Aboriginal Cinema for Aboriginal People: The Australian Feature Film “Ten Canoes” as a Phenomenon of Ethnic Cinema

Abstract

In the first decades of the 21st century there began in different countries the production of documentaries and feature films in the creation of which there took part representatives of a wide variety of sociocultural communities that were previously only objects of ethnographic research or an exotic ethnic component of mainstream feature films. Documentary and feature films help such communities form their own ethnic identity and build cross-cultural dialogue with representatives of other cultures. However, ethnic film narratives may not offer complete transparency to foreign audiences unfamiliar with the social and cultural realities depicted in such films. The article offers an analysis of this conflict using the example of the Australian feature film “Ten Canoes,” filmed with the active participation of the Aboriginal people in 2006. The film is addressed to two audiences at once: it offers an authentic story about Aborigines for Aborigines, but as a screen media product it is also addressed to a wider audience, far from the cultural realities of the Aboriginal people of Australia. To create a balance between indigenous and foreign audiences, the filmmakers use a number of narrative and discursive strategies that adapt ethnic characteristics to the standard of mainstream screen culture.