In what is very likely his final film, the great Australian actor David Gulpilil faces his own mortality: he is dying of lung cancer.
Holding the camera figuratively in the palm of his hand, David performs directly for whoever might be out there in the future looking at him, to what is for him his final audience. He talks about what it is to stare down death, and what it was to live a life such as he did, a dizzying mix of traditional Aboriginal ways and modern Hollywood excess, and everything in between. It is pure, unmediated and unvarnished David Gulpilil, finally able to say in a film exactly what he wants to say.
He reminisces about his films, and his fame, and the effects of both on a tribal boy from Arnhem Land. He talks about acting, and how his dancing in his own culture is really the basis of what made him famous. And now he looks toward going home, to his own funeral, the specifications of which he’s very particular about.
But life interferes with David’s march towards his personal end…in his words, “I should have been dead long time ago!” Despite the diagnoses and the prognostications of finality, birthdays pass and David resolutely refuses to die. In this, his final film although it may not be, the great Australian actor David Gulpilil shows what a survivor he is, and how he came to be the living legend we know him to be.
PRODUCTION CREDIT: Presented by Screen Australia, South Australian Film Corporation and Australian Broadcasting Corporation in association with Adelaide Film Festival. A Vertigo Productions Film. Music and sound design: Tom Heuzenroeder. Cinematographers: Maxx Corkindale and Miles Rowland. Editor: Tania M. Nehme. Producers: Rolf de Heer, Peter Djigirr, Molly Reynolds and David Gulpilil. Director: Molly Reynolds
It’s an understandable misconception that Australia Talks only reflects the views of existing ABC audiences – but that isn’t the case.
Australia Talks is in fact probably the most comprehensive and representative poll of the attitudes of all Australians on this variety of topics that has ever been conducted.
The 2021 Australia Talks National Survey included more than 60,000 Australians from every federal electorate in every State and Territory, comprising a diverse cross-section of Australians that is fully representative of modern Australia.
Participants were drawn from people who have completed the interactive online application Vote Compass – this is a broad group, and one that we know reaches beyond traditional ABC audiences due to the way Vote Compass reaches different audience segments on social media.
A series of pre- and post-stratification statistical weights were then applied to the sample in order to model inferences that are representative of the entire Australian population.
The weights control for sample selection effects using census and other population-level estimates for sex, age, education, language, geography and partisanship (based on vote choice in the 2019 federal election).
The brand-new series of Grand Designs is as inspiring and engaging as ever. Self-builds this series include a radical barn reconstruction for a remarkable young couple defying illness to build a new life near Sevenoaks. There’s a risk taking, sky diving couple breathing new life into a centuries old Cornish mill on the verge of collapse. In South West London an ex-soldier builds a giant subterranean extension to a listed lodge within the boundary of a cemetery, and in South Lincolnshire a local builder creates an enormous Dutch influenced tile-skinned home at breakneck speed. That’s not forgetting the pioneering couple near Bletchley defying logic to create the UK’s first self-heating house. Kevin McCloud is once again on hand to monitor progress, analyse the architecture and guide us through the emotional rollercoaster that comes with risking everything to create an extraordinary new place to live.
One of my favourite shows I’ve enjoyed for 15+ years, but its run should’ve ended by now IMO, last few seasons especially have been not up to scratch. It peaked I reckon around the start of the ‘DS Jones’ (played by Jason Hughes) side-kick era (mid-2000s), but the best eps were definitely the first number of seasons (late 90s / early 2000s the ‘DS Troy’ era played by Daniel Casey). Show didn’t quite recover from ‘DCI Barnaby’ played by the great John Nettles departing. That opening theme though, still chillingly creepy every time.
Sunday 4 July
7:40pm Grand Designs
8:30pm Jack IrishSeries Final
9:30pm Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse Rpt
10:30pm Operation Buffalo Rpt
11:25pm Line Of Duty Rpt
Monday 5 July
8:00pm Courtney Act’s One Plus One: Nat’s What I Reckon
8:30pm Four Corners
9:15pm Media Watch
9:35pm Murder 24/7
10:35pm ABC Late News
11:05pm Finding The Archibald Rpt
Tuesday 6 July
8:00pm Anh’s Brush With Fame: Peter Garrett Season Final
8:30pm Firestarter: The Story Of Bangarra
10:05pm You Can’t Ask That: Indigenous
10:25pm China Tonight Rpt Season Final
10:55pm ABC Late News
11:25pm Q+A Rpt
Wednesday 7 July
8:00pm Win The Week
8:30pm Shaun Micallef’s MAD AS HELL
9:00pm Starstruck
9:25pm Superwog: Something Fishy
9:50pm Adam Hills: The Last Leg
10:30pm ABC Late News
11:00pm Four Corners
11:50pm Media Watch
Thursday 8 July
8:00pm Foreign Correspondent
8:30pm Q+A
9:35pm Australia Debates: Do Younger Australians Have It Harder These Days? Rpt
10:20pm ABC Late News
10:55pm Barrenjoey Road Rpt
11:55pm Blue Water Empire Rpt
Friday 9 July
7:30pm Movin’ To The Country: South East Tasmania
8:00pm Dream Gardens: Annandale
8:30pm Vera: The Escape Turn Rpt
10:05pm The Trial Of Christine Keeler Rpt
11:05pm ABC Late News
11:20pm The Vaccine Rpt
11:35pm Shaun Micallef’s MAD AS HELL Rpt
Saturday 10 July
7:30pm The Durrells
8:20pm Belgravia Series Premiere
9:05pm Jack Irish Rpt
10:05pm MotherFatherSon Rpt
11:05pm Delicious Rpt
11:50pm rage Guest Programmer
Follows events when the emerging nouveau riche, including the Trenchard family, rub shoulders with London’s established upper classes and when secrets from the past threaten to emerge.
