Filmmaker Ara Devine in conversation at difficult conversations symposium.

Filmmaker and Future Screens NI funding recipient Ara Devine recently spoke with Paul Moore about the Future Creatives funded film short Turf for the difficult conversations symposium. The symposium was a collaboration between the University of Canberra, Ulster University and the British Council structured to ask what role can the arts and creativity play in navigating unresolved concerns, ongoing debates and controversial questions for our communities?

Exploring complex topics, from reconciliation and truth-telling in the context of colonialism to polarising social or political issues, this symposium featured exchanges between leading artists and researchers from Australia and Northern Ireland about difficult conversations we, as a globally connected society, need to have today.

More information and a recording of Ara and Paul’s conversation can be found here.

The difficult conversations symposium was a live-streamed panel discussion featuring a conversation between university leaders and artists from Canberra and Ulster opening on 24 March 2022.

The Future Creatives scheme from Future Screens NI had been designed to enable participants to make a step change in their research and innovation by enhanced leadership and collaboration skills and developing new practices in the field of creativity and technology