SlowTV is a free internet TV channel delivering interviews, debates, conversations and public lectures about Australia's key political, social and cultural issues. It's a new format for the delivery of new ideas. SlowTV provides a forum for the nation's leading minds and conversationalists to explore the ideas that fascinate us and the challenges that face us. Our programs, accessible at any time at the click of a mouse, have the freedom to consider every angle and the time to cover issues in depth. As well as studio interviews and panel discussions, SlowTV presents speeches and public lectures from around the country. Each day, authors, activists, scholars, poets, politicians and thinkers speak in public, hosted by bookshops, universities, non-profit organisations and public institutions. SlowTV puts a curated selection of these speeches online, in full. SlowTV combines the editorial integrity and resources of The Monthly magazine with the potential of digital technology to put Australia's public-intellectual culture on your screen. It streams video content with no strings attached - no charges, no memberships, no commitments. Settle in to the leisurely pleasure of http://www.slowtv.com.au/tm/video
Geoff Dyer (Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, Paris Trance and many wonderful other books) is renowned for his discursive approach to an almost impossibly wide range of subjects. In his latest, Zona: A Book about a Film about a Journey to a Room, he explores the mysteries of a film that has haunted him ever since he saw it thirty years ago: Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest cinematic works of all time. In this very special event, a very entertaining G...
Australia may not suffer from the tyranny of distance (the phrase originally coined by Geoffrey Blainey) now so much as the tyranny of affluence. We are one of the very wealthiest of the world's nations, yet our society is riven by anger and complaints about the cost of living and how we are governed. Have we had too much of the good life? Historian Geoffrey Blainey and widely respected journalist George Megalogenis explore the conundrum. Presented by Sydney Writers' Festival, May 2012
Janette Turner Hospital, one of Australia’s most admired writers, speaks on a lifetime of writing – and teaching – literature. For almost three decades, Janette Turner Hospital’s award-winning fiction has won her acolytes here and in the US, where she now resides. She returns to her native shores to talk about Forecast: Turbulence, her third collection of stories set on both continents. In each story, Janette Turner Hospital reflects on a central question: how can we maintain equilibrium in a ...
When a writer invents a great character, what are the attendant expectations? Will he or she be for a novel, a story or a series? How does one develop and nurture a character over time and across genres? And what is the writer’s ongoing relationship with that character? In this panel, Garry Disher and Frank Moorhouse, who have created enduring characters - some lasting a trilogy, some much longer - join Julianne Schultz as she asks the question of character. Presented by Adelaide Writers' Week...
A political tsunami appears to be hitting the Australian Labor Party as it wrestles with the challenges of leadership and collapse in almost every state. According to Barry Jones, Labor’s politics are worse today than when the ALP spilt in 1955, or when the governor-general John Kerr dismissed the Whitlam Labor government in 1975, or when Paul Keating lost to John Howard in 1996. What has led to this situation and what may happen next? Speakers include Barry Jones, former President of the ALP ...
History and fiction have long made strange bedfellows. At this Adelaide Writers' Week event, four acclaimed writers discuss the very different ways they have used fiction to interrogate history. Javier Cercas’ best-selling writings have ingeniously explored the legacies of the Vietnam War and the Spanish Civil War; Ron Rash’s lyrical narratives have long mined the troubled history of the American South; Kate Grenville’s award-winning trilogy about life in colonial Australia has won her legions...
Best-selling Spanish novelist Javier Cercas burst into the English language world with his spectacular novel about the Spanish Civil War, Soldiers of Salamis. Soon after, he published The Speed of Light, a novel about the Vietnam War. Most recently Cercas has published The Anatomy of a Moment, a non-fiction book about the failed 1981 Spanish coup d'état. Cercas, one of Spanish literature’s most celebrated writers tells (host) Javier Diaz about his extraordinary new book. Presented by Adelaide ...
India and China seem on track for world domination in the next century. So apart from knowing they have a hunger for our minerals, what else should we know? Speakers: Paul French is based in Shanghai as a business advisor and analyst. He is the author of four works of Asian History; Michael Wesley is the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute; and Chetan Bhagat is 'the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history.' (NY Times) and one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential P...
The first National Report Card on mental health and suicide prevention is due to be released at the end of 2012. What will it say about Australia’s mental health services now - and what more needs to be done? Addressing the topic of mental health in Australia (and its treatment) are: Professor Allan Fels, head of the newly established National Mental Health Commission; former Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry, head of Orygen Youth Health and one of the National Mental Health Com...
At Adelaide Writers' Week, two novelists explore the vexing questions of contemporary manhood. Malcolm Knox’s novel The Life is a knowing rift on the life of a retired surfer. Deborah Roberston’s Sweet Old World tells the story of a man who falls in love with a mother trying to save her child. Their books paint complex and thoughtful portraits of contemporary masculinity, and in this conversation they explore their ideas further. Presented by Adelaide Writers' Week, March 2012