The Beehive (2018)

• 84%
• 2018
• Documentary
• Zanny Begg
• Pamela Rabe
• Koko Carey
• Julie Cooper

"The Beehive speculates on the circumstances of Nielsen's murder by presenting 1,344 algorithmic generated possible scenarios, each version pieced together from documentary footage and fictional scenes involving Nielsen (played by various actors). This fragmented, non-linear approach prevents the viewer from seeing the whole picture, or fully resolving their own interpretation of events; after all, the case remains open. What is clear across versions is the connection made between gentrification and colonization, which forms the powerful central message of the work." LAURA FESLIER, ArtAsiaPacific Magazine."While The Beehive is the important story of an unsolved murder of someone who spoke truth to power and campaigned against gentrification and the erasure of community, the film's form makes us do the cognitive work of connecting the pieces and finding patterns. In presenting us with more versions than we will surely watch, and an awareness of material that we will not see, The Beehive highlights not only what can be known, but also what cannot." KIM MUNRO, The Conversation."The Beehive, meanwhile, scores two coups: filming takes place partly inside 202 Victoria Street, with the supportive present-day owner's permission, while Nielsen's lover, David Farrell, who was devastated by her murder, is interviewed on camera, and even recreates the phone messages he left for her on the day she disappeared." Steve Dow, The MonthlyOn July 4th, 1975 Juanita Nielsen, low-income housing activist, style icon, and journalist, known for her large beehive hairdo, went to what she believed was a "business meeting" at The Carousel Club, Kings Cross, Sydney and vanished, never to be seen again. Juanita was involved in the Green Bans movement, a powerful 1970s alliance between residents and trade unions, that defended the right of low-income communities to live in the inner city of Sydney, particularly in Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo. She campaigned against the violent eviction of long-term tenants on Victoria Street, Kings Cross, who were being pushed out to make way for the construction of high-rise apartment blocks. Her struggle revealed dark connections between developers, organised crime, corrupt police officers, and state power; her death forming a riddle that lies at the heart of contemporary Sydney.In The Beehive, Zanny Begg has teamed up with software engineer Andy Nicholson to create a randomized non-linear video installation that allows multiple versions of the story to unfold. There are over 1344 versions of the film, each viewing offering a unique insight into this unsolved mystery. The Beehive won the inaugural $70,000 ACMI and Artbank commission and premiered at ACMI on July 31, 2018. It had its Sydney premiere at the 2019 Sydney Festival at UNSW Galleries in 2019.