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Clip description
Presenter Duranga Manika (Michelle Torres) considers whether white people are intelligent and looks at a new government initiative aimed at making them less insular.
Curator’s notes
Here the film uses biting satire to refer to the Stolen Generations and the government policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families. What gives the satire its bite is Manika’s interpretation of the events and her patronising sympathy for the white family, who appear wary of the cameras and afraid of speaking out. Their extreme stoicism is played for humour.
According to director Don Featherstone, the actors portraying the family had to depict a situation where their beliefs and values are discredited. For Tony Barry’s character, the father, this involved feeling 'emasculated and shamed’. Barry’s performance is powerful in its containment – the mild smile constantly fixed on his face throughout the film nonetheless suggests his bottled-up anger and frustration. Tony Barry’s other work includes I Can Jump Puddles (1981) and Scales of Justice (1983).
For more on the Stolen Generations, see the documentaries Beyond Sorry (2003), Case 442 (2005) and Stolen Generations (2000), short drama Snake Dreaming (2002) and feature Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002).
