Working at the 'intersection of documentary and speculative fiction' Soda_Jerk's work is inherently fun and painstakingly pieced together, with a fundamental interest in how we understand images. Here's a little more about the radical collective, before you meet them face to face at SWIFF.
1. They are bad-ass Sydney-raised siblings, living in NYC by way of Berlin.
Dominique and Dan Angeloro are the Australian siblings behind Soda_Jerk, an art collective who creatively borrow and sample from existing films to create original movies full of new meaning. Since the early 2000s, the pair have spliced and remixed familiar scenes and stories, re-contextualising the segments to produce original narratives and alternative endings. Characters from decades of film and television meet in classic scenes that seamlessly meld one into another. Together they reveal a deep understanding of the history and theory of cinema through work which teeters, as they say, “at the intersection of documentary and speculative fiction”.
2. They’ve collaborated with their mash-up art soulmates, The Avalanches.
Crafted over 5 years of cross-continental collaboration, as the Avalanches (creators of the classic album Since I Left You) fed Soda_Jerk new tracks and in return Soda_Jerk crafted THE WAS, an exuberant, sprawling and toe-tappingly delightful 13 minute film. Try and catch all the source material before the credits roll!
3. The Ian Potter Cultural Foundation helped them to create Terror Nullius, alongside ACMI, but withdrew support 5 days out from the project’s debut.
Soda_Jerk responded, with warmest cheers, in an open letter with over 200k responses, that “it turns out that the Ian Potter Foundation like the idea of a politically engaged work much more than the reality of one. And 5 days out from the premiere of TERROR NULLIUS they pulled their support from the work they commissioned, because it’s not in line with their conservative political values. They even called it “un-Australian”, which we guess we can thank them for, providing the film with a perfect tagline to carry for the rest of its life.”
4.Their collective name, Soda_Jerk is a reference to Soda Fountain workers of milk bars and diners.
A pun, born from Soda Clerk, Soda Jerk’s were the young workers who made a performance of ‘jerking’ the soda fountain pump, and were popular from the 1920’s to the 50’s. Their slang for certain drinks is still used today such as Java, which meant coffee.
5. They’re coming to share the film at SWIFF!
And who do they want to see the project: “Anyone, everyone.
Australians, unAustralians, queers, kids, migrants, misfits, people of
colour, punks, pirates, protesters, shift workers, shit stirrers, the
overeducated, the underprivileged, seniors and survivors. But also:
the right, the racists, the radio jocks, the rich.
