Crossing Tracks - Wind: A sudden gust of wind

Title:

Crossing Tracks - Wind: A sudden gust of wind

NFSA ID

601505

Year

1999

Warnings

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons

Summary

The Tracker (Bradley Byquar) leaves the hut and ventures into the bushland. He climbs a rock face, and we see that it is an ancient art gallery, depicting the ochre-crusted handprints of many people. The Tracker places his hand against one of the ochre prints. The old Aboriginal man (Steve Dodd) sits on the cliff face, a tear rolls down his cheek. Tracker, steadying his hand against the rock face is disturbed by a sudden gust of wind.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

CURATOR'S NOTES

A scene that deals with the conflict of the Indigenous tracker, who in working for the colonial forces, is pitted against his culture and traditions. The old Aboriginal man who sheds a tear represents a poignant moment in a film where the key emotional moments occur quietly. In that moment we witness the realisation by the older Indigenous man that he is at war with the Tracker, the only other Indigenous character in the film.

Wind Synopsis

A short drama about the relationship between a black tracker and his 'boss’. They are tracking an Aboriginal man accused of murder.

Wind Curator's Notes

The story of a black tracker (Bradley Byquar) – an Indigenous man employed by white society to hunt and track fellow Indigenous people – who in the end is a man trapped between two cultures, his loyalties equally divided. Director Ivan Sen’s other films include Tears, Dust, Yellow Fella and Beneath Clouds for which he won the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for both Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Other films in the AFC Indigenous Branch drama initiative Crossing Tracks(1999) are Harry’s War and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning.

Notes by Romaine Moreton