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Media release:       16 October 2024   

‘STIRRER’ PROFESSOR DEB VERHOEVEN TO SPEAK ON ARCHIVAL APPETITES  AT ANNUAL WALLACE LECTURE

Award winning international film critic, broadcaster, author, thinker and self-described ‘stirrer’ Professor Deb Verhoeven will deliver the 2024 Rod Wallace Memorial Lecture for the Friends of the NFSA on 14 November at the NFSA’s Arc Cinema, beginning at 6 pm. Her topic Archival Appetites: In search of a national cinema reflects her long involvement in developing cinema studies and in the work of the NFSA itself.    

Hosted by the Friends, the lecture is open to the public and the venue is generously provided by the NFSA. The event will commence with a welcoming reception at 5.30 pm followed by the lecture at 6 pm. Bookings are essential

Professor Deb Verhoeven is currently the Canada 150 Research Chair in Gender and Cultural Informatics at the University of Alberta.  Previously she was Associate Dean of Engagement and Innovation at the University of Technology, Sydney, and before that, Professor of Media and Communication at Deakin University. A former CEO of the Australian Film Institute and Director of the AFI Research Collection at RMIT, she was the founding Deputy Chair of the NFSA Board from 2008 to 2011. Active in film publishing, she is a past chair of the journal Senses of Cinema and editor of the journal  Studies in Australian Cinema and author of over 200 books and articles. She is a member of several international bodies concerned with film criticism and research. 

The Friends of the NFSA established the annual Rod Wallace Memorial lecture to commemorate the pioneering achievement of Roderick Wallace AM. During 32 years of service at the National Library of Australia (1945-1977) as an innovator, advocate and mentor, he oversaw the development of its special collections, including film, music and sound recordings, and laid the foundations that would eventually enable eventual the creation of the NFSA as a separate institution in 1984. The lecture series aims to reflect aspects of the preservation, accessibility and dissemination of the audiovisual heritage.

Further information:

Contact Friends’ President, Dr Ray Edmondson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (phone 0413 486 849)

Bookings can be made here.

Website:   https://www.archivefriends.org.au/index.php/events-news/rod-wallace-lectures 

The 2024 Rod Wallace Memorial Lecture

14 November 2024   5.30 for 6 pm at the

Arc Cinema, National Film and Sound Archive

Archival Appetites: in search of a national cinema

Presented by Professor Deb Verhoeven

What are we looking for when we build an archive? Or when we visit one? What famishments fuel an archival appetite?

There are many reasons for national archives, ranging from instrumental record keeping to the historical legacies of institutionalised collecting.

This talk explores the way “search” has shaped the National Film and Sound Archive at both a pragmatic level and as revealing a foundational appetite at the heart of our national cinema; a sense of human yearning, and an implicit acknowledgement that something is missing or lost. 

      More about Rod Wallace and the lecture series here