Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / Oceania / Australia / All Films

A Frontier Conversation

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

A Frontier Conversation
Buy Now: $320.00

A fascinating journey through the Top End of Australia to explore what history means to the traditional landowners.

A Frontier Conversation documents a unique collaboration between indigenous and white historians from Australia and North America. In September 2004, a diverse group travelled through the Top End of Australia meeting representatives of the traditional landowners, and engaging in a dialogue about indigenous history. The themes that emerged raised more questions than answers - from cultural appropriation and copyright, to land rights, the role of language and art, and what history means to indigenous communities in the current climate of cultural reclamation and survival. Narrated by Professor Ann McGrath, Director of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History at the Australian National University, A Frontier Conversation is a fascinating and thought-provoking account of a journey that breaks away from "the History Wars" and signals the first step in a new approach to the study of frontier history.

"A Frontier Conversation asks intriguing questions, and has some unexpected answers. At one level, it's a very simple and watchable film about a group of historians from Australia and the United States visiting Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, and talking with them about the importance of history. As the film progresses, we realise that its concerns are not simple at all. They are nothing less than the complex problem of the very different uses that history is put to in different cultural settings, and its varied meanings and consequences as a result. The film asks some difficult questions: such as how valuable can histories written by outsiders to any community be? What are the responsibilities of the historian, Indigenous or not, to the people whose stories he or she attempts to tell?"
— Ann Curthoys, Manning Clark Professor of History, Australian National University

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Fantome Island

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

Fantome Island
Buy Now: $320.00

In 1945 seven-year-old Joe Eggmolesse was diagnosed with Leprosy. He was taken from his family under police escort and transported by rail and sea over a thousand kilometres to Fantome Island where he was to be incarcerated for the next ten years.

The isolated tropical island off the North Queensland coast became home to a close-knit community of indigenous “lepers” whose marginalized existence was hidden from white society and has until now remained absent from the mainstream historical record. Cared for by nuns from the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary their isolation was the consequence of apartheid-like policies developed by the Queensland government and medical establishment which espoused a eugenicist philosophy and regarded racial segregation as standard practice.

As one of the few surviving former patients Joe returns to the island for a long awaited event, the Fantome Island Remembrance Day. As a 73 year old Elder he confronts the memory of his childhood on the island to pay tribute to those who lived and died there and to inscribe his own unique story into official Australian history. Drawing on an evocative archive, this film exposes how an ideology of racism and eugenics worked to justify horrific treatment of Australia's Indigenous communities.

In uncovering this shameful history, Fantome Island is a testimony of strength and endurance, demonstrating one man's incredible capacity for forgiveness and love.

Selected Festivals

Official Selection, Etnofilm, 5th Ethnographic FilmFestival, Rovijn Croatia, 2013

John Oxley Memory Award - State Library Of Qld, 2012

Best Australian Documentary, Human Rights Arts & FilmFestival, Melbourne, 2012

Finalist, ATOM Awards - Best Documentary History, Social& Political Issues, 2012

First Factual Films Festival, Adelaide, 2012

Brisbane International Film Festival, 2011

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Kurtal

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:13:00 GMT

Kurtal
Buy Now: $295.00

Kurtal - Snake Spirit tells the story of Spider, a sprightly 80 year old Aboriginal elder who travels from Fitzroy Crossing into the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia to visit a jila - a sacred waterhole. Spider is one of the main custodians responsible for the practices that take place there. For the first time, he is taking his family and community elders back to his birthplace, where he will communicate with their ancestors through Kurtal, the Snake Spirit in an ancient ritual.

This unique documentary examines the ongoing change faced by a remote Aboriginal community and their determination to maintain their close links to birthplace and country. It shows the passing on of traditional knowledge from father to son and grandson, and the vital and sustained connection to ancestry and customs. It is a celebration of strong tradition and culture thriving through the spirit and willingness of the next generation.

