What does love mean to you?

That’s the question at the heart of one of this year’s most quietly powerful new works. Inspired by Wendy Clarke’s landmark Love Tapes project, CDoc invited members of the Castlemaine community into a simple recording booth to share their own three-minute reflection – unscripted, unedited, entirely their own.

Speaking directly to themselves, contributors respond in their own way: through story, confession, humour, music or silence. Each recording is shown in full and unedited. Together they form a collective video artwork capturing a wide spectrum of voices and emotional truths –  an evolving portrait of our community, and the beginning of an ongoing body of work.

Two or three of these recordings will screen before each session across the festival weekend. You are in for surprises.

Alongside these new local recordings, CDoc will present a curated selection from Clarke’s original archive: intimate, surprising, unforgettable testimonies gathered from everyday people since 1977. Hearing Castlemaine voices alongside this half-century of human reflection is something special.

And in a significant milestone, the CDoc Love Compilations will be archived alongside the original collection at the University of Wisconsin – making this the first Australian contribution to a global project now comprising over 2,500 recordings.