REVIEWS and NEWS
YOLNGU
BOY - A DEADLY WINNER:Yothu Yindi and Mark Ovenden won the award for
Excellence In Film or Theatrical Score for Yolngu Boy at the 7th Deadly
Sounds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Awards (aka “The
Deadlys”). The awards aim to showcase, celebrate and recognise all
forms of Indigenous music and demonstrate how deadly aboriginal music
is.
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Yolngu
Boy has been attracting huge international interest since its release.
The film has been selected to screen at a number of international festivals
including:
Barcelona International Festival
BUSTER Children’s Film Festival in Copenhagen
Brooklyn Academy of Music's (BAM) Next Wave Festival in the USA
Raindance Kids Film Festival in London
Golden Elephant - 12th International Children’s Film Festival in
Hyderabad
Cinemagic Northern Ireland World Screen Entertainment Festival for Young
People in Belfast
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Yolngu
Boy won the People's Choice award at the 2001 Zanzibar International Film
Festival.
ZIFF was held
in Zanzibar in Tanzania in July and Yolngu Boy was the only Australian
feature film to be selected for screening.
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Yolngu
Boy has won the Bronze Gryphon Award at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy.
Yolngu Boy was selected from over 500 titles and is now competing for
the Golden Gryphon Award. The winner will be announced on 21 July 2001.
The Giffoni
Film Festival is a non-profit organisation created with the aim of promoting
films that due to their language, style, story and themes are destined
to attract youthful audiences and their families.
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Yolngu
Boy made its international debut at the Telluride Film Festival in September
2000 - this festival is considered to be the world's most special and
intimate film festival. Telluride is a small town high in the San Juan
range of the Rocky Mountains. The Festival is a celebration of film and
those who make it, and only a few films are selected from the hundreds
submitted to the festival each year. This year the Australian films Yolngu
Boy and Chopper were accepted.
Yolngu Boy was given two official screenings (introduced by Peter Sellars) and one unofficial screening and the film was very well received with the Director, Stephen Johnson, receiving a standing ovation at the conclusion. Peter Sellars gave Yolngu Boy and Johnson an incredible wrap and, according to Johnson, moved to tears at both screenings.
According
to Bridget Ikin writing for the Telluride Daily Planet "In the last
few years, there has been a groundswell of activity and creativity from
emerging indigenous filmmakers, expressive of a distinctive way of seeing
and with compelling stories to share…Yolngu Boy charts another way:
It's a genuine attempt at an indigenous/white collaboration, drawing on
what each other can offer…..The film is very much a product of Stephen
Johnson's personal influence and connections in the Yolngu community,
as well as the extraordinary commitment of the producer, Patricia Edgar,
who supported Johnson's vision."
Bridget Ikin, Telluride Daily Planet, Reel News.
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"Yolngu
Boy is one of the most rewarding films that you are likely to see...This
is truly a masterpiece of community spirit and a gift to the world. Don't
miss this film, a remarkable insight into contemporary Australia. Five
out of five."
James Brandis, WA Post
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"Yolngu
Boy is an affecting look at cultural identity in the Aboriginal North...this
estimable fable for the 21st century deserves as wide an audience as possible.
A moving drama about lives in the making and battles against the odds,
it is also a compelling adventure yarn with a brain."
Tom Ryan, Sunday Age
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"Yolngu
Boy presents an engaging yet undistilled view of Aboriginal life in the
far north that is both everything and nothing like you imagine it would
be."
Leigh Patsch, Herald Sun
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"Yolngu
Boy presents an honesty about where it's leading us, to a better awareness
of being Aboriginal in a traditional community."
Dougal Macdonald, Canberra Times
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Lawrie
Zion listed Yolngu Boy in his Best Films 2001 feature saying, "The
first feature produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation
is already making its mark on the international festival circuit."
Lawrie Zion, The Age.
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"Home
audiences have not seen such a vibrant version of indigenous identity;
international audiences might well imagine they are seeing a first feature
from some previously unknown nation…Nothing sums up the unusual,
authentic excitement of this ground-breaking movie more than the inclusion
of a 'crocodile spotter' in the credits."
"
….a deeply authentic black Australian movie….an object lesson
in cross-cultural movie making. Nothing sums up the unusual, authentic
excitement of this groundbreaking movie as the inclusion of a 'crocodile
spotter' among the credits".
Frank Hatherley - Screen International.
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"…such
an impressive film...you're being presented with parts of
Australian life you've never seen before....4 stars"
Margaret Pomeranz - SBS Movie Show.
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"…this
film should be required viewing by bureaucrats, politicians, Aboriginal
community leaders, Aboriginal youth and by sanctimonious do-gooders who
don't
understand the day to day issues of life in small Aboriginal communities."
Andrew.L.Urban - Urban Cinefile.
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"Yolngu
Boy is an enjoyable film and easily one of the most significant engagements
with Aboriginal cinema since Nicolas Roeg's renowned Walkabout (1971)."
Michael Shane - Urban Cinefile.
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"…energised, finely honed and totally honest, Yolngu Boy is
an accessible, entertaining take on some pretty serious issues."
Erin Free - Filmink.
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"Yolngu
Boy tackles a complex subject with clear vision and without sentimentality….it
evokes the landscape as an entity, an omnipresent character that envelopes
the lives of those in its presence."
Hudson Bawden - Filmink.
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"…thanks
to the involvement of the Yothu Yindi Foundation the film generously shares
a rare glimpse of the ceremonies, social morés and spirituality
at the heart of Aboriginal culture. Anything that has Aboriginal people
involved in telling their own stories, as opposed to having them told
for them, has to be a good thing."
Bec Smith - IF Magazine.
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"….the
films greatest asset is the cinematography of Brad Shield, which vividly
conveys the land that is so important to Aboriginal people."
David Stratton - Variety Magazine.
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"…probably
the most important Australian film of the year….I wish I could compel
every Australian to see it."
Peter Thompson's - Sunday Film Review.
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