A Study Guide by Paulette Gittins
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I’d like to think an ordinary person is capable of anything … BASED ON THE BOOK TRACKS BY ROBYN DAVIDSON • INSPIRED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF RICK SMOLAN TRACKS © ATOM 2013 A STUDY GUIDE BY PAULETTE GITTINS http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-377-9 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au Tracks. SCREEN AUSTRALIA presents in association with SOUTH AUSTRALIA FILM CORPORATION, ADELAIDE Thin, fragile, tenuous lines across the map of a vast FILM FESTIVAL, SCREEN NSW & DELUXE, A desert. SEESAW FILMS PRODUCTION OF TRACKS. Tracks. Directed by John Curran. Produced by Emile Sherman & Iain Canning. Stay on track and survive. Lose your way and perish. Screenplay by Marion Nelson. You don’t need to be unlucky to die out there. Tracks. Seen from above, filmed from the air, they stretch across a massive continent – faint, often fading Tracks – the film into nothing, lifelines to the next waterhole or tiny settlement. It was very soon after publication of Tracks that Robyn Davidson was first Tracks. approached about a film version of her A tracery in the sand or the soil, fine and delicate, phenomenal journey. Emile Sherman, dangerously difficult to follow. Oscar-winning producer of The King’s Speech, explains: The overpowering heat of the central Australian day does its best to beat you, the air fluttering in mirage, Tracks is one of those books that pretty hammering home the knowledge that there is no one much every Australian knows. It’s sort of here to save you from hallucinating, dying of thirst or a seminal Australian story: it was actually going mad – or losing those essential tracks. on the school syllabus for many years. I In a slow-moving aerial shot, we look down on these always thought it was one of those big tracks that an adventurous, resilient and extraordinary stories that was set in Australia … It’s 2013 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION woman, Robyn Davidson, followed on a punishing, very pertinent and current to the world epic trek from the outback town of Alice Springs today … in the Northern Territory across the desert to the Indian Ocean, a six- to seven-month journey of 2700 Robyn was consulted on the film from kilometers, her companions – for the most part – three the early stages, but was always happy camels and a dog. for the film to be its own creative work. Tracks. So much of the character of the author 2 TRACKS – THE BOOK Robyn Davidson’s 1977 journey across the desert – and delicious freedom. She discovered self-sufficiency National funded, photographed and chronicled by and resilience, her lowest ebb coming with the death Geographic Magazine – resulted in a stupendous of her closest companion, her beloved dog Diggity, reaction from readers worldwide. This inspired her killed by strychnine bait. There were also days when the to write about the trip in greater detail, entirely from reality of dying of thirst or heat exhaustion, or losing her memory – an honest and open account of the trials, way, were terrifying realities. To her annoyance, word triumphs and sorrows experienced along the way. leaked out about her journey and she became headline In the closing pages of her book, she tells us, news, and the frequent intrusions of photographer Rick Smolan – who was assigned to photograph and record I wanted to shed burdens, to pare away what was her trek – became an irritant; images of her bathing unnecessary. A process that was literal, in the sense of with her camels in the turquoise blue of the Indian constantly leaving behind anything extraneous to my needs, Ocean objectified her, she complained. She wrote Tracks and metaphorical, or perhaps metaphysical, in the sense of believing that the book might shield her from the ridding myself of mental baggage … It was something to publicity. It only intensified it. She came to personify the do with letting go of boundary … and a sense of merging solo adventurer, a feminist figure and romantic symbol with everything around me … (pp.259–260) of the desert. Tracks cemented the myth of ‘the camel ‘The camel lady’ – as Robyn came to be universally lady’. The true Davidson – introverted, restive, searching known – was, and always has been, reluctant to involve – represented anything but. The invasion of her personal herself in publicity. She had come to the desert to live space by public fascination roused her to take up a sparingly, to take control of her life – ‘disconnecting’ nomadic journey again, travelling again with camels in herself from what she perceived as passé, conformist India, which she wrote about in Desert Places. and ultimately unfulfilling. These are feelings repeatedly For a detailed insight into the character of our echoed in her book – choosing