Starring David Gulpilil

Starring David Gulpilil

6 Episodes

“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.

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Starring David Gulpilil
  • Introducing David Gulpilil

    Episode 1

    This short introduction to David Gulpilil was produced in 2022.

  • Walkabout

    Episode 2

    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...

  • Mad Dog Morgan

    Episode 3

    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...

  • The Last Wave

    Episode 4

    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...

  • Gulpilil—One Red Blood

    Episode 5

    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...

  • Mimi
    15:19
    Episode 6

    Mimi

    Episode 6

    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...