In 1972, George Seddon wrote Sense of Place, a landmark environmental study of the Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia. The book, which recently saw its third edition published by The University of Western Australia, ‘introduced the phrase “sense of place” into the fields of landscape, inspiring a new generation of researchers, academics, and enthusiasts to closely consider the dynamic between human land use and the natural environment.’

Wim Wenders discovered the book during one of his trips to Australia in the 1970s. Having already made ‘places’ the main characters in his first cinematic works, he found similarities to his own artistic approach and contextualised the expression in the field of cinema, as described in his book A Sense of Place (2005).

In 2020, Afsun Moshiry picked up on the theme and collaborated with the Wim Wenders Foundation on creating a multi-layered project of the same title. In this realm, Iranian filmmakers embarked on exploring their own cinematic definitions of ‘a Sense of Place’, resulting in eclectic and diverse films.

The motivation of George Seddon was to draw attention to the conditions of the Swan Coastal Plain region in Australia back then. The economic, environmental, and political upheavals of our days suggest that the discourse on ‘A Sense of Place’ has no expiration date.

In cooperation with DOCUDOC - International Documentary Film Festival.