Paul’s film is being shown at the Maleny Festival of Australian Film this month and has been sold to the Message Stick television series. It will be broadcast by ABC TV during 2010. Paul told the Hinterland Times the background to the making of White Skin Black Spirit.
“Terri-Anne’s story reveals what it is like for someone who is very white-looking going into an aboriginal world and being accepted,” says Paul. “She now identifies fully as an aboriginal person. Getting material to capture that journey and that emotional process was very difficult, particularly on a shoestring budget”, he adds with a smile. Paul first heard of Terri-Anne’s story through his role on the management committee of the River School and she was a parent. “I didn’t want to come across as patronising”, says Paul. “Her story sounded very interesting and at the time she was actually writing a thesis on it.
We started from there and it took well over a year. I just fitted in the filming with the corporate video work that I do. “ Like many documentary film makers Paul is usually self-funded and takes the gamble that he will recover at least his costs by later sales of DVDs, or to a broadcaster. “I did develop a rapport and I think we became quite close.
We started filming when I heard that she was going up to the NT for the funeral of her adopted mother’s mother. I thought that would be a good place to start.” “I couldn’t actually film that ceremony because it was women’s business. And I must say that I often felt I was tagging along, filming and talking to aboriginal people who had never seen me before. Paul says that documentary film-making is often a matter of luck, being in the right place at the right time and of course having the mindfulness to capture good sequences when you can. “And you need the right equipment … you don’t want gear that takes a long time to get ready because a lot of the best shots are accidental. Some of the really great shots you don’t discover until you’re in the editing.”
Paul acknowledges that Terri-Anne is what filmmakers regard as ‘good talent’, that is she looks good on camera and is articulate without being shy or withdrawn. At times this was crucial in the making of White Skin Black Spirit as Terri-Anne confronted her emotional past as a child or suddenly met aboriginal relatives who were completely unknown to her. For example, when Terri-Ann went to her old orphanage it was very emotional and the tears came for her. Yet she worked her way through the process on camera and it is a sequence that has affected people through her sincerity and honesty. “It was a bit like a video diary for her” says Paul. “From my point of view it was often a case of wanting to be there, but not be there, because it was very sensitive stuff.”
Paul’s next documentary has also attracted the attention of ABC Television, and it’s also close to home. He plans to reveal the success beneath Maleny’s unique Ananda Marga River School, an institution he helped establish more than 15 years ago.
White Skin Black Spirit will be show at the Maleny Community Centre at 10.30am Saturday January 9. DVD copies of the film can obtained at www.alistermultimedia.net/Whiteskin.htm
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