Karratha is the first stop in Big Screen’s four-destination tour across Western Australia’s Pilbara region. It’s also my first festival as a Big Screen presenter. The traditional land of the Ngarluma and Yinjibarandi people, Karratha is about 1,535kms north of Perth and 850kms south of Broome. It’s a smallish town of just 15,000 people and is a really great example of why Big Screen exists: to take Australian films to people who may not otherwise see them.

The Pilbara is an instant love affair for me, with rolling green spinifex hills, winding tree-lined watercourses and the spectacular turquoise coastline fringed with iron red rocks. In the cool of the evening the euro (common kangaroo of the rocky country) and a wide variety of spectacular birds appear. Summer, from October to April, is over 40 degrees. Cyclones bring the only summer rain, with blankets of mulla-mulla and Sturt's desert pea then covering the landscape. Bold yellow wattle and the orange cockroach bush provide a dramatic contrast to the hard red earth.

Pilbara people are the essence of what some call the ‘true Australian character’ – direct, down-to-earth and tough, yet welcoming and generous. That is the spirit that carries Big Screen through a very successful tour. Pippa Davis and Leonie Palmer run the only arts centre in town, the Walkington Theatre, assisted by the Friends of the Theatre volunteers. Funded by the state and local governments and the TAFE, it’s a great multi-functional venue. Leesa King of Roebourne Shire Council promoted Big Screen for weeks before we arrived, and is on hand to assist on the opening night.

On opening night, engineers and labourers from the Woodside North West Shelf Venture come for the pre-film drinks, along with people from the Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation, staff from Roebourne Shire, Councillor Fay Chechner and many others. Over 230 locals attend the opening night screening under the stars at the outdoor amphitheatre. As the birdsong in the opening moments of Ten Canoes calls out into the balmy evening we are all transported to the time of the Aboriginal ancestors. Kids are quiet and attentive, friends and families share laughter, picnics, ice-cream and champagne.

The Big Screen festival is really popular over the whole weekend, some people attend all the films, like the carpenter who said it was great, he could get his "culture hit here and not have to go to Melbourne to get it!" The school screenings of The Magic Pudding and No Worries are packed full of laughing kids.

Next stop after Karratha was a visit to the Roebourne Aboriginal community with the Black Screen program of Indigenous films. Steve of the PCYC organised the event at the 50 Cent Hall; he said that the kids don’t usually get to see films by Indigenous filmmakers and he wants to screen anything he can. Over 130 people watched the films together. All the kids were so quiet, so fascinated to see other kids talking about their own lives, families and culture in Wayne Blair's The Djarn Djarns – and they screamed with laughter at all the jokes too. They also loved Warwick Thornton's Mimi – shrieking with fear when the Mimi spirit came alive, then quiet with awe when Gulpilil came on screen.

The next day we held a special screening of the Black Screen program in Roebourne Regional Prison. It went down really well according to Lyn Pearce, Educational Manager, who said, “It’s great for the men in Roebourne prison who are mostly Indigenous to see serious, sad and funny films about issues relevant to them, to maintain a connection to language and culture and to see Aboriginal lives portrayed by Aboriginal filmmakers. The films were played on closed circuit TV throughout the prison on the evening of 24th October, and around 160 prisoners watched the films. Feedback from the prisoners and staff was that the screening was a great success. It has since been asked, 'when will the films be played again?'"

Next stop on the Big Screen tour: Port Hedland, a lovely scenic drive just 240km north.

Jacqui North, ICD Audience Development Coordinator