by Lisa Nystrom
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Adam “Blak Douglas” Hill
Intro:
A deeply personal story told with frankness and honesty …
A deeply personal story told with frankness and honesty, Archibald Prize winning artist Blak Douglas (aka Adam Hill) allows audiences to join his journey to confront his family’s past. Known for his political and satirical artwork, the Sydney-based painter, performer, and visual artist is unafraid of addressing the unsavoury and abhorrent elements of this country’s past in his works. He brings a modern perspective to traditional art styles, a twist of pop art and tongue in cheek humour, while remaining respectful to the cultural origin.
The tone of this documentary is much the same. Blak Douglas vs The Commonwealth is a retracing of the footsteps of Hill’s own paternal grandmother, a stolen child of the Dunghutti people, who was taken from her family and made a ward of the Board, committed to Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Training Home at just 12 years of age. Hill was never able to meet his grandmother in person during her short life, an unhappy fact that he seeks to resolve by discovering as much about her as possible through visiting archives, walking the grounds that she grew up on in Cootamundra, and ultimately, recreating her likeness in a portrait inspired by one of the few photographs ever taken of her.
As a storyteller, Hill speaks with an openness and ready sense of humour, confident and direct in his convictions. Director Angelica Cristina Dio, having worked with Hill previously when he created the album cover for music documentary Dieseln’Dub, forgoes a static, fixed-position camera for interviews, instead taking a more fluid approach, following Hill throughout the studio as he gathers his tools, readies his canvas, and begins to create, all while speaking candidly about the disconnection and shame brought about by intergenerational trauma.
As an artist, Blak Douglas revives his Nanna with violet hues and a steady hand, returning the life to her eyes that institutional racism sought to destroy. Their story is one of survival and resistance, and a moving way to honour the woman who had so much stolen from her, even her name.