adventure over protagonist, read the interview she gave to online convention at a time when the debates over roles of journalist Anna Krien in ‘Robyn Davidson is a Nomad’ women in Australian society were only in their infancy. at <http://www.dumbofeather.com/conversation/ The desert spoke of space, wind, fire and air, purity robyn-davidson-is-a-nomad/>. Now a major Australian film, Tracks (2013) is can be observed in her portrayal by directed by John Curran Tracks is the first film to be invited and stars acclaimed Mia Wasikowska: her strong sense to screen in competition at all three Australian actress Mia of independence and self-reliance, Wasikowska. international fall festivals: the Venice her love of family but preference for International Film Festival, Telluride solitude, her dislike of being in the Film Festival and Toronto International spotlight, her love of animals and Film Festival. her principled defense of Indigenous • A restructuring of the storyline to Australians. However, with all book- eclipse and strengthen Robyn’s Study guide aims to-screen projects, a director must presence as the focal point of the make decisions on what to include story; • To acquaint us with the storyline, and what to remove from the original • A ‘subtext’ which intends to more characterisation and cinematic text – and indeed, decide if a page-to- fully explain Robyn’s predilection elements of Tracks; cinema-screen adaptation may require for solitude; • To draw comparisons between the extra elements. We will examine these • Only passing references to Robyn’s original text and the film version; structural, scripting and adaptational responses to, and observations • To examine the issues raised elements later in this study guide, but in of, Indigenous Australian culture by the film and consider its brief, the major features you will quickly and ‘white’ outback Australia’s contemporary relevance; 2013 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION observe in the film version of Tracks reputation for chauvinism and a • To link the film to appropriate areas that differ from the written text are: number of other unpleasant traits. of study as a supplementary text. • The exclusion of a number of As the director reflects, ‘the book Tracks introduces Robyn’s journey to a characters in the written text; is first-person and very interior and whole new generation. • A succinct portrayal of some obviously the film wasn’t going to of the more prominently drawn be that … [Robyn[ left it up to me to characters in the book; project my own ideas into it.’ 3 Synopsis Arrival in ‘The Alice’ As we have already observed, our camera acquaints us instantly with the key theme of this film: the tracks that will guide protagonist Robyn Davidson (Mia Wasikowka) when she sets out on her journey. But once the camera has moved to ground level, we then see some very cryptic scenes. In slow motion a little girl in a yellow dress runs away from the camera; she’s carrying a suitcase – what’s going on here? Then we see a taller figure obscured by waves of outback heat; this figure too is run- ning away – from what? These enig- matic instances will recur throughout the film of Tracks and as our tale unfolds they will become clear. ‘I was bored of life in the city, its repetitious and half-hearted attempts at jobs and various studies …’ says Robyn in voiceover. She is going to tell us about herself, her motivations and goals as we see her arrive in Alice Springs, one of the remotest towns on earth. It is 1975 and she is a young woman walking into an environment of heat, dust, isolation and truculent, inarticulate locals, but drawn ‘to the purity of the desert’. We listen to her as she reads aloud her letter to National Geographic Magazine, outlining her project: ‘I am planning to walk across the desert Apprenticeship with begins to know the character of cam- from Alice Springs to the Indian camels els as we see her working long hours Ocean, a distance of two thousand in the heat and dust, musing in voiceo- miles. The trip will take six to seven She seeks work and a camel-training ver about her forthcoming journey and months …’. apprenticeship at Kurt Posel’s camel thinking of her father, an explorer in farm, a tourist business that requires his own right, who ‘was happiest on Robyn doesn’t think she needs hu- her to dress in Afghan costume – his own out in the bush’. She re- mans to accompany her on her travels complete with turban – and take flects on the ill-fated explorer Ludwig – just her dog Diggity (graciously tourists for rides around the area while Leichhardt, who was lost out in the played by Special Agent Gibbs) will do giving them a talk on the history of the desert and who had carved his name 2013 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION – but she knows she needs transport camel in Australia.