THE YIRRKALA FILM PROJECT
In 1970 Ian Dunlop started a long-term film project with the Yolngu of Yirrakala for Film Australia. Yirrkala is an Aboriginal township on the Gove Peninsula in northeast Arnhem Land. These twenty two films document many aspects of Yolngu life. Each stands on it’s own but each is also part of a rich interconnecting mosaic of people and themes.
PEOPLE OF THE AUSTRALIAN WESTERN DESERT SERIES
This important series is the product of a 1965 film expedition sponsored by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies into the ‘Western Desert’, a cultural-linguistic region embracing half a million square miles and the ancestral home of the nomadic Aborigines. The purpose of the expedition was to document on film the disappearing Aboriginal culture and community. The result was some 25.000 feet of black-and-white film which has been edited into ten films totaling some three hours viewing time. These films record the lives of Diagamara and his family.
We will show one example of this series.
AS FAR AS MAKÓ FROM JERUSALEM
This eights part series (1988-1996) explores the life of a Jewish community from Mako, a small town in Southern Hungary and the filmmaker’s own home town. While a few members of the community still live in Makó, most have settled abroad, particularly in Israel, England and the United States. The series takes its title from an old Hungarian saying (meaning that something is further away than you might think) and examines questions such as : Which is further, Makó from Jerusalem or Jerusalem from Makó? Is it possible to find a new home while still maintaining an old identity? Do the Makó Jews abroad continue to look back to Hungary or have they succeeded in building a new life for themselves?