Short Film: Dipped in Black

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:13): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding the Dipped in Black film screening. Will the minister inform the council about the recent success of Derik Lynch's and Matthew Thorne's short film Dipped in Black?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:13): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in Aboriginal affairs and the arts generally. Marungka Tjalatjunu (or Dipped in Black) is a multiaward-winning short film from Yankunytjatjara South Australian artist and performer Derik Lynch, co-directed and co-written with South Australian filmmaker Matthew Thorne, that has blown away audiences around the world.

Voiced completely in the Yankunytjatjara language, the film follows Lynch as he embarks on a road trip from the oppression of city life in Adelaide back to his country, Aputula in the Northern Territory, for spiritual healing. Back home in his remote community, he performs a traditional form of storytelling and ceremony—inma—as memories from his childhood return.

The movie made history in 2023 when it became the first ever film to win both the Silver Bear Jury Prize, which is the prize awarded to short film, and the Teddy Award for Best Queer Short Film at the 73^rd Berlin International Film Festival. The jury statement at the Berlin Film Festival put it well. It stated:

The film exposes and weaves together those tender and difficult threads of living in multiple worlds—worlds which are your own, full of loss and love, of trauma and survival—and worlds which are thrust upon you, often violent and unrelenting, and often unforgiving.

Despite the short film being only 24 minutes in duration, it was also the winner of the Documentary Australia Award at the Sydney Film Festival in 2023 in a category which was up against feature documentaries—a quite remarkable achievement. The film also won Best Short Documentary at the 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival, a 2023 Ruby Award and most recently the 2023 Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network Award.

Recently this year, I had the pleasure of attending the South Australian Film Corporation's inaugural Screen Circle members' event at the Piccadilly cinema along with other members of parliament, helping to raise awareness of the value and importance of the industry and encouraging support for the South Australian Film Corporation and the screen sector in which this film was shown.

The South Australian Film Corporation was established pursuant to the South Australian Film Corporation Act 1972 by then Premier Don Dunstan to both encourage and develop local film and television industries and to attract production to the state. Members of this council are well aware of Don Dunstan's significant contributions to the arts in South Australia and the advancement of Aboriginal people in this state both as the Premier and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

It was fitting then that the inaugural Screen Circle members' event should be screening Dipped in Black, which was made with support from the South Australian Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund and Panavision. The screening of the film was followed by a live in-person Q&A with Derik Lynch and sound designer, Jed Silver. Hearing the two of them talk about the making of the film, you could feel a natural connection and a need for them to tell this story. It was an interesting evening and underscored the urgent need to tell First Nations stories because they are important. They are important for First Nations people and they are important for the history of this country.