My Name is Gulpilil (M) Q&A Screening Event
Sun July 18 I 4pm
Leven Theatre Ulverstone
★★★★★“Pensive and piercingly emotional, this is an unforgettable film.”Luke Buckmaster, TheGuardian
★★★★★“A breathtakingly beautiful depiction of an extraordinary life”Tara Forbes-Godfrey, Glam Adelaide
Special Event Screening of My Name is Gulpilil followed by a Q&A with Producer Rolf de Heer and Director Molly Reynolds
David Gulpililis an iconic figure of Australian cinema and has been for fifty years. His mesmerising, electrifying presence has leapt off the big screen and changed Australian screen representation forever.
The only actor to appear in both of the two highest grossing Australian films of all time, Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Australia (2008), Gulpilil is known throughout the world for his unforgettable performances -from his breakthrough in Walkabout(1971) to films including Storm Boy(1976),Mad Dog Morgan(1976), Peter Weir’sThe Last Wave(1977),The Tracker(2002),Rabbit Proof Fence(2002),The Proposition(2005) and his Cannes Best Actor award winning role in Rolf de Heer’s Charlie’s Country (2013).
Integral to the telling of so many legendary screen stories, Gulpilil, now nearing the end of his life, generously shares his own story with us in My Name is Gulpilil. The actor, dancer, singer and painter takes us boldly on the journey that is his most extraordinary, culture-clashing life.
My Name is Gulpililis directed by Molly Reynolds and produced by Rolf de Heer, Peter Djigirr, David Gulpilil and Molly Reynolds.
Director Molly Reynolds and David Gulpilil
There are many highlights for Molly, but Twelve Canoes (2008), her combined website/documentary film project is one of them. The 12 Canoes website, subject to a recent technical update (much as a significant film might berestored) and now re-launched by the National Film and Sound Archive, was recognised and awarded around the world. The documentary drawn from it, Twelve Canoes, played major film festivals (Telluride, IDFA) and was alsoawarded its share of prizes.
Other highlights include: creation of the innovative Virtual Reality work The Waiting Room (Samstag Museum of Art); producer/writer/director of Still Our Country, another combined website/feature documentary film project and madeas a parallel project to the movie Charlie's Country; the third of the Country Suite of projects, feature documentary Another Country, DavidGulpilil's take on the mayhem that results when an old culture is interruptedby a new culture; and more recently, the covid-inspired feature-length hybrid film, ShoPaapaa (Adelaide Film Festival 2020).
With My Name Is Gulpilil now playing on the silver screen, Molly's now auspicious career has taken another step forward, although after nearly four years of being immersed in the film and its subject, she does rather look forward to a rest...after which she'll be looking for new screen challenges to conquer.
Producer Rolf de Heer. David Gulpilil, Molly Reynolds & Peter Djigirr
Rolf de Heer has written or co-written thirteen original or adapted screenplays that have been made into feature films.
He has directed (or in one case, co-directed) fourteen feature films of various budgets and genres, mostly from screenplays he has written (or co-written) himself.
With varying degrees of success, de Heer has produced or co-produced fifteen fictional feature films and four feature documentaries, which makes him a more prolific producer than anything else.
Producing highlights include Dingo with Colin Friels and Miles Davis; Bad Boy Bubby, multi-prize winner at Venice and still an active cult film 27 years later; The Quiet Room and Dance Me To My Song, both selected for Competition at Cannes; The Tracker, another Venice Competition film and de Heer's first collaboration with David Gulpilil; Ten Canoes, prize winner at Cannes; Twelve Canoes, a documentary that gets better as it gets older; The King Is Dead!, voted most popular film at an obscure French film festival, brought back the following year by public demand and again voted most popular film (it doesn'thappen very often); Charlie's Country, winning David Gulpilil a Best Actor prize at Cannes and now My Name Is Gulpilil.