Samson And Delilah Indigenous Film

[Anthony]

Storytellinghas been part of Australian aboriginal history for thousands of years, from indigenous Australian art to aboriginal storytelling under the stars. Stories would consist of indigenous tribes and the deserts in Australia. Currently the medium from which aborigines facts are being shared is not through vocal stories but through aboriginal movies on the screen. The medium has changed but the reasons for telling our stories about Australian aborigine culture have not.

I believe that Samson and Delilah is a story about the definition of true love between Australian aboriginal people. You have to believe in your stories and trust that an audience will take the journey with you and your characters.

It is a story about the many different ways in which the signs of true love grows. Samson, Delilah have a very unusual relationship and their love is strong but understated and it develops as their trust develops. But will it save them?

The camera and design reinforce this reality: hand held, raw, real. No grips, no gaffers, no cranes, no tracks, not too many lights. I shot the film myself to have nothing between me and the actors, except the beautiful 35mm panavision camera.

Australian indigenous director Warwick Thornton's gritty love story about two petrol-sniffing Aboriginal teenagers shows in France this month, its first major foreign release after stunning festival audiences worldwide.

"Samson and Delilah", Thornton's debut feature, released at home and in New Zealand early this year before showing at Cannes in May, where it was awarded the Camera d'Or as best first film by arguably the world's foremost film festival.

It follows the slow shy courtship between a pair of teenagers living in miserable conditions in tin shacks in a hungry isolated community, and the tragedy that sends them fleeing to the city of Alice Springs where they end up living rough in petrol-sniffing oblivion.

The picture, he said "is about Aboriginal kids growing up and how incredibly strong and resilient and beautiful they are, and how they are neglected, not only by their own people and their own families, but by the system."

Shot mainly in the Central Australian language Warlpiri, the movie startles not only by its authenticity and indictment of white Australia's treatment of Aboriginals, but by the fact it is almost silent.

In the Samson movie, Warwick presented aboriginal Australian culture. Not only did he he present Australian desert facts, but he also incorporated original aboriginal tribe names within his movie. Samson and Delilah shows aboriginal people in Australia as smart, loving, and kind individuals.

Currently information and movies about Aborigines culture is on the back end. This is especially true within western and European societies. In fact, if you were to ask a westerner about aboriginal communities or aborigines culture, they would have no basic knowledge of that subject matter. As a result, Warwick decided to shed some light on Australian aboriginal tribes.

The aboriginal people of Australia were grateful to Warwick for filming a story about their indigenous Australian culture and customs. Warwick presented the western world an understanding of aboriginal culture facts and aboriginal information.

Kath and Warwick had the good fortune of working with Roland on their films Green Bush and Nana, and Warwick will again team with Roland on his new documentary series Art & Soul, about Indigenous art. Roland considers Samson & Delilah a career highlight and celebrated by buying his very own 2 x 3 metre wide Mitjili Napanangka Gibson masterpiece painting titled Aboriginal people, Australia. Roland has worked with lots of other people as well on some amazing projects and even won an AFI Award for his editing work. He also features on-screen as the art gallery owner in the film. Samson, Delilah is only the beginning of his career.

Jessica L. Martinez, the organizer of the event and Director of Academic and Public Programs at Harvard Art Museums, said she was excited to witness attendees mingling at the end of the event and sharing their own thoughts.

The film series, which is co-sponsored by the Harvard University Native American Program, aims to display the ways in which indigenous filmmakers have added to and changed cinema. It also hopes to convey to its audience how indigenous people have helped non-indigenous film directors portray indigenous stories more accurately and respectfully.

Thornton was apprehensive of what indigenous Australians would think of his film. Indeed the portrayal of indigenous life is extremely sad, though the film does end on a delicately positive note. It is not a film about how things could be, but very much how they are for many people. Though unlikely to be a revelation to anyone, indigenous or otherwise, Thornton did succeed in creating more discussion in Australia, while also proving that a story focused on two Aboriginal characters could be a success.

Visually Samson and Delilah is spacious and realistic, working with the vastness of the outback but also the isolation and space that is unique to the feeling of the Antipodes. This complements the mental space that the lack of dialogue creates and the grounding of the mostly diegetic music. The combination of silence and space offers little to mark time passing, giving the film little feeling of progression or urgency, like it perhaps feels to live your life moment-to-moment huffing petrol.

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ABOUT 60 seconds into Samson & Delilah you realise Australian cinema is never going to be the same. To the pleasant strains of country music, we see the benign image of a young Aboriginal boy stirring from sleep. He musses his matted hair as diffused sunlight fills the room. Then the nature of the image utterly changes. The moment is designed to burn into the brain - and it does. The scene goes further than any Australian film has dared when facing the ugly truths about modern indigenous life.

Australian films dealing with Aboriginal themes have typically come with a comforting emotional buffer and a clear moral compass. This is why historical films vastly outnumber contemporary ones. Romanticised dramas about the sins of the past are simply easier to digest, with victims and wrongdoers conveniently defined.

Based on his experiences and observations, indigenous writer/director Warwick Thornton presents a raw, unflinching story that breathes with authenticity and audacity, though without recourse to sensation or histrionics. It is hard to imagine how screen portrayals of indigenous culture will remain unchanged in its wake.

Thornton adopts a sedate, understated style with very littler dialogue that perfectly counterpoints the often brutal nature of the story. It also signals his respect for the audience, sparing them sandwich-board simplicities, easy answers or appeals to victimhood.

Not that the film doesn't have a lot on its mind. Samson & Delilah touches on a range of themes about personal responsibility, neglect, exploitation, alcoholism, rape, violence, faith and self-respect.

Living in a remote, ramshackle outback township, Delilah (Marissa Gibson) spends her days caring for her grandmother Nana (Mitjili Gibson) and helping her produce artworks that earn a few hundred dollars a piece.

The only other teenager around is Samson (Rowan McNamara). He literally has nothing to do but listen to the radio, fool around with his brother's band and seek relief from the heat. He also likes sniffing petrol.

Nana's death turns the local women against Delilah, whom they blame. With Samson's brother also angry at him, the pair take off in the communal car and head to Alice Springs. It is here that Thornton's intuitive understanding of the power of understatement comes to the fore. Samson and Delilah become virtually invisible, moving through the urban landscape like ciphers, their presence blotted out by joggers, trendy cafe diners and shop owners.

Taking up residence under a bridge, they meet an old alcoholic called Gonzo (Scott Thornton), the only character in the film with a real speaking part. He helps them with food, but is irritated by their silence and petrol sniffing. In a neat irony, as he tries to better himself, their prospects worsen as they walk about the streets in a vapour-induced daze.

Using very few words, Thornton, an experienced cinematographer who shot the film himself, relies on images and judicious editing to impart his major story points. This has the effect of amplifying the film's big moments of revelation.

Defying the trend of most recent Australian films, Thornton provides his heavy story with a superb third act that does offer a glimmer of hope to his characters. His unforced message is that there is no hole you can't crawl out of, especially one you have dug for yourself. Salvation comes through self-respect, faith, strength of character and, above all, love.

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