Finding the ‘Reel’ Australia

In this guest post Michael Allen, winner of the AFI / Australia Day Council of NSW’s (ADCNSW) short film competition Reel Australia with his short Something Australia, tells us how he found his answerto a big question.

Something Australia is a short film that responds to the question – “What is the real Australia?” As the film’s leading man Aquinas Crowe says, “that’s a big question, that’s a good question too.”

The film is a collaborative product that came at the end of a year-long working relationship and friendship between myself, a young Melbournite and a young man from the opposite side of Australia – Aquinas, a Walmajarri/Jaru man of Fitzroy Crossing, Kimberley, W.A.

Aquinas and I were brought together by the Yiriman Project, an Aboriginal cultural organisation set up by the elders of four language groups in the Kimberley, Nykina, Mangala, Karajarri and Walmajarri some ten years ago.