ACMI: Game of Thrones

This month at ACMI’s Live in the Studio forum the topic is Game of Thrones.

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) continues its homage to the small screen with its continuing program Live in the Studio. Dissecting, highlighting and relishing all things made for TV, this series appears each month with pundits from pop-culture, academia and industry experts.Together they present unique points of view on television events that sit on the knife edge (or garden fence) between analysis and entertainment.

So, bring your tissues to mop up tears of laughter (and sometimes sorrow), your thinking caps for newperspectives and shrug off any thoughts of shame about how much you love TV – we’re in the same boat!

“Tell me, if I stabbed the Mad King in the belly instead of the back, would you admire me more?”
– Jamie Lannister, Game of Thrones Season 1, Episode 3

Created for HBO by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and first airing in 2011 on US TV with a season 1 budget of approx $55million dollars, Game of Thrones has hit the ‘Best of 2011’ lists worldwide, including The Washington Post and TIME. Critics  have noted that the production values have not been wasted, as this adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s book A Song of Ice and Fire, has brought well realised worlds, compelling characters and even a whole new language ‘Dolthraki’ – made specifically for the series by linguists
creating its unique sound, complex grammatical structure and over 1,800 words.

This cult sensation has caught the eye of July’s TV buff’s who feel ‘we need to talk’. Paul Verhoeven (Triple J) will be joined by Dr Djoymi Baker, author George Ivanoff (Gamers series) and Clementine Ford to delve into the world of Westeros with its murderous plots, incest, gender role discussions, harsh terrain and even harsher familial codes. Is David Benioff’s affectionate description of the series “the Soprano’s in Middle Earth” accurate?

With 2,738,237[i] Facebook likes and increasing on a daily basis, let’s chat about Game of Thrones as we farewell season 2, and eagerly await season 3.

Thu 26 July 2012, 7pm
www.acmi.net.au