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GOLDEN CORD, THE

Year: 1996

Classification: G

Runtime: 55 min

Produced In: Australia

Directed By: Hilary Furlong

Produced By: Hilary Furlong

Language: English

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THE GOLDEN CORD tells the story of a unique cross-cultural friendship.

Ten women artists from Utopia, a remote Aboriginal community in central Australia, were invited to Brahma Tirta Sari, a leading batik studio in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The Utopia women were already skilled batik artists. However, this visit enabled the practice of new techniques and the chance to prepare for a major exhibition.

In turn, their Javanese hosts, Agus Ismoyo and his US-born wife, Nia Fliam, came to the central Australian desert where the Utopia women showed them their country, the source of their physical sustenance and the meaning of their lives.

THE GOLDEN CORD looks beyond the fascinating detail of the refined technical skills required by the art of batik, to aspects of the vivid spiritual and social traditions of Java and Aboriginal Australia: two distinct but strangely parallel contemporary cultures resting on timeless foundations.

Produced and directed by Hilary Furlong
Photography – Mike Atkinson (Indonesia), Jan Kenny, ACS (Utopia)
Sound recordist – Bronwyn Murphy (Utopia)
Editor – Nicholas Beauman
Music composed and performed by Sarah Hopkins
Narrators – Jenny Vuletic, Myrtle Apetyarr, Violet Apetyarr
© 1995, Daedalus Films