About

WHAT IS #HATMAUS?

Historians at the Movies Australia, or HATMAus, is a weekly live watch party on Twitter. Hosted by Dr Joel Barnes and Dr Chelsea Barnett, each Sunday evening we watch a film and live-tweet our way through, using the hashtag #HATMAus. Born at the beginning of COVID-19 lockdown as a way to maintain connection and conversation, #HATMAus has transformed into a community of film lovers and friends. We historicise, we talk, we share memories, insights, and gifs. Best of all, we welcome everyone, historians and non-historians alike! 

WHAT WE DO

Each week, Joel and Chelsea will announce the film for that Sunday’s session on Twitter and this blog. All of the films selected are available to stream on Netflix Australia, Stan Australia, or SBS On Demand. We all press play at 8pm AEDT (watch out for Joel’s tweet telling us when to press play!) and then we tweet our way through, sharing our thoughts with #HATMAus. Some weeks we have an expert co-hosting the viewing party; they’ll share their own knowledge and insight into the film as we go along. 

GOT A SUGGESTION?

We love when we receive film suggestions, so if you have something in mind, let us know! Whether you would like to act as cohost, or just want to see it on the #HATMAus program, we’re always open to your ideas — jump over to the Contact page for our Twitter handles and send us a message. We use JustWatch to check which films are streaming on our preferred platforms, and encourage you to confirm your film’s availability before reaching out. A final, quick word on non-English films: we love lots of films from all around the world, but find that it’s difficult to live-tweet while paying attention to subtitles. For that reason, we stick to English-speaking films (and lament all the wonderful films we’re missing out on!).

any relation to #HATM?

There sure is! We reached out to Jason Herbert, PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota and original creator of #HATM, who very generously allowed us to create an Australian version of the concept. If you want to read more about #HATM, visit the website, check out this article for the Organization of American Historians, or follow Jason on Twitter @herberthistory.