Hey there,
Just wanted to share with you all two films that I’ve seen lately that have blown me away, both that touch on Indigenous Australian issues in a REALLY different way. The first is a documentary called Bastardy that I saw at the Melbourne Film Fest which follows an beautifully charismatic man called Jack Charles (those of you also from Melbourne will probably recognise him from the streets of Fitzroy) into the mansions he cat-burgles (so nonchalantly!), in and out of jail on a regular basis, through to the other side of a heroin addiction and so much more- it’s filmed over 7 years. Oh and he’s also an ex-theatre and television star which makes for really interesting archival footage that’s woven throughout the film. Check out more about it here and I really recommend going to see it if you can. It’s showing for a short while at the Palace Cinemas around Australia from June 25th… And the other is a doco called Old Country New Country which aired on SBS earlier this month… it is about the industrialisation of Traditional Aboriginal land, shown from the perspective of a Aboriginal Elder and his nephew, Albert Wiggan (who for those of you that came to my concert at the Byron Blues Fest, spoke and read a poem on stage during my show). A lot of you have probably read or heard about the proposed gas hub for the west coast of Australia up in the Kimberley region. And you may have seen that I’ve been fighting hard along-side my friends from up there (many of which are Aboriginal men and women that grew up on that land and are heart-broken to see it in danger) against this proposal. Just briefly, what we are asking the WA government for is for them to pipe the gas down the coast where there are mining towns already set up (and culturally destroyed as a result) instead of ruining the pristine Kimberley coast by bringing it on-shore there. Keep the gas, just leave the Kimberleys alone. So this doco was relevant and interesting because it comes at this issue from a different angle, through the eyes of an Elder who is seeing an industrial site for the first time. His wisdom and insight is beautiful and rare. If you missed it on tv and you wanna see it you can order the DVDs here and try to find out more about the issue of this proposed gas hub, it is a complicated issue but one we should all know about I think, as it represents something so much bigger. Both films are something different, something to get you thinking, and inspired, which is always a good thing! Enjoy. I’m off to try and finish a song that needs a bridge!
Thanks for listening…… Lots of love to you all
missy X
