Home › School Screen › NFSA Connects › Previous NFSA Connects Events

Previous NFSA Connects Events

'Ten Canoes’ with director Rolf de Heer and actor Frances Djulibing

Ten Canoes allows us to glimpse the ancient world of the Yolngu through the story of a young warrior Dayindi (played by Jamie Gulpilil), who covets one of his older brothers’ wives. The story travels even further back to the Dreamtime and has a timeless quality that has made it an instant classic. Partly inspired by 1930s photographs of traditional people, Ten Canoes is a collaborative work with the Aboriginal community of Ramingining in the Northern Territory. Made in 2006, it was written and co-directed by Rolf de Heer (with Peter Djigirr) and is narrated by the legendary actor David Gulpilil.

Students in NSW engaged in a Q & A with the director, Rolf de Heer and Frances Djulibing from Ramingining, who played the lead female role.

Watch the video recordings of Rolf de Heer and actor Frances Djulibing discussing Ten Canoes.

'In the Company of Actors’ with director/producer Ian Darling and actor Aden Young


Ian Darling and Aden Young

Aden Young was one of the cast members of the Sydney Theatre Company production Hedda Gabler which was invited to perform in the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in 2006. Ian Darling directed and produced the insightful documentary In the Company of Actors, which followed an ensemble of some of Australia’s finest actors, including Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving, in their final weeks of rehearsal in Sydney through to opening night in New York.

'4’ with producer Joanna Buggy and violinist Niki Vasilakis


Joanna Buggy and Niki Vasilakis

Producer Joanna Buggy and highly-acclaimed solo violinist Niki Vasilakis, from Adelaide, discussed this documentary with high school students in South Australia.

4 is driven by Vivaldi’s masterpiece The Four Seasons and was filmed in four continents following a journey through the four seasons – the beautiful cherry blossoms of spring in Japan, a fierce Australian summer, the energy of a New York autumn, and the bitter cold and human warmth of winter in Finland. Four internationally-renowned violinists performed a movement each. Niki Vasilakis played the ‘Summer’ movement at a concert on a stormy, humid Thursday Island to an Indigenous and non-Indigenous audience.