AUSTRALIA: INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE OF AUSTRALIAN FILM "YOLNGU BOY" ABOUT ABORIGINAL CULTURE

Record ID: 391023

  • Title: AUSTRALIA: INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE OF AUSTRALIAN FILM "YOLNGU BOY" ABOUT ABORIGINAL CULTURE
  • Date: 5th March 2001
  • Summary: DARWIN, AUSTRALIA, (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS, THREE ABORIGINAL STARS/SEAN MUNUGGUR/NATHAN DANIELS AND JOHN SEBASTIAN PILAKUI (BLONDE) AND FILM DIRECTOR STEPHEN JOHNSON, ARRIVING AT PREMIERE / GUESTS WATCHING ARRIVALS VARIOUS, JOHNSON AND LEAD ACTORS POSE FOR PHOTOS WIDE OF ONLOOKERS VARIOUS, STARS/SEAN MUNUGGUR/NATHAN DANIELS AND JOHN SEBASTIAN PILAKUI (BLONDE) AND FILM
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VARIOUS OUTBACK LOCATIONS AND DARWIN, AUSTRALIA
  • Country: Australia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA812V4C5RRF32CDPIH55RW9YHQ
  • Story Text: An Australian film starring three Aboriginal youths has made its international debut providing a startling look at the underbelly of Aboriginal culture and its struggle for survival.
    The low-budget film Yolngu Boy has premiered in the northern Australian city of Darwin and will be distributed internationally later this year.
    Three boys. Two laws. One country. They are caught in a collision between the oldest culture on earth and the realities of modern society -- a new world of rap, football and street cred.
    Yolngu Boy is about three Aboriginal teenagers who make an epic journey across the top end of the Australian Outback in search of love and comradeship. Ultimately they find only death.
    The three stars of the film recently attended the international premiere in Darwin. It cost three million U.S.
    dollars to make, and its three main characters had never acted before.
    But the film provides a startling look at the underbelly of Aboriginal culture and its struggle for survival. The film has been hailed an eye opener by Aboriginal leaders, and was only allowed to be filmed in cooperation with tribal chiefs.
    Local Aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu attended the recent premiere of the film, saying it provided the world with a new insight into Aboriginal culture ...and a different Australia.
    "Not forgotten, not forgotten and wiped out. That Australia was infected by Europe, that this is an Australia that a thousand years on, is yet to be seen in the cinema."
    This little known Australia is a walk on the dark side, a clash of cultures and an insight into the devastating problem of petrol sniffing addiction that is wiping out a generation of aboriginal Australians.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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