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 the
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the casting I
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the shoot
Despite the project's obvious potential, its commercial viability was an unknown factor. In a period spanning 40 years only two Australian films featuring an Aboriginal theme had come close to enjoying some degree of success - Jedda and Walkabout - but neither had featured a full Aboriginal cast nor had been totally shot in the Northern Territory. Indeed, Walkabout was directed by Nicolas Roeg and starred two English children alongside an Aboriginal actor. Finally the ACTF, in a great show of faith, cash-flowed the project's full development, never certain that outside finance would ultimately be secured. "The brief of the ACTF," noted Edgar," is to develop quality, innovative Australian programs that in some way break new ground. YOLNGU BOY does so in just about every way." With this in mind, Edgar, Glenn, Anastassiades and Johnson determined that one of the burning issues for the film was the particular dilemma of adolescents in the Aboriginal community. Adolescence is rarely easy. For most Aboriginal teenagers it represents not only the transition from child to adult but entrapment between the dominance of western society and a culture recognized as the oldest on the planet. For many kids juxtaposed between the old and the new, the future is uncertain and the path they must tread, fraught with contradiction. |
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