Yolngu Boy

Yolngu Boy (2001)

One skin. One dream. One law.

After committing a crime for which he is likely to be jailed, a Yolngu teenager convinces two of his childhood friends to join him on a journey from North East Arnhem Land to Darwin to seek help from a tribal leader.

Date of release
2001-03-22
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 28m
Genres
Drama, Adventure
Director
Stephen Johnson

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: A$645.7K
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 3

Yolngu Boy is a 2001 Australian coming-of-age film directed by Stephen Maxwell Johnson, produced by Patricia Edgar, Gordon Glenn, Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Mandawuy Yunupingu, and starring Sean Mununggurr, John Sebastian Pilakui, and Nathan Daniels. Yolngu Boy is based around three Aboriginal teenage boys linked by ceremony, kinship and a common dream-to become great Yolngu hunters, in a remote community at Yirrkala in North-East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Production history

The project was a joint development with independent producer, Stephen Johnson of Darwin-based production company, Burrundi Pictures. Gordon Glenn, of Cradle Mountain Film Productions, co-produced the film. The project had the support of the Yirrkala community and involved a significant number of community members in the cast and crew of the film.

In late April 1996, Foundation Director, Patricia Edgar, Johnson and Gordon Glenn, of Burrundi Films, travelled to north Arnhem Land to discuss proposals for the workshops and for a feature film with the community, the Yirrkala Dhanbul Council and Galarrwuy Yunupingu.

Yolngu Boy was the first Australian feature film made with an all-Indigenous lead cast and the full collaboration of the Yolngu people. Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Mandawuy Yunupingu were associate producers. Together with the local community elders, they advised and approved the film from a cultural perspective, including the researching and writing of the script, casting, wardrobe, makeup and art department."the families were very excited that the…

Stage one of the development phase also involved Johnson and other members of his company, Burundi Pictures, spending two weeks in August researching the project and discussing the script with members of the Yirrkala, Galiwinku, Maningrida and Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) Aboriginal communities. They also conducted a location survey throughout Arnhem Land. A first draft script by Chris Anastassiades was completed in 1997 and then further developed.

After four years of negotiation with the Yolngu community and development, the film was fully financed in early 1999, through a combination of private and government investment, a Northern Territory Government grant, and a pre-sale to SBS Independent. Some scenes in the film required extensive negotiations with local elders to arrange permissions to film at certain sites.

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