Project Description

It's been sixty years between walk-offs - and Banjo's done it again !

Banjo Morton forced the owners of the vast Lake Nash cattle station in the Northern Territory to pay him and other Aboriginal stockmen £1 a month when he led a walk-off from there in 1949.

Sixty-eight years later Banjo has led another walk-off, this time from Ampilatwatja, a settlement in central Australia’s red desert country, where his Alyawarr people say they have been treated as outcasts and isolated from white man’s decision-making under the 2007 federal indigenous intervention.

Banjo’s War follows the story of Banjo's two walk-offs. The first in 1949 when he and six other Aboriginal stockmen walked off in demand for wages instead of rations. The second walk-off in 2009, moving away from the prescribed community of Ampilatwatja to create a new, self-governing community at Honeymoon Bore. It’s a story about culture, self-determination, freedom and ultimately about hope.

Creating Australian documentary history, this feature documentary will use animation (in the style of the award winning "Waltz With Bashir") to re-create the walk-off in 1949 (the first by Aboriginal stockmen in the NT).  Animation concepts have already begun. Funding is now required to finalise the animation concept stage and create the first minute of animation to incorporate into the pitch teaser which has been completed. The pitch teaser will then be used to raise the entire project budget.

Distribution plans for this documentary include broadcast, film festival and DVD release.

Banjo’s War is more than just a feature documentary. It will be a multi-layered project to help raise awareness which includes/will include a website/blog for videos and photo’s; social networking through YouTube and Facebook; media and publicity; workshops with the community; assisting the community with recording history, stories and culture and a whole lot more.

For more information, visit http://www.banjoswar.com

Lara Damiani is a passionate social-justice documentary-maker who directed, produced and distributed her first feature documentary about Tibet’s freedom struggle in 2008. She met and interviewed the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile and numerous former political prisoners including Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng. She is an advocate for education and outreach and founded The Tibet Project as a means of raising awareness about Tibet’s struggle beyond the film. Her documentary “Tibet’s Cry for Freedom” is currently screening on TV NZ and on Czech Television. It has also screened at more than 14 international film festivals and has had numerous screenings worldwide in Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, France, Austria and New Zealand. Hear what Lara has to say about the making of her documentary on Tibet on these Australian television shows: Channel 7 Today Tonight and Channel 9 Sunday Program.