Maralinga Tjarutja, by First Nations filmmaker Larissa Behrendt AO, will be on show at the NFSA during NAIDOC Week. Photo: NFSA.
The themes of strength, resilience and the environment will take starring roles in the BIRRARANGGA Film Festival which, for the first time, will be co-presented at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra from 20 to 23 June.
The festival, a not-for-profit, promotes First Nations filmmakers by encouraging innovative thinking, creating and developing all Indigenous forms of the art of cinema.
The festival at the NFSA will be curated by Wurundjeri (Woiwurrung)/Yorta Yorta screen creative and actor Tony Briggs and producer curator Damienne Pradier. It will showcase 16 feature-length and short films by First Nations creatives from around the world and include special guests, activist, artist and actor Tāma Iti, screenwriter Boyd Quakawoot and filmmakers Nina Nawalowalo and Matthias Luafutu.
As part of the NFSA’s winter season, the festival will be complemented by screenings of new film works and classics, Q&As with directors and actors, and a special program in the lead-up to the Paris Olympic Games.
“Our Winter Film Series offers more opportunities for audiences to engage with the national collection and see their own stories reflected here at the NFSA,” head of Programs and Place at the NFSA, Chris Mercer, said.
“Whether it’s in the diversity of our cinema program, the content on display in our heritage building, or the thought-provoking conversations taking place around our films and other events.”
In the lead-up to the Paris Olympics which open on 26 July, the NFSA will celebrate sports onscreen with some popular classics, including Chariots of Fire, Rocky, Cool Runnings and Bend It Like Beckham and documentaries such as The Australian Dream and Life Is Not a Competition, But I’m Winning. It will also screen Australian drama Kairos, followed by a Q&A with writer-director Paul Barakat and lead actor Chris Bunton, who won gold in gymnastics for Australia in the 2023 Special Olympics World Games.
The NFSA will also host award-winning filmmaker, author, legal academic and Euahleyai/Gamillaroi woman, Professor Larissa Behrendt AO, for a Q&A after the screening of her 2020 film Maralinga Tjarutja, which documents the struggle of the Maralinga people for justice following dispossession to enable nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s.
An award-winning documentary, the film celebrates the tenacity, strength and achievements of the Maralinga people, who fought for the clean-up of radioactive and other contamination, compensation and the handing back in 2009 of the Maralinga Village and test sites.
Head of Programs and Place at the NFSA, Chris Mercer, says the 2024 winter program will allow audiences to engage more with the national collection. Photo: Gabriel Comerford.
The winter events also include a panel discussion about women in the film industry moderated by Screen Canberra CEO Dr Holly Trueman and featuring Australian Film, Television and Radio School CEO, Dr Nell Greenwood, composer Bryony Marks and casting director Anousha Zarkesh.
The NFSA will also host Q&As with Australian filmmakers Nadia Tass and Jeni Thornley, and spotlight the early career highlights of Oscar-nominated Australian cinematographer Ari Wegner (Lady Macbeth, Zola and The Power of the Dog).
It will also launch a low-priced $8 Collection Selection series in the Arc Cinema, offering new opportunities for audiences to discover content from the national collection, a “pizza and pyjamas” screening of family favourite Casper and a karaoke night after a screening of Almost Famous.
The full winter program is available on the NFSA website.
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