The Media Project

A series of views, prompting conflict and tension, often dividing down gender lines, emerge as Australian media professionals watch their country’s coverage of the 1991 Gulf War.

  • Director

    Peter Watkins

  • With

    Paul Cox, Michelle Finigan, Nadja Kostich

  • Australia 1991. 120min

  • Video

Part-video-art essay, part-staged drama, this little known but fascinating piece centres on an after-dinner discussion about Australian TV coverage of the 1991 Gulf War. The diners, all media workers, play themselves in scenes that mix scripted dialogue with genuine response, while Watkins, demonstrating an unexpected feel for video’s analogue materiality, illustrates how consent for the war is manipulated through television spectacle.

William Fowler