Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country headlines the film festival focusing on First Nations peoples
Indigenous voices from around the world arrive at Event Cinemas George Street as Winda Film Festival returns for a second year.
Nine feature films from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA will screen, as well as 33 short films grouped into four sessions.
Winner of major prizes at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, Warwick Thornton’s western Sweet Country will open the festival, while closing night’s After the Apology is a documentary exploring the increased number of Indigenous child removals since the days of the Stolen Generation.
From the USA comes Mankiller, a powerful documentary about Wilma Mankiller, who defied sexism to emerge as the Cherokee Nation’s first female Principal Chief. The Mayors of Shiprock also has a Native American theme, following a group of young Navajo leaders working to restore hope and change to the once-thriving town of Shiprock, New Mexico.
Waru from New Zealand is the work of eight female Māori directors, each of whom contributed a ten minute vignette, presented as a continuous shot in real time, that unfolds around the tangi (funeral) of a small boy who died at the hands of his caregiver.
The festival will also feature special events including a filmmaking masterclass with Indigenous Canadian film veteran Alanis Obomsawin; a workshop on VR / 360 filmmaking through an Indigenous lens; an innovative virtual reality media project reimagining Indigenous communities 150 years in the future; and Native Slam I + II, a pop-up Yurt screening short films on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt as part of Homeground.…Read more by
