Search This Blog

Friday, September 08, 2006

DAY ONE - TEN CANOES - 9:15 PM - VARSITY 2 - "Goose egg hunting is Undramatic"

A long time ago in a land far far away

This is my story.

A fascinating tale of the Aboriginal culture in the town of Ramingining Anhem telling a story within a story about the time of the ancestors. A story with great warmth, humour and patience - and without subtitles !

It is a testament to the storytelling and the wonder of the personalities and the landscape cinematography shot in rich black and white tones depicting the present to the vista of the colourful past. It is also a testament to the audience's patience that the entire movie was devoid of the subtitles underlying while the aborignal language was spoken. The audience had been forewarned by the director Rolf de Heer that "If you get one-tenth out of this movie that I got out of shooting this movie you're going to be okay."

But even de Heer was shocked when he heard the movie was presented without subtitles. "There are subtitles! "

The people of the village were used as the characters for the movies - and indeed the people used in the recreation of the famous 10 canoes picture were descendents from that original shot taken back in the 1920s!

Day 2 - today is Australia Day

No comments: