TOOMELAH
Australia, 2011, 106 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Conners, Michael Connors, Dean Daley- Jones, Christopher Edwards.
Directed by Ivan Sen.
Toomelah, northwestern New South Wales, indigenous community.
Writer, director, photographer, composer Ivan Sen (Beyond Clouds) came from Toomelah. He knows what he is talking about. He knows what he is dramatising. This is very clear in this sometimes quietly compassionate film, a film that sometimes reveals an inherited anger.
2011 has been an impressive year for films about indigenous communities in Australia. The documentary, The Tall Man, raises issues of police action in north Queensland. Here I am is an urban story of prison, drugs and hope/hopelessness. Mad Bastards showed family relationships in the west. Murrundak was a musical reflection on Australian history from the Black Arm Band.
Toomelah tells a story while it offers something of a documentary look at the community in the town. What makes it the more telling for the audience is that a young boy, Daniel, is the focus of the film – and life in Toomelah is seen from his perspective. We watch Daniel sympathetically and appreciate the limitations of his young viewpoint while we can see and appreciate the wider issues that he does not. Audiences sensitive to language will have to accept the swearing that is second nature to the people of Toomelah and to Daniel himself.
Daniel’s mother loves her son but has a drug problem. His father is in the town but away from home, out on the road with a meth problem. The stalwart of the family is Nana, a quiet, contemplative elderly woman who offers a final embrace to Daniel which reminds us that a need for being loved is basic to solving all other problems.
Daniel fights at school and is reprimanded (and the whole town seems to know instantly). He stays with his friends, especially Linden, out of jail but still the main supplier of marijuana around the place. He admires these men who welcome him, use him, of course, for deliveries and for framing a man they don’t like. They fish, they tell stories of their totems, they drink, they sing. And, they disappear.
School in Toomelah offers some hope. Many of the young children like school, which also helps them appreciate the bitterness of 19th and 20th century racism and massacres of aborigines. There is a photo chart at the school illustrating all of this as well as the strong aboriginal heritage. Further, the children are being taught words from their own language, instilling a sense of the dreaming, of worth and of cultural inheritance.
Toomelah serves as a state of the question for the second decade of the 21st century. And Ivan Sen is a symbol of achievement.
1. Australian indigenous films? The work of Ivan Sen? His perspectives, personal, Aboriginal? The film for Australian audiences? World-wide audiences?
2. Ivan Sen and his background, films, music, photography, his memories in this film?
3. The glimpse of Aboriginal history, the photos on the wall, the groups, the individuals, the massacre, the mission, the 19th and 20th centuries? The impact of having this collage on the wall of a school in the 21st century?
4. The title, the town, western New South Wales, the countryside, the Aboriginal part of the town, houses, streets, the school, the river? The seasons and the weather? The audience getting to know the town, experiencing the town and its life?
5. The focus on Daniel, his age, his screen presence? His eyes? The audience looking at the town and the experiences through his eyes? The innocent boy, yet the role models, wanting to be tough, the influence of the men, his mother and her drinking, the drugs, his father and his drugs, living away from the house, the meth? The young boys and their friends? The drugs? The older men, their talk, drinking? The importance of their singing and their talking about the totems? Going fishing? Their cars? The computers, the games? The fights, the setups, brutal reality, the drugs and the sales, the police, the violence and bashings, the threats? Daniel growing up in this situation? His future?
6. Daniel waking up at home, getting the two dollars from his nana, buying the chips? Going to the school, the issue of languages? Tupac and the pen, the clash between the two boys, the reaction of the teacher? Daniel being suspended? Everybody in the town knowing? The possibilities for Daniel, his truancy? His return to school at the end, the other children, learning the Aboriginal language and words? Possibilities for him?
7. The boys, their age, their lifestyles, having been in jail? Aboriginal art? The tough attitudes? Repeat offence? Bruce and the stories, their bashing him, Bruce and the car, Daniel, the police?
8. Daniel’s dad, in the gutter? His mother, her relationship with Bruce, her glazed eyes, her treatment of Daniel?
9. The visit of Aunty Cindy, her story and the stolen generation, her decision to come back at this stage of her life, any connections with her sister? Her wandering the town? Remembering? Daniel being with her and listening?
10. The other children, Tupac, the clashes, Tatiana as the girlfriend? The fight in the schoolyard, the intervention of the parents?
11. Tupac, the information around the town, Daniel challenging him, the fight?
12. The disappearance of the boys, Daniel alone, the rope, the storm? Going back to his nana, her hugging him?
13. The 20th century and Aboriginal townships, hardships? The 21st century, the relative affluence, computers and games, texting? Cars, the possibility of education?
14. An Aboriginal boy growing up, the role of parents, role models in the town, authorities, educators? The future?
