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AUDREY NAPANANGKA
Year: 2022
Classification: PG
Runtime: 85 min
Produced In: Australia
Directed By: Audrey Napanangka, Penelope McDonald
Produced By: Rachel Clements, Trisha Morton-Thomas, Penelope McDonald
Language: Arrernte and Walpiri (with English subtitles) and English
Website: www.audreynapanangka.film
PRE-ORDER DVDs: available from 21 April for home viewing, education and screenings. Digital download files also available.
Audrey Napanangka tells the story of Warlpiri matriarch Audrey, who was born at a time when the world was changing forever for people of the central Australian desert. Colonial settlements, relocation, displacement, and the forced removal of children as two worlds fused, ended in tragedy for Audrey and her young family. Despite this, she had a happy childhood which gave her the resilience to be the woman she is today.
With her Sicilian partner, Santo, Audrey uses her deep cultural knowledge to enrich the lives of others, and particularly her foster children, as she also gives them the skills for navigating the complex modern world.
Audrey lives in Alice Springs in the centre of Australia, hundreds of kilometres from her Country, the land of her forbears for thousands of years, where she was born and she grew up, south of the Tanami Desert.
She keeps a precarious balance between two worlds, the ancient desert law of the Warlpiri nation, and the modern-day town of Alice Springs. She has been with Santo for over 30 years and together they have provided a safe home for many Warlpiri children who have needed one.
In her 70s now, Audrey is an elder with a big extended Warlpiri family, who live between Alice Springs and small townships and communities hundreds of kilometres from Alice Springs. She looks after her family and has many obligations to fulfil. As one of the few family members with a house in Alice Springs she and Santo are called upon for support when family need to visit town for shopping, hospitals, or court.
Audrey has had a lifelong journey of raising children which has had its highs and lows. As a grandmother and great grandmother, together with Santo, she still has teenagers in her care. To Audrey it is important that the children can navigate and thrive in two worlds, that of mainstream Australia, and that they know the language, laws and cultures of their forbears, and their connection to the land and skies of the central desert that is their birth right.
Life is not always easy, and we journey with Audrey and her family through the obstacles that they must overcome, as well as the good times.
In the end, family and love are everything.
Featuring AUDREY NAPANANGKA, SANTO GIARDINA, MIRIAM WILLIAMS, LEANORAH WILLIAMS and TYRESE JOHNSON
Directed by PENELOPE MCDONALD in collaboration with AUDREY NAPANANGKA MARTIN
Produced by PENELOPE MCDONALD, TRISHA MORTON-THOMAS and RACHEL CLEMENTS
Executive Producer - RONA GLYNN-MCDONALD
Written by PENELOPE MCDONALD and DYLAN RIVER
Music by DAVID BRIDIE
Sound Design - LIAM EGAN
Edited by JAMES BRADLEY, JANE ST VINCENT WELCH and KARRYN DE CINQUE
Cinematography by DYLAN RIVER, JUSTINE KERRIGAN ACS, SHANE MULCAHY, ANNA CADDEN, BONNY SCOTT, MIRIAM WILLIAMS and PENELOPE MCDONALD
A CHILI FILMS AND BRINDLE FILMS PRODUCTION
PRESENTED BY SCREEN AUSTRALIA IN ASSOCIATION WITH NATIONAL INDIGENOUS TELEVISION WITH SUPPORT FROM SCREEN TERRITORY.
MADE ON THE LANDS OF THE ARRERNTE PEOPLE OF MPARNTWE AND THE WARLPIRI PEOPLE OF MOUNT THEO AND ON THE LANDS OF THE ANMATYERR PEOPLE.
WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING
Sydney Film Festival - Finalist Documentary Australia Award, June 2022
AWARDS
Finalist, Best Documentary, Sydney Film Festival 2022
Finalist, Best Direction Documentary Feature, Australian Directors' Guild 2022
Best Social Documentary at the Beyond Borders International Film Festival, Greece 2023
Best Direction at Cyprus Archaeological Ethnographic & Historical Film Festival 2024
FESTIVALS
Melbourne International Film Festival, August 2022
CinefestOZ, August 2022
Darwin International Film Festival, September 2022
Adelaide Film Festival, October 2022
Brisbane International Film Festival, November 2022