Australian
Screen

The Lore of Love is part of the Loved Up series commissioned by the Indigenous Unit of the AFC. The series will prove to be culturally important to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, for it challenges the emotionless discourse of anthropology, generally the context through which the majority of Australians are introduced to Indigenous peoples.

This was the first time the Indigenous Unit of the Australian Film Commission commissioned film ideas based on a theme, and Lore of Love is one of those subtle yet important films that allows outsiders to glimpse the intimate world of Indigenous culture from an emotional perspective. In this film, we hear about the role of love in Indigenous culture and society, a refreshing break from the heavy handedness of anthropological treatment of the indigenous subject. Instead, this film is an insider’s look at love, and how the next generations are being welcomed into womanhood by their nanna’s.

The exposé on the subject of love reanimates the effects of anthropology and how it has framed Indigenous cultural practice as stagnant and emotionally inanimate. This is about people in love, and it is an important film in that it provides a window through which to see how love is fundamental to all communities – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. Beck Cole tells this story with sensitivity and care without being condescending. Beck Cole’s other credits include Creepy Crawleys (2001), Flat (2002), The Good Fight (2001), Plains Empty (2004) and the award winning Wirriya: small boy (2004), voted Best Australian Film at the WOW International Film Festival in 2004.