Birrarangga Film Festival 2023

Published in Broadsheet

Indigenous voices and filmmakers take to the silver screen at this festival, which features films from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Hawaii, Canada, Sweden and more.

Birrarangga Film Festival celebrates works by Indigenous filmmakers, bringing a diverse program of global talent to cinemas around Melbourne.

This year’s festival includes dozens of feature-length narratives, documentaries and short films from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Mexico, Russia and Hawaii curated by Wurundjeri/Yorta Yorta artistic director Tony Briggs (creator and writer of The Sapphires).

Screening on opening night is Canadian film Bones of Crows, which follows a Cree musical prodigy and her siblings as they’re taken away from family and put into Canada’s residential school system.

The festival also features the southern hemisphere premiere of Arran 360°, a film project by six Sami artists from across Sapmi, a cultural region that extends over Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Six original films will be screened in a 360° space, so the action and circular storytelling surround you. It’s being shown at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus in Geelong, which has a specialised 360° screen.

Other highlights include A Boy Called Piano, based on the true story of of Fa’amoana John Luafutu and his experience as a state ward of New Zealand; Aussie coming-of-age road movie Sweet As; “magical anti-romcom” Run Woman Run, about a single mother who conjures the spirit of a legendary marathon runner; and more.

The program closes with New Zealand feature Muru, about a local police sergeant of Maōri heritage who’s torn between his duty to his people and his badge. Its title comes from a Maōri concept related to forgiveness.

Screenings are being held at The Capitol, ACMI, Lido and Classic cinemas, the Victorian Pride Centre and Federation Square.

by CHYNNA SANTOS