
Desi Little (Gary Cooper) is in a hospital bed. Nurse Brenda (Rhoda Roberts) tends to him. In the opposite bed is Hugo Hutton (Ben Oxenbould). He is asleep on his back, a cowboy hat covering his face. A small lady in a wheelchair named Esther (Ella-Mei Wong) wheels over to Hugo and takes his hat off to look at Hugo’s face. Hugo, woken by Desi’s laughter, snatches his hat from Esther. Desi and Hugo are being discharged from the hospital, and according to hospital policy, are wheelchair bound. The two jostle each other in the wheel chairs and race to the hospital exit.
Summary by Romaine Moreton
The idea of kinship and family is the crux of this scene, where the Indigenous characters acknowledge each other – though Desi in this case is reprimanded for being over familiar – setting up the character of Hugo Hutton to find a similar respect for elders in his own way.
A short drama about two stockmen, one Indigenous and one not, who are caught up in racial conflict. Desi Little (Gary Cooper) and Hugo Hutton (Ben Oxenbould) are two men who are on a journey to deal with their own racism.
Round Up is a lighthearted drama that deals with the cultural clash between a white stockman and an Indigenous stockman. The first collaboration between director Rima Tamou and producer Pauline Clague after the pair graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), Round Up was well received.
Notes by Romaine Moreton
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.