The Music and Poem Inspiring Filmmaker Warwick Thornton Right Now
The filmmaker’s short film Change Direction will screen during National Reconciliation Week (23 May to 3 June). He shares what fuels his imagination.
My favourite films are…
It depends on my state of mind. Sometimes I want popcorn and Pixar, like Despicable Me; other times I want thought-provoking stuff, like movies by Terrence Malick, a director who treats his audience with intelligence. The Thin Red Line, for example, is a visual feast, full of big and small moments on screen that are so compelling you could watch them without sound.
The last TV show I watched was…
I’m into crazy British comedies like The Mighty Boosh, a troupe that performed at the Edinburgh Festival and developed their own show. I also watch The IT Crowd. I love a giggle; I’m not into Nordic noir, you know what I mean?
The music I listen to is…
I drive a lot, often from Alice Springs to Sydney. That’s three days travelling through desert, rainforest and city spaces, where I’ll listen to everything from the Sex Pistols to Slayer to Nigel Kennedy’s Vivaldi. Peter Gabriel’s album, Scratch My Back, where he covers other people’s songs with an orchestra, helps me build the worlds in my head for whatever movie I’m about to make.
The writing that has impacted me lately is…
Change Direction. It’s a poem written by a young Bundjalung-Gumbaynggirr man, Dakota Feirer, co-written by Jackson Long and Theodora Gerakiteys. It’s the inspiration for the short film I directed of the same name about mental illness and Aboriginal death by suicide. This is a huge problem – not just for Black males, where the rate of suicide is two-and-a-half times the national average, but anyone struggling with mental illness. The poem is a type of palindrome, designed to be read forwards and backwards. If you read it from top to bottom, it’s incredibly dark and fearful. But if you read it from bottom to top, it’s empowering and full of strength. Hopefully my film is the same.
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