To Spider and his community, Kurtal is not only a snake spirit but also their dreaming song. It has powerful and mysterious forces at work. Water in the desert means life and Kurtal is a "living water". When people who were born at Kurtal die, their spirit returns to the waterhole. Spider is one of the remaining elders born at Kurtal and a key custodian responsible for the practices that take place there. For the first time, Spider is taking his family back to Kurtal to visit their ancestors' spirits.

Kurtal - Snake Spirit explores the evolution of the Aboriginal culture. It shows not the dying out of these ancient ceremonies but the need for them to be carried on by the younger generations. The spirit is strong in the elders to pass on their traditions and the spirit is strong in the younger generations to take these traditions and keep them alive and vital.

Kurtal - Snake Spirit is co-directed by Nicole Ma and Michelle Mahrer, two multi award-winning filmmakers renown for their dance films with indigenous communities throughout the world. Beautifully photographed by Warwick Thornton, Michelle Mahrer and Cameron McGrath, this film takes a stunning look at a resilient group of people practicing ancient traditions in a contemporary society, and the immense impact this is having on their culture.

Kurtal - Snake Spirit is a unique documentary, providing an unprecedented insight into the private ceremonies and practices of a community intent on maintaining its strong cultural and spiritual links with the past.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Indigenous Resource, Best Short Form Documentary, Australian Teachers of Media Awards, 2002

Best Documentary, Religion Today, International Festival of Cinema & Religion, Italy, 2003
Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast, 2003
Documentary & Ethnographic Film Festival of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2003
DC Independent Film Festival, Washington DC, 2004
The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival, Oregon, 2004
Athens International Film & Video Festival, Athens, Ohio, 2004
UCLA Vitas Film and Folklore Festival, 2004
Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2004

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Remembering Yayayi

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 08:59:00 GMT

Remembering Yayayi
Buy Now: $320.00

Remembering Yayayi reflects on a pivotal moment in the history of Pintupi people through a body of archival film.

In 1974, filmmaker Ian Dunlop visited Yayayi, a remote community in Central Australia. The Pintupi people had recently moved there to get away from the difficulties of living at the larger permanent government settlement of Papunya. Dunlop had come to Yayayi to follow up on the lives of people he had photographed ten years earlier as they were leaving their Western Desert homeland for the first time. He never made a film with the material he shot there and Yayayi has long since been abandoned.

In 2006, anthropologist Fred Myers — who appears in the Yayayi footage as a young PhD student — took the footage to show it to Pintupi now living on their own land at Kintore and Kiwirrkura. At Kintore, Myers linked up with Marlene Nampitjinpa, a woman who also appears throughout the footage — as a lively young girl. She was delighted to see scenes of her family as they had been living some thirty years earlier.

In this film, Marlene Nampitjinpa and Ian Dunlop share their memories of Yayayi with Fred Myers. They look back at the important period of transition that the archival footage represents as Pintupi people struggled to take control of their destiny.

Remembering Yayayi draws attention to the value that archival material has for contemporary Indigenous people. We see the not so distant past of Pintupi Aboriginal people as it is interpreted in the present by Marlene — with a poignant mixture of pleasure and sadness. Here, contradictory feelings sit alongside each other: nostalgia with feelings of loss; an admiration for the strength of the old people with an acknowledgement of incipient problems that people continue to face.

Included on the DVD:

Marlene's Story (color, 32 min, 2014)

Charismatic Pintupi elder and leader, Marlene Nampitjinpa Spencer, was born in the Australian Western Desert, among people still living a hunting and gathering life. Here she tells her full life story, including the incredible journey she made at the age of three when she and her mother walked some 500 kilometres to the government settlement of Papunya. She tells how, against all odds, the Pintupi eventually established settlements back on their own land.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Festival International Jean Rouch, Paris, France, 2015

RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Bristol, UK, 2015

Nordic Anthropological Film Association Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland, 2015

Marburg International Ethnografic Film Festival, Marburg, Germany, 2015

Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, USA, 2014

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Tender

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

Tender
Buy Now: $320.00

In Port Kembla, Australia, a feisty and resilient community group is determined to take back the responsibility that most leave to strangers — caring for their own dead. However, as their plans for a community-based funeral organization gather momentum, they are put to the test when one of their own is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Tender is a heart-breaking and beautiful glimpse of an extraordinary group of people as they take on one of the most essential challenges of human life: its end.

