Capital Life January 20, 2023: New exhibitions at M16 and PhotoAccess are highlights

Before its national cinema release, the National Film and Sound Archive presents You Can Go Now on Wednesday January 25 at 6pm. This summary of 50 years of First Nations activism in Australia through the lens of artist Richard Bell wad directed by author, filmmaker, broadcaster and legal academic Professor Larissa Behrendt. It documents Bell's extraordinary career trajectory and explores his resolve to increase Indigenous emancipation and self-determination. After the screening, Larissa Behrendt and Richard Bell will join the archive for a Q&A session moderated by Wodi Wodi woman Gillian Moody, senior manager of Indigenous Programming at the NFSA. On Thursday January 26 at 2pm, the archive will host a free screening of Ningla A-na, the only film documenting the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. See: nfsa.gov.au.

PhotoAccess is now showing this exhibition, a collaboration by artist Claire Letitia Reynolds and interviewer Sasha Parlett that celebrates the journey of the all Aboriginal First XI of 1868, through film and photography. It features current Australian Indigenous cricketers, direct descendants of the First XI, and Elders from mainland Australia and the Torres Strait. Reynolds' portraits of the athletes are a conceptual portrayal of the 1868 team, and have been created utilising analogue and digital processes, with handcrafted dyes from native Australian species that reference the connection between Australian Indigenous people, culture and Country. We Are One - The First XI is on until Saturday, February 11. See: photoaccess.org.au.

Genevieve Swifte's upcoming exhibition of portraits, self-portraits and still-life pictures at Studio Altenburg at 104 Wallace Street, Braidwood forms a diaristic or documentary narrative of trauma and intimacy. The drawings are predominantly made with pencil on weightless and often damaged Japanese papers. Drapery, anatomical studies and geometric abstractions are informed by historical art references in Swifte's work. There will be drinks with the artist at the opening on Friday, January 27 at 6pm. The exhibition runs until February 18. See: studioaltenburg.com.au.

Applications for the Canberra Symphony Orchestra's new Kingsland Fellowship are now open. If you are a tertiary/postgrad student playing music at an advanced level, the fellowship will allow you to access professional training and mentorship tailored to your unique artistic goals. Applications close on January 31. See: cso.org.au.