We conducted two interviews as part of our research, one with Richard Frankland at the Willin Centre within the VCA, and one with Dr Stephen Gaunson at RMIT.
Frankland spoke about the past of the Indigenous film industry and how there has always been plenty of Indigenous content but it was overwhelmingly created by White people.
“It was the other culture’s interpretation of us, and the other culture, the colonisers, had been socially indoctrinated to have a perception about us and quite often that perception could become a negative self perception.”
Frankland has noted that filmmaking has evolved in his lifetime, and in recent years there have been a lot more Aboriginal people involved in the creation of content, a switch from them being in front of the camera to being in “real positions of power”. Frankland attributes this to the slow decline of racist attitudes within filmmaking circles and expanded opportunities for Aboriginal filmmakers. Many Aboriginal stories have been told, and now Aboriginal filmmakers are branching out into genre films.
“We’ll end up with people in Hollywood. Bernard Boyre, of St Tropez, predicts that the next major wave of filmmakers to take Europe by storm will be Aboriginal filmmakers because of the particular world we come from.”
The international success of films such as The Sapphires and Samson & Delilah was because they are great stories that transcend cultural boundaries. Frankland predicts that in the future the trend will be that Aboriginal filmmakers will move more into the mainstream, and it will come with the younger generation and all the digital technologies making filmmaking more accessible.
“I think that there’s going to be more genres that develop. I think that there will be an Aboriginal genre that will be made of of Aboriginal horror movies, Aboriginal action movies…. I think young people will bring about a cultural shift to the fabric of the national identity of the country by its diversity and I think the stitching to hold it together will be the way we utilise multi media and the way we incorporate other cultures.”
There is more and more demand for content in general with 24 hours of television across hundreds of stations, and Aboriginal people will become more commonly seen on TV and will become more commonly involved in the creation of film and television content.
Gaunson’s predictions of the future of the Indigenous film industry were similar to that of Richard Frankland’s. He stated that in the last decade there’s been more encouragement and funding of Indigenous films than ever before. The future of Indigenous films is on an international as well as local scale. Some of the most successful Australian films of the last few years have also been Indigenous films, there’s an increasing demand locally as well and internationally for this type of content.
“In America, Australian Indigenous films go really well, especially genre films; The Sapphires, Bran Nue Dae, Mystery Road. I guess the future also for Indigenous films would be through genre, and popular international genre. Thinking of films on a more global scale, rather than thinking of Indigenous as a genre.”
The fact that these films such as The Sapphires, Bran Nue Dae and Samson & Delilah are going so well, Gaunson suggests, is because of their cinematic quality and their casting.
“If you actually look at Samson & Delilah on the big screen, it’s an incredible looking film, and I think that really resonated with people. It’s not just an Indigenous film, it’s actually a film that looks beautiful and could take place anywhere in the world… Bran Nue Dae was incorporating Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors and it was a feel-good Indigenous film based on a feel-good Indigenous musical. People really engaged with it and it was a huge success. I think that inspired The Sapphires and some others, and the industry to think about genre as a way to bridge maybe some divides that Indigenous films have had.”
Gaunson contends that the future of Aboriginal film industry is in education for young people. They need to be “given greater opportunities” to do film courses and university degrees, to study cinema. Aboriginal cinema will become increasingly a part of the broader Australian cinema. Indigenous films shouldn’t be thought of as only those with Indigenous directors, but ones with Indigenous voices writing, producing, acting, composing scores. “Indigenous filmmakers need that wider experience” of working on films that are not just niche Indigenous stories.