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experiences of urban success, his celebrity, his tragedy. The ‘project’, in other words, is not a singular production
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LO\ SDUWLFXODUO\ KLV JUDQGFKLOGUHQ .HYLQ DQG /HQLH :H VHH FRPPXQLW\ EDVHG VHW RI LQFHQWLYHV 7KH -@L@SIHQ@ stage
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the artist’s kin, VROG WKH FRS\ULJKW IRU $ PLVWDNHQO\ DV tures’ for the community, including the reclamation of the
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suming the new lease would run only seven years rather than DUWLVWpV FRS\ULJKW IURP /HJHQG 3UHVV 8

WKH DFWXDO ĺIW\ :H IROORZ WKH 1DPDWMLUD IDPLO\pV DWWHPSWV WR The -@L@SIHQ@ /QNIDBS documentary is, thus, unashamedly
UHFODLP WKDW FRS\ULJKW IURP WKH FXUUHQW OHDVH KROGHU /HJHQG a mouthpiece for an organisation and a particular agenda –
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LQJ ZLWK WKH 4XHHQ WKHLU KRXVLQJ GLOHPPD DQG WKHLU H[SHF International Film Festival premiere, at the conclusion of
tations that someone in charge of all this, surely, will want which envelopes were handed out for donations to the trust.
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formances of the stage play -@L@SIHQ@, developed by direc K$57 ZKLFK DUH QR GRXEW DGPLUDEOH LWpV DQ LPSRUWDQW TXHV
WRU 6FRWW 5DQNLQ DQG GLVWLQJXLVKHG $QDQJX DFWRU 7UHYRU tion to ask. And perhaps the most immediate and obvious
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in the documentary, distracting from its essential focus on the FRQFHUQHG SULPDULO\ ZLWK SURPRWLQJ DQ DOO HQFRPSDVVLQJ
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here between the contemporaneous creation of the play and LWV PRWLYDWLRQ LV ORFDO FRQFHUQHG IRUHPRVW ZLWK WKH 1DPDWMLUD
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less of a cultural product and more like another personal VRXJKW DUH VSHFLĺF WR 1WDULD t DQG KRSHIXOO\ VHFXUHG ZLWK
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rather than closing in on the artist and his cultural resonance.) recourse to its activist objectives, what we have in -@L@SIHQ@
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it is only after long conversations about the play’s represen telling and its emotional power. As stated, the documentary’s
tation of their ancestor – not least by an Anangu man – that FRQVWUXFWLRQ LV SURIRXQGO\ HIIHFWLYH LW LV LQGHHG YHU\ KHDUWHQ
Arrernte community elders agree to the performance. From LQJ WR ĺQG D FRPPXQLW\ GULYHQ ĺOP VR ZHOO PDGH VR LQWHO
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7KHVH VWUDQGV LQ WKH ĺOP HGLWHG WRJHWKHU PDVWHUIXOO\ SUR lish that level of genuine trust. The most powerful example
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onto a vaster social and cultural canvas. Indeed, more than ZKR JUDGXDOO\ EHFRPHV WKH FHQWUDO YRLFH LQ WKH ĺOP ,Q DOO
being just a biography of a great man, -@L@SIHQ@ /QNIDBS really successful works, at some point the various elements
examines the artist’s story and accomplishments primarily EHJLQ WR ĻRZ LQWR RQH DQRWKHU DQG ULVH WR D ELJJHU GHHSHU
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his grandfather is long gone, dead – as if to clarify some OLNH WR WDON ZLWK KHU DERXW KH UHSOLHV o,pG OLNH VKH FRXOG KHOS
WKLQJ ZH PD\ QRW IXOO\ XQGHUVWDQG 7KH QRQ ,QGLJHQRXV DUW me get land.’
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the artist’s own community, however, the living value of (and, in this case, famous) family, -@L@SIHQ@ /QNIDBS exposes
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work. His art hangs on museum walls, but it also lives in the 6RPHWKLQJ WKDW EHORQJHG WR RQH IDPLO\ ZDV WDNHQ t ZLWKRXW
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All of these narrative threads link the documentary to tice, in representing its subjects and their stories, the essential
something bigger still. Begun in 2009 and run by arts and SLFWXUH WKH ĺOP RIIHUV FDQ KDUGO\ EH PRUH SRLQWHG LQ LWV SROLWL
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Project has been described as: disgracefully lodged in the history of dispossession. Almost
sixty years after the artist’s death, the shameful gap between
@ LTKSHK@XDQDC KNMF SDQL @QSR OQNIDBS SG@S HR L@MX SGHMFR SN his prestige and the impoverishment of his people remains
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OQNIDBS @M NQHFHM@K SGD@SQHB@K VNQJ V@SDQBNKNTQ DWGHAHSHNM @MC creations while his family and community remain in poverty.
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