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The Redfern Story

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

The Redfern Story
Buy Now: $320.00

By the early 1970s, the Sydney suburb of Redfern had grown to be the largest aboriginal community in Australia. Gradual revocation of reserve lands forced many to move to this affordable suburb, quickly overpopulating the area and resulting in tensions between the new inhabitants and police. Though a 1967 Referendum promised to provide long-awaited support to Aboriginal Australians, little changed, and many still struggled with daily experiences of racism and prejudice. In 1971, a small group of Redfern activists came together to seek out ways in which they could address the systematic oppression faced by their community.

The Redfern Story documents the crucial work of a group of Redfern activists who used theatre to bring the fight for indigenous rights to the larger public in Australia. Influenced by the Black Power movement in the United States, founder Bob Maza and his peers began their work with informal street theatre and protests in 1971. The project quickly grew as a creative outlet for the community, and its success developed in tandem with a number of other community-led organizations, including the Australian Medical and Legal Services. By its close in 1977, the National Black Theatre had become a hub for Aboriginal activism extending beyond theatre. The film combines interviews with community activists, archival news, and performance footage to offer a historically rich look at the emerging indigenous rights movement in Australia.

Filmmaker Darlene Johnson experienced Redfern and its vibrant theatre scene as a child growing up in the community in the early 1970s. The Redfern Story is her tribute to this significant and rich part of modern Aboriginal history which until now has been virtually undocumented.

“A fascinating collection of stories told with passion and humour about a politically explosive and culturally important chapter of Australian history.”
— Sydney Morning Herald

“This is an extraordinary film that shines a light on otherwise unknown aspects of Australian history. As such it should be an important inclusion in the education curriculum in all schools and universities throughout Australia.”
— Dr. Gary Foley

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Documentary - Social & Political Issues, ATOM Awards, 2015

Durban International Film Festival, Durban, South Africa, 2016

Skabmagovat Film Festival, Finland, 2016

The People's Film Festival, Harlem, NY, 2016

Hawaiian International Film Festival, 2015

Margaret Mead Documentary Film Festival, New York, 2015

Sydney International Film Festival, 2014

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Taking Pictures

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:56:00 GMT

Taking Pictures
Buy Now: $320.00

Australia's most internationally renowned documentarists (Kildea, O'Rourke, Connolly/Robin Anderson) are part of a group of expatriates who honed their documentary filmcraft while residents of Papua New Guinea. Their films, brimming with wit and character, capture the energy and contradictions of a country in transition from a backward colony, to a young nation in the modern world.

But whose stories are they? Filmmakers are now often challenged about cultural rights, and the Western domination of representation. Taking Pictures explores the issues and pitfalls of filming across a cultural boundary - through interviews with Australian filmmakers and by sampling their powerful award winning documentaries about PNG that include First Contact, Trobriand Cricket, The Shark Callers of Kontu, Joe Leahy's Neighbours, Black Harvest, Cannibal Tours and Man Without Pigs. It also covers the work of indigenous PNG filmmakers, and their own experience of interpreting film and culture.

Taking Pictures is a inquiry into the practicalities, politics and aesthetics of the documentary experience.

"A 1930's black and white clip of Papua New Guinea (PNG) people opens this stunning documentary film. We never see the photographer, a white Australian explorer. The people in front of the camera are not actors yet they are acting. Victor Turner called life a performance and we are all in a play. In a documentary film we expect reality and yet only get a glimpse of what we want reality to be. The question is, are the people playing to the camera or is the action real? Is it part of reality or a play? For anyone interested in cultural ramifications of documentary film or ethnography this is more than a glimpse into the lives behind the lens and in front of it. I would highly recommend this film for college/university undergraduates, graduates and faculty."— Patricia Sarchet, MLS, State University of New York at Buffalo

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