Situated right on the harbour surrounded by lush tropical palms and populated by possums on the ground and bats in the air, the Deckchair has found new life in its new(ish) waterside locale. Against this backdrop, and in its third year as part of the Darwin Festival, Big Screen presented one of the strongest Territory programs to date. Screening from 14 to 16 August, the Darwin event was an excellent mix of new and archival work and included two guests that, although completely different in audience appeal, very much shared a common history.

In Darwin I was honoured to be accompanied by Michael Caton, star of the seminal 90s comedy The Castle, and Tom E Lewis, star of the 70s classic The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.

Tom is a Territory boy, living 100 clicks outside of Katherine in a community named Beswick. It’s impossible to walk down the street with Tom without him meeting a relative – brother, daughter, uncle – and more often than not there’s a bit of humbug but Tom is invigorating and stimulating to spend time with. Committed to equality and equity in both Indigenous and wider culture, Tom wastes no opportunity in pushing himself and his people forward in quite the most passionate and positive of ways. So, interviews usually found themselves moving more toward the social aspects of cinema, the power of ideas on the screen, and then a much more direct call to his people to break out of a malaise and confront the world with the power of their culture. Quite stirring to hear, and resulted in some great conversation between us.

Michael though … now there’s another thing. This is Michael’s second tour with me on Big Screen and his appetite for exploring the locales is equal to his appetite for talking about movies. With close to a full house for the great double feature of The Castle and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Michael had the audience eating out of his hand, eager to spend time with the man out of whose mouth have come a host of phrases that have worked their way in to everyday use. Of course the highlight for one couple was winning a ‘Have a beer with Michael Caton’ competition, where they were provided a reserved table at the cinema with Michael perched at one end, pizzas for the evening and an esky full of beer and wine. Great stuff!

A great supporter of Big Screen, Michael is perhaps best suited to a Darwin audience than anywhere else I’ve been to on the tour. The myriad of tourists who attended that night received a crash course in the more profound nature of Australian culture, but are perhaps still trying to make sense of the phrase ‘dry as a dead dingo’s donger’.

The highlight was Tom’s (and Ivan Sen’s) new short documentary Yellow Fella. As a lover of documentary, this film has to be one of most powerful Australian works I’ve seen since Cunnamulla. Unflinching and uncompromising in its raw power, it is a serious personal journey as gripping as it is confrontational. Fine work and worthy of its Cannes selection.

So…it’s a wrap for Darwin. Onward and upward as we roll through WA.

Richard Sowada, Festival Director