Cirrus@Austlit

'The story of an Aboriginal stockman and his family and their growing passion for “picnic racing” on bush tracks in New South Wales.'

'Sunny and The Dark Horse was filmed at Collum Collum, an Aboriginal-operated cattle station in north-eastern New South Wales. The film follows the Aboriginal manager of the station, Sunny Bancroft, and his non-Aboriginal wife, Liz, in their search for a winning horse to triumph on the local picnic racing circuit – but things don’t always go their way.'

'The story begins when Sunny buys a horse for his daughter to ride and races it at the Glenreagh Gallop. He then attempts to find a suitable stockhorse on the station to race at the local Baryulgil picnic races. But while training one of these he hears that a friend has a racehorse for sale and buys it to race at Baryulgil. The horse, King, wins at Baryulgil but loses at subsequent race meetings. Sunny determines to find another winner and buys a black horse, naming it Sambo.'

'With the end of the season, Sunny is persuaded by his family not to buy any more horses, but then he hears that a friend has another racehorse for sale ...'(Ronin Films website)

'This observational documentary follows an episode in the routine life on Collum Collum cattle-station in northern New South Wales. But, as the filmmaker notes, it’s a story that could have occurred anywhere.'

'The film follows the attempts by Sunny Bancroft and other men in the Collum Collum Aboriginal community to remove a failed engine from a car and replace it with a refurbished engine from another car. It’s a familiar rural task where the expectation is to keep motors running, but for these Aboriginal men, it’s also an occasion to affirm continuing community relationships.'

'Sunny regards himself as something of a “bush mechanic”. Replacing the engine calls for a gathering of men and children “to see what happens”. It’s a time for “common sense” but also communal effort, and the calling in of local experts when needed.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Constructed as a series of vignettes of station life, the film focuses particularly on the relationship between Sunny Bancroft, the station manager, and a 16-year-old trainee, Shane Gordon. The episodes are linked by Sunny’s reflections on learning the hard way from experience, and from the lessons taught him by his father.'

'With intertitles to introduce each episode, the film is eloquent in its depiction of Sunny’s patient approach to managing his horses and training young Shane: “I believe in kindness to everything and everyone. If you be kind to something it’ll be kind back”.'

'Some vignettes have a Tati-like simplicity of observation, for example when young Shane tries to untangle a bridle with one hand while holding a frisky horse with the other, or when Sunny patiently attempts to get a recalcitrant paint-spraying machine to work.'

'The film is, above all, an invaluable observation of the personal dynamics within a working cattle station, and within the Aboriginal community that operates the station.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Examines the expectations and the life of Aboriginal stockman Bob Massey Pootchemunka, whose ambition is to see an all-Aboriginal cattle station operating at his home, Ti-Tree. Also presents Bob's nephew Eric Pootchemunka, an experienced stockman who would be station manager, and Eric's son Ian who would find on the station the challenges and companionship of a stockman's life.' (Source: TROVE)

'Gordon Smith, head of the Collum Collum Aboriginal Co-operative which operates a cattle station in northern New South Wales, and Sunny Bancroft, the station manager, are negotiating with the Aboriginal Development Corporation in Canberra for a loan. Finance is needed to stock the property with breeding cattle so that the station can become financially independent.'

'The film details the frustrations of negotiating with a distant bureaucracy while, at the same time, trying to manage the property and make it a viable business.'

'The negotiations take place mainly by telephone with occasional visits from ADC representatives. Sunny’s wife, Liz, is in charge of the homestead and hospitality whenever a visitor calls. Sunny meanwhile has to deal with training the station hands, maintaining fences, and managing the cattle that are currently held.'

'After much stone-walling by the ADC, frustrations and paper-shuffling, approval for the finance is given but then it takes even more time for the money to flow.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'When Geraldine Kawanka’s husband died, she and her children moved out of their house. In earlier times, their bark house would have been burnt, but today a “house-opening” ceremony has evolved, creatively mingling Aboriginal, Torres Strait, and European traditions in order to deal with death in the context of new living patterns in the Aboriginal community of Aurukun, on the Cape York Peninsula, north Queensland.'

'This beautifully observed documentary shows both the preparations for the ceremony and then the elaborate event itself, involving ritual, dancing, music, and a big feast that not even a sudden drenching tropical storm can disrupt.'

'Narrating the film herself, Geraldine Kawangka expresses her feelings about the gathering of family members, explains the relationships between old and new traditions, and finally examines her feelings about returning to her house after the ceremony is over. She talks about how the ceremony is essential as a way to teach young people about traditional values and customs, and to give them a sense of belonging to a huge extended family: “if our children lost these ceremonies, children wouldn’t know who they are or where they come in”.'

'One of the major works produced by the AIAS Film Unit, this documentary observes the profound effect on an Aboriginal community of political and bureaucratic decisions made far away. Although specific to time and place, the film is timeless and universal in its observations of a conflict between an Indigenous minority and a powerful government.'

'The film presents an insider’s view of events that followed an announcement made without warning on 13 March 1978 that the Queensland state government was taking over control of the Aboriginal community of Aurukun in the north of the State, displacing the Uniting Church which had managed the Aboriginal Reserve for 70 years.'

'At the request of the community, filmmakers David and Judith MacDougall documented the events of the following weeks, as the community marshalled its supporters to resist the takeover, and a stream of lawyers, politicians, Church officials, government advisers and representatives of mainstream media arrived to talk with the Aboriginal Council and the community at large.'

'Ostensibly driven by a desire to access the mineral wealth in the Aurukun area, the state government was resistant to modifying its position, but intervention from the Federal government forced a sequence of compromises, though not always with the community’s knowledge or to their satisfaction.' (Source: Ronin Films website)