Ten Canoes

"To watch this movie (shot in breathtaking widescreen by cinematographer Ian Jones) is to enter into a whole new language of symbols and meaning." —Scott Foundas, Village Voice

Set among and featuring Australia's Ramingining Aboriginal community, Ten Canoes is a hypnotic blend of two drastically different modes of storytelling: contemporary cinema and the tradition of oral narrative. Filled with beautiful landscapes and often bawdy humor, the film takes place in an unspecified past and follows a group of hunters and their leader, who uses ancient parables to teach his group about love, jealousy, and revenge. The film is inspired by the early-20th-century photographs of anthropologist Donald Thomson. (90 mins, 35mm)