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National Film and Sound Archive of AustraliaNational Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
National Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
National Film and Sound Archive

This is your life: David Gulpilil - Peter Weir

1979

This is your life: David Gulpilil - Peter Weir

1979

  • NFSA ID6QBWMJZB
  • TypeTelevision
  • MediumMoving Image
  • FormSeries
  • Duration23 mins, 26 secs
  • GenresIndigenous themes or stories, Indigenous as subject
  • Year1979
  • WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons

Peter Weir, who directed Gulpilil in The Last Wave (1977), talks about his 'star quality':

David’s a very special case. As a director you don’t very often strike an actor with the qualities that he has. A kind of inner light. I didn’t really direct David; I just watched, and that as I say is rare. And [I] sometimes asked for a little more or a little less and he was truly inspired in that film and he gave a great deal of himself in that part. And as I was watching him I was asking myself, ‘What has he got?’ and it’s a very simple answer - it’s a star quality. David Gulpilil is a star. A film star.

Notes by Beth Taylor

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

Peter Weir, who directed Gulpilil in The Last Wave (1977), talks about his 'star quality':

David’s a very special case. As a director you don’t very often strike an actor with the qualities that he has. A kind of inner light. I didn’t really direct David; I just watched, and that as I say is rare. And [I] sometimes asked for a little more or a little less and he was truly inspired in that film and he gave a great deal of himself in that part. And as I was watching him I was asking myself, ‘What has he got?’ and it’s a very simple answer - it’s a star quality. David Gulpilil is a star. A film star.

Notes by Beth Taylor

  • Executive producer
    Bill Lovelock
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  • 1970s

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