REMEMBERED: DAVID GULPILIL (1953-2021

REMEMBERED

Over the next few pages, we pay tribute to some of the film legends that we have lost over the last year. We include the Indigenous Australian artist and actor David Gulpilil; American director, actor and cinephile Peter Bogdanovich; Italian screen icon Monica Vitti; French New Wave star Jean Paul Belmondo; and two legendary music composers, Italy’s Ennio Morricone and Greece’s Vangelis. We hope our small tribute to each brings their important work to light for the uninitiated and reignites the flame of those who are already acquainted with them.

DAVID GULPILIL (1953-2021)

REMEMBERED

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO DAVID GULPILIL

BYDRSTEPHEN MORGAN

From the reinvigoration of feature filmmaking in the 1970s, to the flourishing of Indigenous work in the last decade, no individual has had as much impact on Australian cinema as Yolnu actor and dancer David Gulpilil. His death, late last year at the age of 68, brought to an end a miraculous but tumultuous career, and a life dedicated to taking his culture to the world. Over the years, Australia’s leading Indigenous performer lent his unmistakable nuance to the full gamut of Aboriginal types, from the mystical stranger in Nicolas Roeg’s ‘Walkabout’ (1971), to a variety of trackers, tricksters, and downtrodden elders. His long-standing collaboration with Dutch-Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer – from ‘The Tracker’ (2002) and ‘Ten Canoes’ (2005), to ‘Charlie’s Country’ (2015) – have transformed Indigenous representation and given him space to tell his own stories. From his stunning debut, right up to the recent documentary portrait ‘My Name is Gulpilil’ (2021), his is a truly captivating screen presence. To celebrate David Gulpilil’s life and work, this year’s Chichester International Film Festival pays tribute with a short five film retrospective of his best films, some rarely shown, as well as an illustrated talk from Australian cinema expert Dr Stephen Morgan.

Booking Ref

Sat 20 Aug 13:30 – Studio

Booking Ref

Sat 20 Aug 16:00 – Auditorium

WALKING WITH GULPILIL A JOURNEY THROUGH 50YEARS OF AUSTRALIAN CINEMA

An illustrated talk by Dr Stephen Morgan In a career spanning five decades, Yolnu dancer and actor David Gulpilil carved out a unique place in Australian cinema and culture. His recent death, at the age of 68, brought to an end a miraculous but tumultuous career, and a life dedicated to taking his culture to the world. This illustrated talk from Australian cinema expert Dr Stephen Morgan will trace Gulpilil’s legacy through 50 years, from the reinvigoration of Australian feature filmmaking in the 1970s, to the flourishing of Indigenous work in recent years. Featuring rare images, rarely seen footage and clips from key films from across Gulpilil’s career, this event will celebrate the life and work of one of Australia’s finest actors. 100M Dr Stephen Morgan is an academic and film historian whose research focuses on the cinemas of Britain and its former settler colonies, with a particular focus on Australian cinema. His book, Ealing Abroad: Post-War British Cinema, Settler Colonialism and Ealing Studios in Australia, will be published by BFI/Bloomsbury in 2023. NB. Following this talk, we are screening separately the wonderful new documentary ‘My Name Is Gulpilil’ in the auditorium at 16:30.

MY NAME IS GULPILIL

After his terminal lung cancer diagnosis in 2017, the late Indigenous screen legend David Gulpilil sits down in front of the camera one last time to tell his story in his own words, taking us boldly on the journey that is his extraordinary life and career. Gulpilil, now aged 67, is living as an invalid in South Australia. Even though he has already outlasted the doctors’ predictions, he knows there is no reprieve in sight. His constant companion Mary Hood looks after his medication; feeds him and does the housework. For the most part, Gulpilil’s conversation is tempered with stoicism as thoughts of mortality weigh on his mind. Reynolds’ superb documentary rises to the challenge of doing justice to the extraordinary life and career of the great veteran actor. Pensive and piercingly emotional, this is an unforgettable film. AUSTRALIA 2021 MOLLY REYNOLDS 102M

DAVID GULPILIL (1953-2021) – REMEMBERED

Wed 24 Aug 16:00 – Auditorium

CHARLIE’S COUNTRY

With no way to live a traditional lifestyle in his Aboriginal community, aging Charlie struggles to make his own way in life. Charlie takes off to live the old way and sets off a chain reaction of enlightening difficulties. David Gulpilil’s performance as the titular character in Rolf de Heer’s ‘Charlie’s Country’ might get remembered as his most important role. Gulpilil plays a Yolngu man living on a reservation with a collection of other Aboriginal people. Using a combination of bleak realism, fatalistic humour and a healthy dose of sentimentality, de Heer traces the downward spiral of a man who has become a refugee in his own homeland. AUSTRALIA 2013 ROLF DE HEER 108M

Sat 20 Aug 14:00 – Pic Palace Thu 25 Aug 12:45 – Studio

WALKABOUT

Two city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy. The two children have the clothes on their backs, some meagre rations, a batterypowered transistor radio, the son’s satchel primarily containing his toys, and a small piece of cloth they used as their picnic cloth. They encounter an Australian boy (a young David Gulpilil) who is on his walkabout, a rite of passage into manhood where he spends entire months on his own living off the land. A towering work, painted from a palette of feelings and instincts words cannot do justice to. AUSTRALIA/UK 1971 NICOLAS ROEG 100M

Sun 21 Aug 21:00 – Auditorium

THE TRACKER

‘Fanatic’ is a government trooper who is heading an expedition to find an Aboriginal man accused of murdering a white woman. Think of an Anthony Mann Western made by an experimental film director, and you get an indication of the challenging components of this film. The story of a manhunt that on the surface, is a pared-down, muscular outdoor drama set in 1922 ‘somewhere in Australia,’ in which an aboriginal tracker (Gulpilil), on foot, leads two mounted policemen and a civilian on the track of a black fugitive. A haunting and uniquely Australian western. AUSTRALIA 2002 ROLF DE HEER 98M