“I know how to walk across the land in front of a camera, because I belong there,” said David Gulpilil, the late, legendary Yolngu actor who, beginning as a teenager with his very first film role in Nicolas Roeg’s WALKABOUT, redefined the the way that Indigenous people were represented in Australian cinema and became an international ambassador for the resilience and dignity of his culture. His physical grace (he was an equally celebrated dancer) and intense charisma made him a defining face of the Australian New Wave in classics such as STORM BOY and THE LAST WAVE, while acclaimed personal projects like TEN CANOES and CHARLIE’S COUNTRY—which he cowrote and for which he won an acting award at the Cannes Film Festival—allowed him to explore Australian history and society from an Aboriginal perspective.
This short introduction to David Gulpilil was produced in 2022.
Directed by Nicolas Roeg • 1971 • Australia
Starring Jenny Agutter, Lucien John, David Gulpilil
A young sister and brother are abandoned in the harsh Australian outback and must learn to cope in the natural world, without their usual comforts, in this hypnotic masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg. Alon...
Directed by Philippe Mora • 1976 • Australia
Starring Dennis Hopper, Jack Thompson, David Gulpilil
Dan Morgan (Dennis Hopper), an Irish prospector who turns to crime and opium after failing at gold mining in nineteenth-century Australia, spends six brutal years in prison, enduring cruel mistreat...
Directed by Peter Weir • 1977 • Australia
Starring Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, Gulpilil
Richard Chamberlain stars as Australian lawyer David Burton, who takes on the defense of a group of aborigines accused of killing one of their own. He suspects the victim has been killed for violatin...
Directed by Darlene Johnson • 2002 • Australia
Starring David Gulpilil
Legendary Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil shares the story of his extraordinary life, career, and philosophy in this insightful documentary portrait. Interwoven with footage of the actor at his home in Ramingining in Australi...
Directed by Warwick Thornton • 2002 • Australia
Starring Sophie Lee, Aaron Pedersen, David Gulpilil
A white collector of Aboriginal art gets a shock when the Mimi sculpture she purchased comes to life in this cunning satire of an industry that values Indigenous art without appreciating the cultu...
Directed by Rolf de Heer • 2002 • Australia
Starring David Gulpilil, Gary Sweet, Damon Gameau
The year is 1922 and the Tracker (David Gulpilil) has the job of pursuing the Fugitive (Noel Wilton), an Aboriginal man who is suspected of murdering a white woman, as he leads three mounted policemen—t...
Directed by John Hillcoat • 2005 • Australia, United Kingdom
Starring Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson
Scripted and scored by Nick Cave, this brutal, starkly beautiful tale of revenge and colonial guilt transposes the mythic themes of the American western to the harsh, unforgiving landscap...
Directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr • 2006 • Australia
Starring Crusoe Kurddal, Jamie Gulpilil, Richard Birrinbirrin
Australia, long, long ago . . . Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil), a young Aboriginal warrior, covets the youngest wife of his older brother. To teach him his proper path, an elder ...
