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30: A moving image exhibition curated by Gareth Watkins at the New Zealand Film Archive

May 19 2014, by Jo Bragg

February this year marked the first NXT:14 Youth Leaders Conference hosted in Auckland and co-sponsored by the Auckland Pride Festival Trust and the US Embassy.

Image courtesy of The Film Archive

Image courtesy of The Film Archive

February this year marked the first NXT:14 Youth Leaders Conference hosted in Auckland and co-sponsored by the Auckland Pride Festival Trust and the US Embassy. The conference spanned three days and was held at the Unitec Mount Albert campus, with delegates representing LGBTQI youth groups around New Zealand and the Pacific Islands convening for leadership training, peer networking and policy discussions. Both my partner and I were honoured and delighted to attend. The people we met, and knowledge gained through attending NXT:14 is truly incomparable. The defining moment of the conference for me was guest speaker Professor Welby Ings heart-warming and thought provoking speech on his personal history and that of the wider LGBTQI community.

Needless to say, catching a glimpse of Kevin Todd’s panel (1954-1998), part of the New Zealand AIDS memorial quilt beautifully realised by Welby Ings and now the poster image for the Film Archives exhibition 30 compelled me to go along and have a look. Entering the exhibition space was a sobering experience, the multiplicity of selected video and quilt works mark this year as the 30th anniversary of the first person in New Zealand to have passed away of an aids related illness. The exhibition is an extremely moving and well executed act of remembrance which resonates with myself and the LGBTQI community and is something I hope that everyone experiences for themselves.

30 is open at the Film Archive until June 14, 84 Taranaki St, Wellington.

http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/now-showing/30-4/view/2014-05-19