Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 29 January

Ten Canoes (de Heer, 2007)

I have been wanting to recommend this since the newsletter started but it wasn’t available anywhere until now.

There was time when I was editor of New Zealand’s film production magazine, OnFilm, that I was invited to the Big Screen Symposium and Rolf de Heer was one of the speakers. A better advocate for indigenous film you would struggle to find.

Here’s my brief review from August 2007:

Also not-to-be-missed is Ten Canoes, the first genuinely indigenous film ever to come out of Australia. The Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in Northern Territory collaborated with Rolf de Heer (The Tracker) to tell one of their own stories – and tell it their own way – and the result is beautiful and human and scatalogically funny. A reminder of what cinema can achieve when it is set free.

Also in that Capital Times column: Taika’s Eagle vs Shark, Bruce’s Live Free and Die Hard, Michael’s Sicko and Adam’s I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.