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Aussie Low Budget Film Wins Cannes Special Jury Prize

By James MacGregor

28 May 2006 - A low-budget Australian film has been awarded the Special Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Rolf de Heer's film, Ten Canoes, was shot in Arnhem Land, in Australia's Northern Territory, and features non-professional indigenous actors in a traditional story set in the pre-European past.The film's executive producer, Sue Murray, accepted the award in Cannes, describing it as a great honour for the Aboriginal people of Ramingining.

The film is due to be released in Australia on 29 June.

Source: netribution news UK

Further reading

David Gulpilil's tale of Ten canoes

ABC Northern Territory: Reporter: Fiona Churchman, Presenter: Cherie Beach

29 April 2004 - In recent years the stories of Arnhem Land have begun to be told in general release films.

Next wet season a film crew will descend on the middle of Arnhem Land to take the next step - telling a traditional story in traditional language, Yolgnu Matha.

The story is set 200 years ago before white people arrived in the area and will be directed by Rolf De Heer and David Gulpilil.

Rolf De Heer says the idea just came to him.

"I was pondering a couple of years ago when there were numbers of films with Indigenous themes and it seemed like a golden new era, and then of course nothing happens after that and I thought I wonder what the next step is, I wonder where one would go to from here and it struck me that it would be a great way to make a film and with David co-directing in his language and on his traditional land.

"I just thought woah, woah, woah, there's an idea," he says.

Rolf got stuck into making the idea a reality straight away and within days had flown to the Territory to speak to his future co-director.

He says David loved the idea and it was his concept to bring in the ten canoes and the goosehead gathering that used to take place at the Arafura Swamp, which adjourn David's fathers traditional lands.

"I think they have been looking for some time to restart that as a sort of semi-ceremonial thing as a traditional gathering activity I guess and it just all seemed to fit together and we began to work on it from that basis," says Rolf.

Rolf says the Ten canoes story is a simple one, but told in a complex way.

"It is a story that is told from the point of view of 200 years ago about mythical times and it has resonances for their current activities at that time, so its sort of a story in the form of a story being told," says Rolf.

Rolf says Ramingining is cautious about being excited about this project because so much is promised so often and
so little delivered.

"This process of making a film of course is a very lengthy one and they are cautiously optimistic but the proof will be in the pudding when we actually do it," he says.

He says they are trying to broaden it out so it isn't a case of a film crew arriving, filming and then leaving.

"We going to try and work with as small an introduced crew as possible, use as many locals as possible...also we have a mini documentary project with the school teaching the kids to make documentarys and then getting them to make mini docs about some of the aspects of cultural renewal that will inevitably take place as a consequence of having to make the film.

"There's a new media project, website, cultural journey throught the Arafura Swamp that's just starting up as well that hopefully will get good involvement from the arts centre there and from some of the painters and so on," he says.

The Arafura Swamp may be a spectacular part of the world, but it could make filming a movie a little difficult.

They'll be shooting just after the wet season so that the swamp has water in it and the magpie geese are there it's about the worst time of the year for mosquitoes.

Rolf is also a little concerned about crocodiles.

"The times when I've been there the numbers of crocodiles that I've seen is enough to frighten anybody off, but I think we'll handle it!" he says.

There are a few aspects of telling a story in Yolgnu which Rolf is also yet to work out.

"I couldn't do it without David and David couldn't do it without me, and it will be a collaboration where we are both relying on each other a great deal.

"I think that what will happen is that largely there will be a close interface between the two of us with each of us specialising in a slightly different area but haven't input into each others area."

David Gulpilil will star in the film and the rest of the roles will be filled by Maningrida locals.

The film will also be partly shot in black and white and in colour.

It sounds like a once in a lifetime event for Rolf, and he says he'll allow himself to get excited once he finishes shooting,"Up until then there's a lot of problem solving to be done, and how to structure it in such a way that we get good material with the money that we've got".

Source: ABC Northern Territory

Further information:

• 10 canoes website

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