DREAMS FROM THE OUTBACK

By Jannik SPLIDSBOEL

FIRST HAND FILMS - as SALES All rights, World

Art - Culture - Completed 2019

Should Aboriginals belong to fauna or to human beings? Australia voted on this in 1967. The referendum counts today as a turning point for Aboriginal rights: the moment when they won the vote, became citizens, gained legal equality and when Aboriginal affairs came under federal control.

Festivals
& Awards

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (online) 2021
Doc Market
    • Year of production
    • 2019
    • Genres
    • Art - Culture, Social issues, Documentary
    • Countries
    • DENMARK
    • Languages
    • DANISH, ENGLISH
    • Duration
    • 80 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Jannik SPLIDSBOEL
    • Producer(s)
    • Søren STEEN JESPERSEN (Larm Film Production)
    • Synopsis
    • Then, Aboriginal communities were left with a big question: how to coexist with a western society not grasping their complex culture of songs, dreams and spirituality.  

      Many Aboriginal communities are rough and mostly poor. It is a crushing sort of poverty: everyone gets a minimal social security payment that doesn’t cover anything really, feeding therewith a spiritual malaise, an inner poverty. Many people use this money to gamble, to buy drugs and alcohol, more often than not leaving nothing for their families and letting children go hungry.

      In Australia, remote areas are the core topoi of traditional knowledge, spirituality, art, dance and tribal lore. Today, everything is in transition and change.

      “Outlines” is a rare insight into a community and a culture that most people think they know, but really don’t. It’s a film where the real people that normally avoid being filmed have granted us access in order to tell their story. It’s a film about spirituality and belonging and about fighting your own demons.

      We meet characters who all try to bring a change for the better to their community also by looking to the past. But if you want to help your community you need to be able to help yourself as well.

      And sometimes looking too much into the past can be an obstacle.