Repeats

Repeats is a slide show film set to a soundtrack of answering-machine messages, accompanied by sequenced photographs that repeat and re-stage images from film history. Eleven narratives make up the work, each featuring the person who left the corresponding voice message. The work takes many of its cues from Chris Marker’s La Jetée (1962), the landmark experimental film composed almost entirely of still images — and one of several films ripped off here. Made in 2000, Repeats is itself a sequel — or repeat — of Daniel Mudie Cunningham’s earlier work The Ballad of Technological Dependency (1998), which was heavily indebted to the photography of Nan Goldin and William Yang, who appears in Repeats.

Directed by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Repeats leans on a strong ensemble — Deborah Mailman, Janneke Williamson, William Yang — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about screen titles of 0.