Radiance: True Love
Mae (Trisha Morton-Thomas) is wearing her mother’s wedding dress. Nona (Deborah Mailman) wants to bottle the ashes so they can take them to the island to scatter. Mae and Nona enter into a tug of war over the ashes, and the ashes of their mother spill all over Cressy (Rachael Maza).
Summary by Romaine Morton
Radiance Synopsis
Three sisters reunite for the funeral of their mother after having not seen each other for an extended period of time.
Radiance Curator’s notes
Based on the play of the same name by Louis Nowra, Radiance is the third feature film directed by an Indigenous person, following Jindalee Lady and BeDevil. The film explores the relationship between Mae (Trisha Morton-Thomas), Cressy (Rachael Maza) and Nona (Deb Mailman), and is one of the rare times in cinematic history that the emotional interior of the lives of Indigenous women have been explored, especially in a feature film format. The significance of cultural identity falls away to reveal three central characters who are concerned with notions of family, belonging, and home. Radiance is Perkins’ first feature film, and has won many awards.
Notes by Romaine Moreton