AustLit

'Early in 2017, legendary Australian actor David Gulpilil was diagnosed with lung cancer. His doctors estimated six months for him but David, being David, was always likely to defy the odds. And he continues to do so with probably his last great work, My Name is Gulpilil. For the first time, it's all Gulpilil, his story, in his words. He takes us boldly on the journey that is his most extraordinary, culture-clashing life.'

Source: Adelaide Festival.

'According to the great Australian Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, Another Country is what happened when his way of life was interrupted by ours. This documentary film speaks to the havoc caused by superimposing a new culture over an old culture and the consequent clashes about all manner of things, such as time, money, garbage and errant kangaroos.' (Source: Screen Australia website)

Rolf de Heer and David Gulpilil collaborate to create a tragi-comic portrait of Charlie's struggle to understand how he should define himself as an Aboriginal in modern Australia.

In 1907, scientist Dr Plonk discovers that the world will end in 101 years, but no one from his own time will believe him. Together with his put-upon assistant Paulus, he builds a time machine to attempt to gather definitive proof of the end of the world.

A silent, black-and-white film, Dr Plonk is consciously of the Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin school of film-making.

A story within a story and overlaid with narration, Ten Canoes takes place in two periods in the past. The first story, filmed in black-and-white as a reference to the 1930s ethnographic photography of Donald Thompson, concerns a young man called Dayindi who takes part in his first hunt for goose eggs. During the course of several trips to hunt, gather and build a bark canoe, his older brother Minygululu tells him a story about their ancestors and the old laws. The story is also about a young man who had no wife but who coveted one of his brother's wives, and also of the stranger who disrupted the harmony of their lives. It is cautionary tale because Minygululu is aware that Dayinidi desires his young and pretty third wife.

The second story (shot in colour) is set much further back in time. Yeeralparil is a young man who desires the third wife of his older brother Ridjimiraril. When Ridjimiraril's second wife disappears, he suspects a man from another tribe has been seen near the camp. After he spears the stranger he discovers that he was wrong. Knowing that he must face the man's relatives he chooses Yeeralparil to accompany him during the ritual payback. When Ridjimiraril dies from his wounds the tribe's traditions decree that Yeeralparil must inherit his brother's wives. The burden of these responsibilities, however, is more than the young man expects.

A regular suburban family man comes home 'from work on his birthday to find a deserted house and a videotape waiting to be played... '

Source: Screen Australia.

'A set of mountain ranges in the outback, 1922 ... horseback country, and the Fanatic leads the two other white men, the Follower and the Philosopher, and the Tracker, in the pursuit of the Fugitive. Through massacre and murder the hunt continues, until the clear-cut notions of truth and justice are subverted and the questions become not will the Fugitive be caught, but what is black and what is white and who is leading whom?'

Source: Screen Australia.

'Julia (Heather Rose) has severe cerebral palsy and lives by herself in suburbia. Since she can’t speak, get out of bed, walk or bathe by herself, she’s heavily dependent on her carer, Madelaine (Joey Kennedy). Her most significant freedom is the ability to speak using a portable voice computer that she types on from her wheelchair. Madelaine is too self-absorbed and self-pitying to be an effective carer. She resents the demands Julia places upon her and treats her rudely. Julia chafes at this mistreatment. One day she asks a passer-by, Eddie (John Brumpton), for help. He starts to drop by and they develop a friendship. Madelaine, who’s been having boyfriend troubles, finds Eddie attractive. But so does Julia. The stage is set for a showdown…'

Source: Australian Screen.