Thursday 13 November 2008

OZDOX - The Australian Documentary Forum and
The Australian Director's Guild
in association with AFTRS
supported by Metroscreen and
Sydney Film School
presents

In My Father's Country



WHAT: 


Screening, discussion and Q&A with the filmmakers


WHERE: 


AFTRS - 130 Bent St, Entertainment Quarter
NOTE NEW VENUE
http://www.aftrs.edu.au/aboutus/ContactUs/NSWACT.aspx


WHEN: 


Thursday 13 November 2008 - 6.30pm for 7pm start.

ENTRY: 

Suggested donation $5 - NO RSVP required.

In one of the most remote corners of indigenous Australia a boy will soon become a man. His father has told him that his initiation will be soon.

This film documents a rare and intimate moment in the life of a family living in Dhuruputjpi, a remote indigenous community in north-east Arnhem Land. Set against the political backdrop of Government pressure to close 'un-economic outstations' this small community is doing its best to integrate the understandings of its ancestors with the demands of life in the globalised 21st Century.

Told simultaneously through the eyes of a seven year old boy and his community elders, we are invited to witness the indigenous world of one of the most inaccessible communities in Australia. We see the challenges and joys of a society desperate to shield its younger generations from the corruptions of the individualist West, yet equally desperate to encourage computer skills and English literacy. The battleground may be familiar, but the day-to-day challenges are oddly surprising. How can the song of Baraltja - the Lightning Snake Creator Being - compete with the slick videos of 50 Cent and Eminem?

"This is an intimate film, accessible to a wide audience, about a community and culture that is very different to that of mainstream Australia but where ultimately people are very much the same. We all care equally about our kids, their education, happiness, and future security.

In the film we are witness to a world as seen by a seven year old Yolngu Aboriginal boy: AFL Football on TV, clouds swelling in the sky, fishing, hunting for yabbies, going to school... and finally his initiation ceremony.

It is also a world as seen by the Homeland leaders: politics, leading ceremonies, fax machines and other technology, negotiating inter and intra-clan issues, the responsibility of enforcing Government rules and payments, and last (but not least) the growing-up of the next generation within the community.

This will be my fourth feature project with the community of Dhuruputjpi (along with 2 one hour radio documentaries for the ABC Social History Unit and the documentary film Dhakiyarr vs the King). We have a strong and collaborative working relationship - we are friends, mutual advisors in life, and strong believers in the power of story-telling to change the way people think."

Recent Awards and Achievements

  • Selected in Competition - IDFA Amsterdam 2008
  • Melbourne and Brisbane 2008 International Film Festivals
  • Winner 2008 ADG Award Best Direction in a Documentary Feature
  • Shortlisted - 2005 Vogel-Australian Literary Award
  • Selected in Competition - World Documentaries - 2005 Sundance Film Festival
  • Winner - 2005 NSW Premiers History Award (Audio Visual)
  • Winner - 2004 Dendy Awards - Best Film, Sydney Film Festival
  • Shortlisted - 2004 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Awards
  • Centre for Australian Cultural Studies - Special Mention for An Outstanding Contribution to Australian Culture 2004

    ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

    Tom Murray - Director/Writer
    Tom Murray is a filmmaker, writer, and broadcaster. A graduate in Politics and Geography from Sydney University, his debut documentary feature film Dhakiyarr vs the King (with Allan Collins) won the Dendy Award for Best Film at the 2004 Sydney Film Festival, the NSW Premiers History Award, and was selected for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. His debut novel Fishing Secrets was short-listed for the Vogel-Australian Literary Award 2005.

    Tom has worked consistently writing and directing documentaries for television and radio since 1998. From 1994 to 2000 he worked as a freelance journalist for ABC Radio JJJ, ABC Radio National, and The West Australian Newspaper.

    Tom has recently completed In My Father's Country, a feature documentary for SBS and France 5 about life in a remote indigenous Homeland in NE Arnhem Land, and a short drama for The Mulka Project called Two Brothers at Galarra (as Supervising Director).

    Graeme Isaac - Producer
    Graeme Isaac is an independent producer who has worked both in documentary and in drama. He has an extensive background in cross-cultural projects and has produced many films dealing with Indigenous stories and working with Indigenous film makers and communities in Australia. He co-wrote and co-produced WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD, the first feature made in Australia with an all indigenous cast, and produced Tom Murray's documentary DHAKIYARR VS THE KING which screened in competition at Sundance.

    He has also worked as a creative and production consultant on 3 Indonesian feature films all of which premiered at Cannes, and is currently a shop steward (international selector) for the International public television conference Input. In past lives he worked with the Australian Performing Group (Pram Factory) in Melbourne, was a founding member of Circus Oz, and played with the band Captain Matchbox.

    Leonard Retel Helmrich - Director of Photography
    Leonard Retel Helmrich was born in 1959 in the Netherlands. He studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in 1986 and in 1990 made his first feature film The Phoenix Mystery. Since then, Helmrich has won many international film awards and has lectured at numerous educational institutions.

    His documentary feature THE SHAPE OF THE MOON (2004) won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and the Joris Ivens Best Documentary Award at IDFA 2004, along with many other high level awards. He shoots as well as directs all his own films, and has run workshops in his hand-held single shot cinema technique for film festivals and broadcasters worldwide.

     

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