'These extended conversations with David and Judith MacDougall represent an invaluable archival record and convey a wealth of ideas and information relating to their experiences as a highly influential ethnographic filmmaking team.
'The conversations cover their years with the Film Unit of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1975-1987. During this time, the MacDougalls made a series of eleven documentary films, many of them acknowledged world-wide as landmark achievements in ethnographic cinema. These films included TAKEOVER (1979), THE HOUSE-OPENING (1980), THREE HORSEMEN (1982), SUNNY AND THE DARK HORSE (1987) and LINK-UP DIARY (1987). The MacDougalls discuss their approach to filmmaking and the circumstances of making each film. They also reflect on their body of work from the perspective of today, and discuss the work of other filmmakers who worked for the Film Unit, notably Kim McKenzie with films such as WAITING FOR HARRY (1980), and the work of Indigenous filmmakers Wayne Barker and Oomera (Coral) Edwards.' (Publication summary)
