by FilmInk Staff
The striking documentary Sukundimi Walks Before Me, a collaboration between Papua New Guinea, Australia and Aotearoa-based teams, supported by Screen Australia in association with VicScreen, has been nominated for both the Documentary Australia Award for Best Documentary and the Sustainable Future Award at the 2026 Sydney Film Festival.
Sukundimi Walks Before Me centres on the mighty Sepik River, one of the last remaining great rivers, and charts the Sepik peoples’ rise to protect it from the threat of an enormous gold-copper mine to be located near one of the river’s main tributaries.
The documentary comes as the Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape announced in May 2026, a taskforce to fast-track approval of the mine. The proposed Frieda River Project is being pursued by PanAust, a Brisbane-based, Chinese-owned company. It would be the largest mine in Papua New Guinea’s history, requiring the construction of a tailings dam 17 times the volume of Sydney Harbour to store the mine’s waste – in an area of extremely high rainfall and seismic activity.
If developed, the project risks devastating one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, causing irreparable harm to the environment and wellbeing of the Sepik people. The film follows Emmanuel (Manu) Peni as he leads his community in a grassroots resistance called Project Sepik, implementing Indigenous and ancestral knowledge to challenge the forces of colonial bureaucracy and extractive development.
“Today, my paradise is an envy of outsiders, especially those who see only a reflection of their economic and capitalistic greed,” said Manu Peni. “They continue to reduce my home as fragmented bits and pieces of things which can or cannot be sold … they call these resources. We only see ourselves in our home. We hope this film tells you that we are content with what we have. We do not want outsiders to come with their dreams and tell us we have the same dream as theirs. They have destroyed their home … we want to protect ours.”
For the people of Papua New Guinea, The Sepik River is a lifeline. With more than 400,000 people living in the region, it is a complex ecosystem that connects and nurtures communities, providing livelihoods, cultural identity, and environmental stability.
The film’s premiere at Sydney Film Festival coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Papua New Guinea Government seeking Tentative Listing for World Heritage Status for the Upper Sepik River Basin.
Screen Australia Head of Documentary Richard Huddleston said, “At its heart, this documentary is an essential vessel for elevating voices that need to be heard and Sukundimi Walks Before Me beautifully captures both the grandeur of the Sepik River and the fierce resilience of the communities fighting to protect it. We are incredibly proud to support this film and offer our warmest congratulations to the creative team on their Sydney Film Festival premiere and the well-deserved nominations.”
The resistance of Project Sepik is captured by filmmakers Matasila Freshwater and Lachlan McLeod, journeying through memory, resistance, identity and the living spirit of the Sepik River.
“The threat of imperialism isn’t only isolated to extreme moments of violence or protests. The horror happens because of an insidious and relentless process of colonisation, of chipping away at our beliefs, at our practices, our identities, our humanity. We are privileged that our Sepik wantoks invited us to sit within their communities’ fight, and embraced a re-imagining of documentary language, to better tell Melanesian stories,” said Matasila Freshwater.
After enjoying its World Premiere at The International Oceanian Documentary Film Festival FIFO Tahiti on 12 February, Sukundimi Walks Before Me will now screen at The Sydney Film Festival on June 11 and 13, where documentary filmmakers Matasila Freshwater and Lachlan McLeod, along with the film’s major figure, Manu Peni, will all be in attendance for a very special Q&A session.
Sukundimi Walks Before Me is produced by Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions and Walking Fish Production. Principal production funding from Screen Australia, in association with Pacific Islanders in Communications, Doc Society, and VicScreen. Financed with support from The Post Lounge, Random Good, Shark Island Foundation, New Zealand Film Commission, Three Springs Foundation and RNZ. Australia and Aotearoa distribution by Screen Inc.
Sukundimi Walks Before Me will screen at The Sydney Film Festival on June 11 and 13 ahead of a cinema release in late-2026.
About Project Sepik and the Save the Sepik Campaign
Project Sepik is a community-led movement working with Indigenous leaders and communities along the Sepik River to protect the river and surrounding lands from extractive development, in collaboration with Jubilee Australian Research Centre and Aid/Watch Australia through the Save the Sepik Campaign. Project Sepik has been active since 2016 and operates through local authority structures, community meetings, cultural leadership, and engagement with legal and policy processes at national and international levels. Learn more at https://savethesepik.org/
About Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions
Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions has forged a distinctive voice as a production company with a unique kaupapa. Our goal is to tell award winning stories unique to Aotearoa, New Zealand and the South Pacific that reach local and international audiences. Our passion is innovative content that celebrates diversity, in particular Māori and Pacific perspectives. https://bsagproductions.com/
About Walking Fish Productions
Walking Fish Productions is a Melbourne-based, boutique production company that specialises in premium documentaries for global audiences, with work spanning quirky stories, urgent issues and unseen worlds. Recent feature documentary Clean, an observational portrait of Sandra Pankhurst exploring the sensitive work of trauma cleaning, premiered in competition at SXSW 2022, closed the Melbourne International Film Festival and broadcasted on SBS as part of the Australia Uncovered series. The film won an Asian Academy Creative Award and was nominated for two Australian Academy of Cinema and Television (AACTA) Awards. Other recent titles include comedy doc Mockbuster (2025, Adelaide Film Festival) coming-of-age story Who I Am (2022, 10/Paramount), Hakamada (2020, Al Jazeera) and Searching For The Tassie Tiger (2021, VICE). www.walkingfish.com.au.
About Screen Inc.
Screen Inc. is an Australia-based boutique film distribution company with 25+ years of experience in the film industry. We embrace our heritage of independence, working closely with our many partners – filmmakers, networks, and fellow travellers – both local and overseas, to maximise revenue and visibility for the content we represent across Australia, New Zealand, and globally.
In 2026, Screen Inc released drama Alphabet Lane (MIFF), and coming up, Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water (Cannes), Body Blow (Fantastic Fest), Yesterday Island (Warsaw Film Festival) and documentary Sukundimi Walks Before Me.
