'An innovative film on the Borroloola people's struggle for the recognition of Aboriginal law. Aborigines actively collaborated with the filmmakers in determining the form of the film. Police Times is a dramatic re-enactment of white oppression in the 1930s. In Welfare Times, life under the welfare system in the 1950s is re-enacted. In struggle for Our Land, Aboriginal attachment to the land is described and the first hearing of the Borroloola land claim is also reenacted. Living With Two Laws is concerned with the movement back to traditional land and the setting up of cattle stations.'
Source: Trove.
'The film was made by the community of Borroloola in the Gulf country of the far north of Australia with the technical assistance of two white filmmakers. The film is a reflection on the Borroloola people's history of massacre, dispossession and institutionalisation, and as such serves them as a basis for action in the present and future. Part 1 involves the re-enactment of a singularly potent historical incident from 1933 when a police constable rounded up over thirty Aboriginal people and chained and beat them on a two month march to Borroloola'.
Source: Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative Ltd Independent Film and Video Reference Book 1983.
'This article is an edited transcript of an unrehearsed audio dialog between Professor Bill Nichols and filmmaker Jill Godmilow on the film, Two Laws. The dialogue provides the voice-over commentary on the DVD release of the film. It is suggested that the film might be seen as a gesture of decolonization and the authors draw upon the history of ethnographic and documentary film to identify the particular features and innovations which, they argue, the film achieves. The authors work through the films four sections, (Police Times, Welfare Times, The Struggle for Our Land, Living With Two Laws), providing commentary on particular shots, framing etc and concluding, in Nichols' words, that ‘the resolution to the film…is in the form of resolve…namely the peoples’ resolve to move forward and to fight to retain access and rights to their traditional lands.'' (Publication abstract)
These notes reflect on the unreserved collaborative essence of Kanymarda Yuwa/Two Laws (Cavadini and Strachlan, 1981). Its re-release draws us once again back to the core of the story's existence—‘the people of Borroloola’. It fundamentally re-asserts some of the messages of Borroloola Elders and community and highlights the continuing impacts of a more sophisticated colonial agenda.' (Publication abstract)
'This article examines the ways in which the documentary film Two Laws deploys a variety of strategies to represent the historical claim to land made in the early 1980s by the Borroloola people of Australia's Northern Territory. Cross-cultural collaboration between the indigenous people of Borroloola and two non-indigenous film-makers produced a film that combines a vigorous reflexivity with dramatic re-enactment and oral testimony. Importantly, the presentation of evidence in support of the land claim is achieved via a form communally devised by the Borroloola people based on their cultural needs and contingent on Borroloola social structure. In this way the so-called documentary truth claim and indigenous land claim intersect in Two Laws: for the Borroloola people, the filmic evidentiary truth claim functions in a direct way in support of their legal claim to their lands.' (Publication abstract)
'In this commentary, Faye Ginsburg contextualizes the importance of the film, Two Laws, noting that its emergence in the world of documentary cinema constituted a paradigm shift, drawing upon Thomas Kuhn's identification of this process within models of scientific progress. She discusses its impact by suggesting its significance as paralleling that of Jean Rouch in the world of ethnographic cinema and she outlines its influence on the emergence of indigenous media in central Australia in the 1980s.' (Publication abstract)
'This interview with film-makers Carolyn Strachan and Allesandro Cavadini focuses on their collaboration with the Borroloola Aboriginal community in the making of Two Laws (1981). They explain why they chose to ‘surrender’ directorial control to the community and how this action led to the unique form and style of this documentary. The detailed and frank discussion of the complex processes of collaboration, what Marcia Langton once called the‘actual dialogue’ of cross-cultural film production, deepens our appreciation of this unique group-authored film. It also allows us to consider how film in general can function meaningfully as a site of cross-cultural exchange.' (Introduction)
'This interview with film-makers Carolyn Strachan and Allesandro Cavadini focuses on their collaboration with the Borroloola Aboriginal community in the making of Two Laws (1981). They explain why they chose to ‘surrender’ directorial control to the community and how this action led to the unique form and style of this documentary. The detailed and frank discussion of the complex processes of collaboration, what Marcia Langton once called the‘actual dialogue’ of cross-cultural film production, deepens our appreciation of this unique group-authored film. It also allows us to consider how film in general can function meaningfully as a site of cross-cultural exchange.' (Introduction)
'In this commentary, Faye Ginsburg contextualizes the importance of the film, Two Laws, noting that its emergence in the world of documentary cinema constituted a paradigm shift, drawing upon Thomas Kuhn's identification of this process within models of scientific progress. She discusses its impact by suggesting its significance as paralleling that of Jean Rouch in the world of ethnographic cinema and she outlines its influence on the emergence of indigenous media in central Australia in the 1980s.' (Publication abstract)
'This article examines the ways in which the documentary film Two Laws deploys a variety of strategies to represent the historical claim to land made in the early 1980s by the Borroloola people of Australia's Northern Territory. Cross-cultural collaboration between the indigenous people of Borroloola and two non-indigenous film-makers produced a film that combines a vigorous reflexivity with dramatic re-enactment and oral testimony. Importantly, the presentation of evidence in support of the land claim is achieved via a form communally devised by the Borroloola people based on their cultural needs and contingent on Borroloola social structure. In this way the so-called documentary truth claim and indigenous land claim intersect in Two Laws: for the Borroloola people, the filmic evidentiary truth claim functions in a direct way in support of their legal claim to their lands.' (Publication abstract)
These notes reflect on the unreserved collaborative essence of Kanymarda Yuwa/Two Laws (Cavadini and Strachlan, 1981). Its re-release draws us once again back to the core of the story's existence—‘the people of Borroloola’. It fundamentally re-asserts some of the messages of Borroloola Elders and community and highlights the continuing impacts of a more sophisticated colonial agenda.' (Publication abstract)
'This article is an edited transcript of an unrehearsed audio dialog between Professor Bill Nichols and filmmaker Jill Godmilow on the film, Two Laws. The dialogue provides the voice-over commentary on the DVD release of the film. It is suggested that the film might be seen as a gesture of decolonization and the authors draw upon the history of ethnographic and documentary film to identify the particular features and innovations which, they argue, the film achieves. The authors work through the films four sections, (Police Times, Welfare Times, The Struggle for Our Land, Living With Two Laws), providing commentary on particular shots, framing etc and concluding, in Nichols' words, that ‘the resolution to the film…is in the form of resolve…namely the peoples’ resolve to move forward and to fight to retain access and rights to their traditional lands.'' (Publication abstract)
