Artist and filmmaker Stefan Hunt wants you forget your fears and take that job, confront that bully and ask that cute girl from Spanish class out. Why not, he asks, because you’re all going to die anyway. He’s so convinced remembering your inevitable death is the secret to happiness that he’s put together an entire festival about it.
We’re All Going to Die will feature interactive artworks, panel discussions and films on the less-than-light topics of fear and death spread out over Commune in Waterloo’s expansive warehouse space.
If it all sounds a little morbid, Hunt assures audiences that the festival is actually a celebration of life – the message is that given life’s only guarantee is death, there’s no reason not to “kick fear in the nuts,” as he says, and make the most of every day.
Triple J’s Tom Tilley will be hosting panel discussions on fear and death, using his Hack interviewing chops to draw insights from psychologists to funeral directors on how death is viewed across different cultures and how fear hinders our ability to live a fulfilled life.
The globe-trotting Human Connection Movement will hold one of their ‘gazing workshops’, where participants stare deep into the eyes of a stranger to break down barriers and embrace vulnerability, while Groove Therapy invites audiences to remember all those secret dance parties you had as a kid in a nostalgic art performance held inside a neon-lit disco bedroom.
There’ll also be a mini film festival running throughout the evening, featuring two-minute pieces revolving around a single word, such as ‘failure’, ‘judgement’, ‘doubt’ and rejection, made by international directors including Smriti Keshari and Sam Kristofski.
Between events, visitors can walk around the space, taking in thought-provoking artworks in the form of living tombstones, death meditations and an eerily beautiful rainbow hearse.