MESSAGE STICKS

Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale of Message Sticks, the film festival that brought us Ivan Sen’s Beneath Clouds and Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah say of the festival: “We must ensure that the talent of tomorrow has opportunities today. From traditional dreamtime tales to the challenges of contemporary Indigenous life, our filmmakers give an insider view of what it means to be a black Australian in the twenty first century.”

They now brings us the world premiere of Beck Cole’s Here I Am. One part a vignette to a tough mum and ex-con, struggling to re-connect with her daughter and mother and carve out a future for herself, and one part a touching ode to the bonds forged in a women’s home, the sum total is a message of forgiveness and survival.

Crookhat and The Kulunada and Tales from the Daly are two premieres that both draw inspiration from Nganampa Anwernekenhe (Our Stories), Australia’s longest running Aboriginal television series. Water flows both as a literal force down rivers and in deluges of rain, and as an analogy for maintaining the flow of stories from elders to younger generations in stories of little grey spirits, and water serpents wreaking havoc on white settlements.

Other stand-outs include the cabaret performance of Ursula Yovich in Magpie Blues; the Australian premiere of Inuit thriller On the Ice; the Sunday shorts program and Pitch It! initiative; plus the Babies Prom presented by NAISDA Dance College.

Get the message, pass it on.

May 12-15, Sydney Opera House, most sessions free, see website for more info: sydneyoperahouse.com/MessageSticks