Metro Australia — January 2018

(WallPaper) #1

90 •Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM


experiences of urban success, his celebrity, his tragedy.
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suming the new lease would run only seven years rather than
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tations that someone in charge of all this, surely, will want
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formances of the stage play-@L@SIHQ@, developed by direc
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in the documentary, distracting from its essential focus on the
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here between the contemporaneous creation of the play and
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less of a cultural product and more like another personal
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rather than closing in on the artist and his cultural resonance.)
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it is only after long conversations about the play’s represen
tation of their ancestor – not least by an Anangu man – that
Arrernte community elders agree to the performance. From
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onto a vaster social and cultural canvas. Indeed, more than
being just a biography of a great man,-@L@SIHQ@ /QNIDBS
examines the artist’s story and accomplishments primarily
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his grandfather is long gone, dead – as if to clarifysome
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the artist’s own community, however, the living value of
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work. His art hangs on museum walls, but it also lives in the
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All of these narrative threads link the documentary to
something bigger still. Begun in 2009 and run by arts and
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Project has been described as:

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The ‘project’, in other words, is not a singular production
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play is itself a part of this multifaceted endeavour, which
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tures’^7 for the community, including the reclamation of the
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The-@L@SIHQ@ /QNIDBSdocumentary is, thus, unashamedly
a mouthpiece for an organisation and a particular agenda –
something that was especially evident at the 2017 Melbourne
International Film Festival premiere, at the conclusion of
which envelopes were handed out for donations to the trust.
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tion to ask. And perhaps the most immediate and obvious
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WKH UHDOZRUOG LQYROYHPHQW RI-@L@SIHQ@ /QNIDBS’s viewers,
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recourse to its activist objectives, what we have in-@L@SIHQ@
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on its own terms – for both the accomplishment of its story
telling and its emotional power. As stated, the documentary’s
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ligently directed and pieced together. One must also note the
astonishing intimacy the camera establishes with members
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lish that level of genuine trust. The most powerful example
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really successful works, at some point the various elements
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me get land.’
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establishing a deep and trusting relationship with a particular
(and, in this case, famous) family,-@L@SIHQ@ /QNIDBSexposes
the stark injustice at the foundation of our modern nation.
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personal family. Though it would be incorrect to suggest that
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tice, in representing its subjects and their stories, the essential
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disgracefully lodged in the history of dispossession. Almost
sixty years after the artist’s death, the shameful gap between
his prestige and the impoverishment of his people remains
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creations while his family and community remain in poverty.
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