The Central Victorian Indigenous Film Festival celebrates National Reconciliation Week from May 27 to June 3. The program includes a range of films, videos, activities and discussions in local venues and online.
This year’s festival showcases an exciting range of First Nations films, documentaries and videos starring and telling stories about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People from Central Victoria and across Australia.
The Festival is centred in Bendigo but there are local session as well.
Yandoit Cultural (Uniting Church Rd, off High St, Yandoit) will feature a series of bush food short films set on Djaara Country, plus a feature film on Sunday, June 2. The evening will start with a smoking ceremony, prepared by Yandoit resident Erica Higgins. This will be followed by a series of bush food short films, created by Auntie Julie McHale, featuring local indigenous youth and teachers on Djaara Country sharing knowledge and secrets of Australian bush foods. Created to accompany Auntie Julie’s tucker boxes and filmed in her private garden, these short films, produced by local filmmakers, People Pictures, are warm intimate descriptions that reveal the quality and uses of these unique plants.
The feature film is The Last Daughter, which recounts a young woman’s first memories of growing up in a loving white foster family, before she was suddenly taken away and returned to her Aboriginal family. Decades later, she feels disconnected from both halves of her life. But the traumas of her past do not lie quietly buried. So, she goes searching for the foster family with whom she has lost all contact. Along the way she uncovers long-buried secrets, government lies, and the possibility for deeper connections to family and culture. The Last Daughter is a documentary about Brenda’s journey to unearth the truth about her past, and to reconcile the two sides of her family. Doors open at 4.45pm on Sunday 2 June. Entry is by donation. Bookings: yandoitcultural.org/ or email to ycfcpg@gmail.com
In Glenlyon, the Forest Film society will screen Sweet As, at the Glenlyon Hall. Sweet As is an uplifting coming-of-age road movie by Nyul Nyul / Yawuru director Jub Clerc. With problems on the home front, 15-year-old Murra is on the verge of lashing out. That is, until her policeman uncle thwarts her self-destructive behaviour with a lifeline: a “photo-safari for at-risk kids”. On the safari trail, the teens learn about fun, friendship and first crushes, as well as the forces of ‘reality’ that puncture the bubble of youth. Doors open 6.30pm for 7.15pm screening. Cost is $10 for non-FFS members.
The full program is available at https://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-05/CVIFF-2024-flyer.pdf
