The Camilla Festival was not my original idea for the curated section of my assignment. I was first inspired to curate an indigenous film festival with a similar premise; to showcase Indigenous writers and directors that are making films that do not specifically fall into the realms that are stereotypically believed to be ‘Indigenous Issues’. Disposition of land, colonisation, post-colonisation, living outside ‘privileged society’, belonging or kinship.I was inspired by an art show i had recently seen at the Latrobe University Gallery LUMA. An exhibition was being held that was advertised as “Indigenous group art show”, when reading the name of the group show i defaulted to believing i was going to go see a show with traditional Australian Indigenous Art. When i walked to the gallery i was surprised to see contemporary video …show more content…
I was struck by the orientalism in my experience. Although it wasn’t specifically stated, i believe that the wording used in the promotional copy for the group show aimed to create this response. It was a powerful realisation, so i decided to follow the same type theme for my Film Festival, to challenge the preconceived ideas about what people from underrepresented factions of society can create. White males create films that cross cultures and cross all genres, white men have made films about everything, nothing is off limits. I set about researching Indigenous Directors and Writers that were challenging the norm, however time and time again i came up against dead ends. The pool of directors and writers of indigenous background on an international scale is alarmingly small. From this pool directors and writers that do not produce films specifically about their heritage or culture, is smaller still (to be specific i did not find one director or writer that fit the brief). This said volumes for the state of the