Destruction of Memory: The War Against Culture, And The Battle to Save It

The Destruction of Memory - Palmyra

Kathleen Fitzpatrick Lecture Theatre, Basement, Arts West Building 148, Medical Road, University of Melbourne

Join director Tim Slade for a free and exclusive screening of this major documentary, followed by a Q&A session featuring a panel of experts.

Over the past century, cultural destruction has wrought catastrophic results across the globe. This war against culture is not over - it's been steadily increasing.

In Syria and Iraq, the ‘cradle of civilization’, millennia of culture are being destroyed. The push to protect, salvage and rebuild has moved in step with the destruction.

Legislation and policy have played a role, but heroic individuals have fought back, risking and losing their lives to protect not just other human beings, but our cultural identity - to save the record of who we are.

Based on the book of the same name by Robert Bevan, The Destruction of Memory tells the whole story - looking not just at the ongoing actions of Daesh (ISIS) and at other contemporary situations, but revealing the decisions of the past that allowed the issue to remain hidden in the shadows for so many years.

Interviewees in the film include the Director-General of UNESCO, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as diverse and distinguished international experts, whose voices combine to address this urgent issue.

A joint presentation of the Australian Collaboratory for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH), based within the Melbourne School of Design, the Australian Institute for Art History and the University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts.