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form y separately published work icon No Way To Forget single work   film/TV  
Issue Details: First known date: 1996... 1996 No Way To Forget
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Based on Richard Frankland's experiences as a field officer for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, No Way to Forget follows one of his many car journeys between cities for the hearings. It also marks his own spiritual and emotional journey, in which he attempts to deal with the pain of the knowledge he bears.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Torquay, Apollo Bay - Torquay area, Geelong - Terang - Lake Bolac area, Victoria,: Golden Seahorse Productions , 1996 .
      Link: U9717Three digital extracts from the original cinematic release. Australian Screen (Sighted 29/04/10)
      Extent: 12 min.p.
      Description: Colour
      Series: form y separately published work icon From Sand to Celluloid Australian Film Commission. Indigenous Branch , Film Australia (publisher), SBS (publisher), Canberra Australia Lindfield : Australian Film Commission SBS Television Film Australia , 1996 Z1583394 1996 series - publisher film/TV (taught in 3 units)

      An initiative of the Indigenous Branch of the Australian Film Commission (AFC), From Sand to Celluloid comprises six films that have been packaged and distributed by Australian Film Institute Distribution (AFID) and Film Australia. The initial conception for the series came from the Indigenous Drama Initiative, set in 1994 with the express intention of advancing the development and production of films created by Indigenous Australians and increasing their participation in all areas of the film and television industry. The first project initiated was the development and production of six ten-minute dramas for television. Expressions of interest were called for from Indigenous Australians nationally. The ten applicants chosen (from forty seven) attended a visual storytelling workshop held in Melbourne in 1995. The Initiative utilised the assistance of all the state film assistance agencies and a pre-sale from SBS with an agreement to broadcast on SBS in July 1996, as well as the full participation of Film Australia through its funding of one of the productions. Five projects were further selected to go into production, along with Sally Riley's film Fly Peewee Fly (produced by Film Australia), and were delivered to the AFC on 30 March, 1996. Indigenous Australians were employed in both cast and crew positions.

      In order to encourage a wider recognition and appreciation of the work of Indigenous Australians, the AFC supported the national distribution and exhibition of the films through the Australian Film Institute Distribution (AFID). AFID distributed the films as a package under the title of From Sand to Celluloid and the films screened at twenty-four locations, from as far afield as Cooper Pedy in South Australia to Broome in Western Australia, and were attended by a total of approximately 7,200 people.

      As a unified collection, the films offer more than a two-dimensional victim-oppressor approach. They challenge viewers at all levels: as fellow citizens, as parents, as observers, and as fellow members of Indigenous communities. From Sand to Celluloid challenges viewers with many uncomfortable aspects of Australia's too-recent history. These include the active discrimination practised against Indigenous people in public places such as swimming pools and cinemas in country towns around Australia and the 'stolen generation': children taken away without their parents' consent and placed into homes or in white foster homes, with devastating effect on them and their families. The series is an essential resource for Indigenous studies, Australian history film studies, English legal studies, human relationship courses, and social studies.

      [Source: Australian Film Commission, http://www.afc.gov.au/archive/annrep/ar95_96/indig.html]

Works about this Work

Films at St Kilda 2016 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 18 May no. 626 2016; (p. 35)
'Indigenous short film will be showcased at St Kilda Film Festival with films from Indigenous directors Tracy Moffatt, Warwick Thornton and Richard Franklin selected for the festival's Short Black program. ...'
'And in My Dreaming I Can Let Go of the Spirits of the Past' : Gothicizing the Common Law in Richard Franklin's No Way to Forget Katrin Althans , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Decolonizing the Landscape : Indigenous Cultures in Australia 2014; (p. 255-274)

'In this essay I will discuss how Richard Frankland's award-winning short film No Way to Forget (1996) approaches the topic of Aboriginal deaths in custody in gothic terms. As I will show, Frankland reverses gothic dichotomies, employs tropes of haunting and trauma, and ultimately exposes the fictional quality of the gothic itself in his representations of the Australian common law and its institutions. Through an appropriation and transformation of both this originally European mode and the English legal tradition, he thus creates his very own version of an Indigenous gothic. By asserting the cultural strength of that vast body of knowledge summarized as "Dreaming/Law/ Lore,” Frankland reclaims Aboriginal identity and subverts what he and others have described as the de-humanizing quality of the law in civic and spiritual terms? I will therefore first outline the benefits that the field of law and literature offers for questioning the factual discourse of law through the study of fiction before I turn to the dangers the use of the gothic mode holds for Aboriginal appropriations. The opportunities filmmaking offers for re-claiming Koori culture and identity will conclude my theoretical outline. I will also draw on the doctrine of reception and the legal foundations of the Australian common-law tradition in order to introduce my following analysis of Frankland's No Way to Forget. This analysis will be supplemented by readings of Frankland's 2002 play Conversations with the Dead, according to the author "a much heavier and harder version of 'No Way to Forget'".

Source: p.256.

Richard Frankland Australian Film Commission , 2007 single work non-fiction
— Appears in: Dreaming in Motion : Celebrating Australia's Indigenous Filmmakers 2007; (p. 33-35)
Contains Richard Frankland's short film biography, his filmography, details on the films: Harry's War and No Way to Forget, and a small commentary by Frankland on filmmaking.
Short Film Keeps Winning 1998 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 25 February no. 170 1998; (p. 24)
Film in the Running for Awards 1996 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 28 August no. 133 1996; (p. 15)
Richard Frankland Australian Film Commission , 2007 single work non-fiction
— Appears in: Dreaming in Motion : Celebrating Australia's Indigenous Filmmakers 2007; (p. 33-35)
Contains Richard Frankland's short film biography, his filmography, details on the films: Harry's War and No Way to Forget, and a small commentary by Frankland on filmmaking.
Indigenous Film Makers will Show Their Stuff 1996 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 13 March no. 121 1996; (p. 3)
Cannes Screening for No Way To Forget Jodi Hoffmann , 1996 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 8 May no. 125 1996; (p. 10)
Film in the Running for Awards 1996 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 28 August no. 133 1996; (p. 15)
AFI Awards Success for Frankland's Film 1996 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 4 December no. 140 1996; (p. 14)
Last amended 7 Sep 2012 11:17:38
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