23rd(2021)
Opening Film (1) | Discovery (12) |
Asian Shorts (19) | I-Teens (4) |
New Currents (25) | The Landscape of Here in Now (5) |
Polemics (8) | Queer Rainbow (10) |
Feminist Collective: Women¡¯s Filmmaking in Asia (12) | SWAGGIN¡¯ LIKE DOONA (7) |
The 20th Anniversary of Take Care of My Cat (1) | Australian Women¡¯s Filmmaking (12) |
Film x Gender (2) | Barrier Free Screening (1) |
Special Screening (3) |
Essie COFFEY
Asian Premiere
The land had been inhabited by Aboriginals long before the modern nation-state of Australia was created in a region that bordered Oceania over the continent. There are aboriginals living in Dodge City, a small town in the northwest of Australia, after two centuries of exploitation and exclusion. The traces of violence left behind by exploitation and exclusion have been revealed by the poor living conditions inside and outside the aboriginal community. In 1993, 15 years later since the previous film, the ¡°Bush Queen¡± Essie Coffey shows again how the aboriginal lives have been ever since. This is a film which demonstrate the general improvements and people¡¯s hard works behind those improvements. And what makes this film even more interesting is that it does not draw on the history of improvement as a history of linear progress. The film overlaps the past and present of community members who have grown, aged, or set up families over the past 15 years while it hopes that the smile and hope of the current community members will bring a better, brighter future to the community. [LEE Yumi]
Essie COFFEYEssie COFFEY
Murawarri woman Essie Coffey, OAM (1942-1998) was a tireless worker and campaigner for her people and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1985. Raised in the far northwest of New South Wales, her upbringing reflects the deprivation and dispossession of generations of Aboriginal people.