Satellite Boy

Last updated

Satellite Boy
Satellite Boy.jpg
Poster with the tagline: "Courage can take you away from home. Love will lead you back."
Directed by Catriona McKenzie
Written byCatriona McKenzie
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Geoffrey Simpson
Edited byHenry Dangar
Music by David Bridie
Production
company
Satellite Films
Release dates
  • 8 September 2012 (2012-09-08)(.Toronto)
  • 10 December 2012 (2012-12-10)(Perth)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Satellite Boy is a 2012 Australian adventure drama film about a young Aboriginal boy struggling to maintain the traditions of his heritage in the modern world when a mining company expands into the region. Written and directed by Catriona McKenzie, the film premiered domestically on 10 December 2012 at the Perth International Arts Festival, two days after being released at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Contents

Plot

Twelve-year-old Pete (Cameron Wallaby) lives at a run-down drive-in theatre with his grandfather Jagamarra (David Gulpilil), whom he calls "Jubi". The grandfather continually imparts wisdom of the old ways to Pete, who wishes to open a restaurant on the property. The boy hopes his absent mother, Lynelle (Rohanna Angus) will return to help with the restaurant, although Jubi doubts her return to the desolate area of Kimberley. A local mining company soon arrives, claims the land, and will soon build a storage facility on the property, razing everything on it.

Pete asks his friend Kalmain (Joseph Pedley) to accompany him on a weekend bicycle trip to the city in an attempt to appeal to the company officials. Kalmain is happy to oblige, as he is now on the run from the police. The journey becomes a walkabout for the boys when they become lost. Pete must rely on the sage advice from his grandfather for survival to not only complete the trek into the city and meet with the company, but also with his mother, who wishes to take him to Perth so that she can become a beautician.

Cast

Production

Background

Around the year 2006, writer-director Catriona McKenzie discovered Western Australia's Kimberley region while directing the television series, The Circuit , she felt compelled to tell a story about the Australian outback. Although The Circuit was filmed mainly in Broome, McKenzie visited the Purnululu National Park and its Bungle Bungle Range. She spoke about the plot-driven medium of television and considered it "always very archetypal", she said, adding "That's why I went to the Bungle Bungles, that incredible landscape. If you film the right country, you get that feeling and you can give it off to an audience". [1]

Satellite Boy was the first feature film allowed to shoot in the World Heritage-listed area, with consultation from the Indigenous community. The crew lived in tents and had to carry their equipment on canvas stretchers. Vehicles are not allowed within two kilometres (1.24 miles) of the Bungle Bungles. [1]

McKenzie avoided the film possibly becoming a political statement about mining. She stated, "It's not a political film. It's not anti-mining. But through a whole lot of means, the world is disintegrating. They're stripping everything. Even though it's a resources boom … that means you just can't drink the water and you just can't eat. If you stay connected to country, you wouldn't do that." [1]

McKenzie has also stated that the movie is a "love letter" to her adopted father who showed her "love through action". She added that she "was also interested in the idea of tradition and traditions. And the generational gap. The context for that is the notion of country that I speak about later on". [2]

Casting

McKenzie stated that she wrote the film for David Gulpilil, who won the $50,000 Red Ochre Award at the Australia Council's National Indigenous Arts Awards for long career in Aboriginal arts. McKenzie likened having Gulpilil in her film to working with "[Robert] De Niro or [Meryl] Streep." Gulpilil also struggled with gout at the time of filming, which received additional praise from the director. [1]

To cast Pete, McKenzie claimed to drive "everywhere for months" with her local casting director, Jub Clerc. They found Wallaby playing in Fitzroy Crossing and asked if he would like to audition. She states Wallaby improvised as if he had read the script. [1]

Reception

Critical reception

Peter Galvin of SBS called Satellite Boy "beautiful-looking and sweet-natured". He added, "Stripped of its specifics, McKenzie's story offers a series of well-rehearsed themes familiar from a brief history of Indigenous cinema: the city vs. the bush, the spiritual vs. the material, family vs. independence, traditional vs. (white) secular life. Yet, none of this feels stale, tired or worse, preachy." [3] The Hollywood Reporter 's John DeFore stated, "McKenzie's vision isn't as otherworldly as some that have taken wide-eyed moviegoers to the outback, but it suggests that...Australia is still big enough to keep secrets from Europeans bent on taming it." [4]

Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald notes the film "tells a gentle tale about the sustaining glories of the natural world, the spirit of adventure and the interconnectedness between the past and the future." [5] Variety 's Eddie Cockrell called the film a "resonant generational drama", adding, "Though steeped in the realism of Kalmain's juvenile delinquency and Lynelle’s yearning for a life removed from her cultural heritage, Satellite Boy balances these modern dilemmas with a subtle yet reverberant symbolism that embraces the history and spirituality of Aboriginal tradition." [6]

Accolades

In 2013, Satellite Boy earned Best Film and Best Sound nominations for the AACTA Awards, given by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. [7] At the Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Crystal Bear Special Mention Award for Best Film. It also won the festival's International Jury Award for Best Feature Film. [8] At the Palm Springs International Film Festival, McKenzie was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.[ citation needed ]

The film also earned McKenzie nominations for the Discovery Award, as well as the International Critics' Award at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<i>Rabbit-Proof Fence</i> 2002 Australian drama film

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film directed and produced by Phillip Noyce based on the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is loosely based on a true story concerning the author's mother Molly Craig, as well as two other Aboriginal girls, Daisy Kadibil and Gracie, who escape from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia, to return to their Aboriginal families, after being placed there in 1931. The film follows the Aboriginal girls as they walk for nine weeks along 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong, while being pursued by white law enforcement authorities and an Aboriginal tracker. The film illustrates the official child removal policy that existed in Australia between approximately 1905 and 1967. Its victims now are called the "Stolen Generations".

<i>Walkabout</i> (film) 1971 survival film by Nicolas Roeg

Walkabout is a 1971 adventure survival film directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, and David Gulpilil. Edward Bond wrote the screenplay, which is loosely based on the 1959 novel Walkabout by James Vance Marshall. Set in the Australian outback, it centres on two white schoolchildren who are left to fend for themselves in the Australian outback and who come across a teenage Aboriginal boy who helps them to survive.

Esther Davis is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and its film adaptation, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, and as Amelia Vanek in The Babadook. Other major works include a recurring role as Lady Crane in season six of the television series Game of Thrones, Sister Iphigenia in Lambs of God, and the role of Ellen Kelly in Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Gulpilil</span> Aboriginal Australian actor and dancer (1953–2021)

David Dhalatnghu Gulpilil, known professionally as David Gulpilil and posthumously as David Dalaithngu for three days, was an Indigenous Australian actor and dancer, known for the films Walkabout, Storm Boy, Crocodile Dundee, Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Tracker.

<i>Ten Canoes</i> 2006 Australian film

Ten Canoes is a 2006 Australian drama film directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr and starring Crusoe Kurddal. The title of the film arose from discussions between de Heer and David Gulpilil about a photograph of ten canoeists poling across the Arafura Swamp, taken by anthropologist Donald Thomson in 1936. It is the first ever movie entirely filmed in Australian Aboriginal languages. The film is partly in colour and partly in black and white, in docudrama style largely with a narrator explaining the story. The overall format is that of a moral tale.

The Longford Lyell Award is a lifetime achievement award presented by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), a non-profit organisation whose aim is "to identify, award, promote and celebrate Australia's greatest achievements in film and television." The award is presented at the annual AACTA Awards, which hand out accolades for technical achievements in feature film, television, documentaries and short films. From 1968 to 2010, the award was presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), the Academy's parent organisation, at the annual Australian Film Institute Awards. When the AFI launched the Academy in 2011, it changed the annual ceremony to the AACTA Awards, with the current award being a continuum of the AFI Raymond Longford Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Perkins</span> Australian filmmaker

Rachel Perkins is an Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She directed the films Radiance (1998), One Night the Moon (2001), Bran Nue Dae (2010), and Jasper Jones (2017). Perkins is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman from Central Australia, who was raised in Canberra by Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins and his wife Eileen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mirrah Foulkes</span>

Mirrah Foulkes is an Australian director, screenwriter, and film and television actress. She was raised on the Sunshine Coast, in South East Queensland, Australia. She has appeared in films such as Animal Kingdom (2010), Sleeping Beauty (2011), and in the Australian anthology film The Turning (2013).

