyrian community. Assyrian weddings are the biggest in the region – they are major cultural events where ancient and modern rituals collide. Kate Blackmore’s 2-channel video installation ‘All Wedding Wishes’ explores the significance of Fairfield’s Assyrian-Australian weddings through the experience of first generation Australian bride, Nahren Georges. Weaving together interviews, observational sequences and surreal musical interludes by popular local Assyrian wedding singer Sonia Odisho, the work also illuminates the important function of the wedding videographer in mediating the event to family members remaining in Iraq. ‘All Wedding Wishes’ goes behind the spectacle to reveal how Assyrian-Australian weddings offer a form of escapism, cultural connection and community cohesion for those living in diaspora.