Watched a one hour film last night that was made back in 1981. It was called ‘Women of the Sun’ and told part of the tale of European settlement of South Eastern Australia. It’s one of a four part series documenting the effects on aboriginal culture of the invasion.. especially the females.
This first part I saw was called ‘Alinta the Flame’ and was of course totally predictable in as much as it was clear all the way through what was going to happen, yet as obvious as it was, in the end it was almost hypnotic watching the events that led from an almost idyllic existence to the final scene of slaughter.
The film itself was clearly dated in technique. The acting… understandably… left a lot to be desired… yet it *was* worth watching if only to remind us what other people lost when the country was invaded. The blurb on one site I visited related the films history as follows:
Comprising four separate one-hour episodes on two tapes, WOMEN OF THE SUN examines the lives of four Aboriginal women. The first story is set in the 1820s, the second in the 1890s, the third in the 1930s and the last in the 1980s. This drama series, made in 1981, won the United Nations Media Peace Prize and the Banff Grand Prix in 1983. In Australia, where it was screened by SBS and subsequently by the ABC, it won two Awgies and five Penguin Awards.
If you’re interested the film there is more to be read here (which is where I copied the paragraph above). There is also a study guide to the film on PDF format which is also quite interesting.
The Eclectic Interweb 