image of person or book cover 3490390566095655560.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
form y separately published work icon Sons of Namatjira single work   film/TV  
Issue Details: First known date: 1975... 1975 Sons of Namatjira
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Sons Of Namatjira examines the relationship between a community of Aboriginal artists and the outside world. Keith Namatjira is the son of the celebrated artist Albert Namatjira, and emulates his father’s distinctive style. He lives with his family in the same camp that his father had established on the outskirts of Alice Springs in Central Australia.'

This film 'follows Keith and his wife, Isabel, and other relatives, in their interactions with the wider world including art galleries in town and bus-loads of middle-aged tourists from the big cities. The film highlights communication difficulties between black and white, and in Levy’s terms, becomes “a parable of black-white relations in Australia”.'

'Tourists and dealers drive out to the artists’ camp to bargain with the artists in person. Keith feels pressured to accept their offers but dreams that one day he will own his own gallery, so that his family can make a decent living from their work. In addition, Keith has other pressures: he has to go to court on a charge of drink-driving, whilst at the same time working with a legal-aid officer on a claim for the land they are living on. He and his family are worried that their land will be swamped by the urban development they can see closing in around them.'

'This sympathetic portrait of a tiny community of Aboriginal artists is rich in Levy’s characteristic humour and sense of irony. It was the last of Levy’s films for AIAS before he returned to independent production, and remains one of the Film Unit’s most widely seen works.' (Source: Ronin Films)

Notes

  • Ronin Films wishes to advise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that this film may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Language: English
Notes:
English language (with some English subtitles)
    • Canberra, Australian Capital Territory,: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies , 1975 .
      image of person or book cover 3490390566095655560.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 47 min.p.
      Series: AIATSIS Collection Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies , collection

      'The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (later AIATSIS – the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies) was established as a statutory authority in 1964. The Institute quickly established a film unit to act as an archive of filmed material and also to record material of ethnographic and historic significance. Part of this work also involved the preparation of films for public release, and until the early 1990s, the AIAS Film Unit became responsible for some of the most significant works of ethnographic film then produced in Australia. This collection of some thirty significant documentary works will be progressively released by Ronin Films in association with AIATSIS, where possible in re-mastered form and with associated interviews with filmmakers.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

Works about this Work

Namatjiras Needed a Good Sense of Humour 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Land Rights News , May vol. 4 no. 1 2014; (p. 28)

— Review of Sons of Namatjira 1975 single work film/TV
'A 1970s film about a group of western Arrernte watercolour painters has been re-released as a DVD...'
Namatjiras Needed a Good Sense of Humour 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Land Rights News , May vol. 4 no. 1 2014; (p. 28)

— Review of Sons of Namatjira 1975 single work film/TV
'A 1970s film about a group of western Arrernte watercolour painters has been re-released as a DVD...'
Last amended 17 Nov 2015 16:06:46
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