Karrabing Film Collective

The members of the collective belong to the original inhabitants of the coastal areas of the Northern Territories in Australia. The makers – some thirty people – resist problems such as inequality, pollution of the environment and structural poverty by making films about the value and meaning of their millennia-old culture.

Knowledge of the ancestors and a close relationship to the land play a major role in Karrabing Film Collective’s work; ancestral spirits, mermaids, zombies and insufferable bureaucrats populate their films, through which the makers strive to recapture control of their history, and future.

Protecting the living environment

Curator Vivian Ziherl enters into a discussion with Elizabeth Povinelli, one of Karrabing Film Collective's members, including on the worldwide role film can play in protecting the living environments of indigenous peoples. Two of the collective’s films that are not included in the exhibition are being screened: When the Dogs Talked (2014) and The Jealous One (2017).

This is followed by a screening of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) by director Fred Schepisi. This classic about the life of the original inhabitants of Australia was chosen by the Karrabing Film Collective. Interesting fact: Tom E. Lewis (1958 – 2018) is related by blood to several members of the collective.

Tickets for the screening can be purchased separately.

Work by Karrabing Film Collective is currently showing in Eye, in the exhibition Meriem Bennani, Kahlil Joseph, Karrabing Film Collective: Eye Art & Film Prize.