‘Documentary Meets’ is a year-long collection of non-fiction film screening events curated by Emmett Aldred and Keva York, presented in partnership with Composite on the third Thursday of each month. Guided by a monthly topic relevant to the local calendar and community, each film has been chosen to muster awareness and incite conversation - on pride; sex work; kin; colonisation, et al. - with guest speakers on hand to offer a viewing framework

Documentary Meets 002 features a screening of River of No Return 2008 by Darlene Johnson.

“[A] vivid example of how Indigenous filmmakers are using film in highly inventive ways to expose the enormous social gap between Aboriginal communities—especially those located in rural and remote areas—and the wider Australian community.”
Therese Davis

The second installment of Documentary Meets takes its theme from the fact of its coinciding with National Close the Gap Day – being an initiative targeting forms of entrenched inequality that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, with the goal of raising outcomes in all areas of life to nationally equitable levels.

Join us at Composite Moving Image Bank on Thursday, March 18 for a screening of Darlene Johnson’s River of No Return (2008), which documents the journey of Yolngu woman and actor Frances Daingangan as she endeavours to secure her foothold in the Australian film industry after being cast, at age 45, as one of the leads in Rolf de Heer’s Ten Canoes (2006). The bureaucratic stumbling blocks that impede her path reveal the neo-colonial state at work, wherein settlers function as institutional gatekeepers. The screening will include an introduction by Johnson and an address regarding the Coalition of Peaks New National Agreement.

Doors and drinks start from 7; introduction and screening from 7.30.
Tickets for the upcoming screening are available via the above link ($10 waged / $5 unwaged / no one turned away for lack of funds). Seating allocations will be on a ‘first come, first served’ basis and capacity is limited to 25.