<i>Redfern Now</i> Australian TV series or program

Redfern Now is an Australian drama television series, that first aired on ABC1 in 2012. The program follows the lives of 6 Aboriginal Australian families living in the urban hub of Redfern, Sydney. The series provides insight into contemporary issues facing Aboriginal Australians, including lack of employment and mental illness, which are positioned as direct ramifications of colonialisation and the Stolen Generations. Produced by Blackfella Films as part of the ABC's Indigenous Department, the show is the first series to be 'commissioned, written, acted and produced by Indigenous Australians'. The series' release contributes to widespread public debate surrounding Indigenous representation in the Australian media.

<i>Mystery Road</i> (film) 2013 film

Mystery Road is a 2013 Australian crime film with neo-Western elements and setting, written and directed by Ivan Sen. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. A film sequel entitled Goldstone was released in 2016, and TV series in 2018, all featuring Aaron Pedersen as the brooding Indigenous Australian detective Jay Swan.

The 3rd Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards are a series of awards which includes the 3rd AACTA Awards Luncheon, the 3rd AACTA Awards ceremony and the 3rd AACTA International Awards. The former two events were held at The Star Event Centre, in Sydney, New South Wales on 28 January and 30 January 2014, respectively. Presented by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), the awards celebrated the best in Australian feature film, television, documentary and short film productions of 2013. The AACTA Awards ceremony were televised on Network Ten. These awards were a continuum of the Australian Film Institute Awards, established in 1958 and presented until 2010, which was rebranded the AACTA Awards when the Australian Film Institute (AFI) established AACTA in 2011.

Chloé Boreham, is a Franco-Australian actress. She is best known for the leading role as detective Bridget Anderson on the Channel 7 television drama The Killing Field.

<i>Charlies Country</i> 2013 film

Charlie's Country is a 2013 Australian drama film directed by Rolf de Heer. It was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival where David Gulpilil won the award for Best Actor. It was also screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and awarded the Best Fiction Prize and the Youth Jury Prize at the 2015 International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in Geneva.

<i>High Ground</i> (2020 film) 2020 Australian film by Stephen Maxwell Johnson

High Ground is a 2020 Australian film directed by Stephen Maxwell Johnson, based on historical events that took place in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, set just after World War I. It has variously been called a revisionist Western and meat pie Western. However it tells of a true historical event in a fictionalised manner but with very close attention to and respect for Aboriginal culture.

<i>Another Country</i> (2015 film) 2015 Australian documentary film written by David Gulpilil and directed by Molly Reynolds

Another Country is a 2015 documentary film about the intersection of traditional Australian Aboriginal culture and modern Australian culture. It features actor David Gulpilil narrating a story about his home community of Ramininging in the Northern Territory.

Catriona McKenzie is an Australian filmmaker. She is known for her film Satellite Boy and television series Kiki and Kitty and Wrong Kind of Black. Her production company is called Dark Horse.

My Name Is Gulpilil is a 2021 documentary film about the life of celebrated Australian actor David Gulpilil, at the time sick with stage four lung cancer.

Steven McGregor is an Australian filmmaker, known for his work on Redfern Now, Black Comedy, Sweet Country, and numerous documentaries, including My Brother Vinnie.

David Jowsey is an Australian film producer, co-founder of Bunya Productions. He is known for producing many films made by Indigenous Australian filmmakers. Bunya Productions' co-owners are Indigenous filmmaker Ivan Sen, and Jowsey's wife Greer Simpkin.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Capturing a Western wonder, Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  2. ↑ Five Questions with Satellite Boy Director Catriona McKenzie, Filmmaker . Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  3. ↑ Reviews: Satellite Boy, SBS. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Satellite Boy: Toronto Review, The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  5. ↑ Path to wonderland, Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  6. ↑ Review: 'Satellite Boy', Variety . Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  7. ↑ "3rd AACTA Nominees by Production" (PDF). AACTA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  8. ↑ Prizes & Honours 2013, Berlinale.de. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.