STUDY GUIDE by Gary Simmons and Vyvyan Stranieri
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A STUDY GUIDE by GAry SimmonS And VyVyAn StrAnieri http://www.metromagazine.com.au http://www.theeducationshop.com.au Industry and publIc acclaIm T THE TIME of the publication of this study guide there is a lot Aof speculation on the film win- ning an Oscar at the 2010 Academy Awards where it has been nominated as a candidate for Best Foreign Lan- guage Film. Samson & Delilah won the prestigious Camera d’Or award at Cannes (2009) and has had success at Toronto, Zurich, Munich and Telluride Film Fes- tivals. It will also be screened at the London Film Festival. Samson & Delilah is not only written and directed by Warwick Thornton, it is his debut feature after several short films which also have won national and international acclaim and prizes. Samson & Delilah recently won Best StillS photographer: Mark rogerS Feature Film award at Saint-Tropez’s Cinema des Antipodes Festival and its young stars, Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, took out the male and CURRICULUM LINKS: Samson & Delilah is suitable for middle and female acting awards. Australian actor senior secondary students studying: Australian History, English, Studies Anthony LaPaglia, who was on the of Society and Environment / Human Society and its Environment / Social jury, intimated: Education, Indigenous Studies, Media Studies. I think it should become a part of the Why study SamSon & Delilah?: This study guide provides Australian school curriculum and all a framework for discussion and writing, teaching and learning material, kids should have to watch this film to a running sheet and classroom activities to help teachers and students get a greater understanding of their develop an understanding of Indigenous and non-Indigenous experiences country and where it is at right now. in Australia as they are delineated in Samson & Delilah. The film simultaneously explores the gaps, but also the bridges that exist between Warwick Thornton, the director, puts two worlds. Given the Central Australian location of the film and its it so honestly and accurately in one remoteness to the majority of viewers geographically and personally, this of the many interviews he has done in study guide has been written to enhance understanding of a world that is the wake of the film’s success. In an more often than not glossed over or misconstrued or subject to sometimes interview with Jim Schembri (The Age, reductive conclusions via newspaper and television news reports in the 21 October 2009), Warwick Thornton SCREEN EDUCATION large cities where most Australians live. asserts, 2 synopsIs In a stolen car with no food, money or idea where they are headed they turn Samson and Delilah live in a remote their backs on the community and Aboriginal community in the Central head towards the desert horizon. The We gave Australians access to a place Australian desert. In a small Indigenous next day, out of fuel, they walk into the they’d never been before. The only community, everything seems to hap- closest town. time they’d ever been to that com- pen in a cycle. There are daily rhythms munity or met kids like Samson and which are repeated and despite a The two teenagers soon discover that Delilah was on the five o’clock news! phone link into the community, this is life outside their community can be It’s made me so proud and so happy a world which is out of sight and out of harsh. Lost, hungry and marginalised, that people were watching this film mind, except for those who live there. Samson and Delilah sense a growing and getting access to information they love which fills the void in their lives. didn’t have before. Samson is a mischievous, yet shy, But this love is tough love, given their fifteen year old who yearns for some- predicament, their vulnerability and In light of the Rudd Government’s thing more. Although boredom set their place on the margins. official 2008 apology to Australia’s in long ago, Samson’s spirit is often indigenous people for past wrongs, expressed via his humour, his love of Delilah searches for a way to improve Thornton believes Samson & Delilah music and an awkward and growing their situation and begins to paint. She can also be seen as a back-handed love for an initially reluctant Delilah. tries desperately to sell her work, but post-Sorry film. fruitlessly. In frustration, she pushes Unable to express his desire for some- her work at potential buyers aware of ‘“Sorry” doesn’t fill fridges, either,’ he thing more, Samson’s personal escape their discomfort. Samson is caught says. ‘It makes a lot of people stronger comes in sniffing petrol. When a violent between his addiction and his love and makes them take bigger steps outburst takes place at home, Samson for Delilah. Delilah also succumbs to towards their future, but in my camp it breaks the cycle and his journey begins. petrol sniffing after the trauma of male pretty well doesn’t mean anything.’ violence and violation. Sixteen-year-old Delilah is the sole carer The ‘sorry’ word was designed for our of her artist grandmother, Nana fancies They are separated for a short time grandmothers, and it did work. But for Samson for her son-in-law. When Nana when Delilah is injured but Delilah the Samson and Delilahs of the world passes away, Delilah is held responsible re-appears like an angel of mercy as it doesn’t mean shit. When you’re and the traditional punishment is harsh. Samson slowly self-destructs alone starving on the streets and you’re After a period respecting Delilah’s grief, and under the bridge. But ultimately SCREEN EDUCATION homeless, that word just doesn’t cut it. Samson feels compelled to step into the and hopefully, Delilah’s love guides him breach and in his own way protects Deli- away from the nemesis of addiction and lah from the ostracism of the community. takes him home. 3 Before watching the film ‘let’s be honest’ What is your first hand experience of Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations? For teachers it might be participat- ing in the Long Walk organised by Michael Long, the former Essendon AFL footballer, who walked from Mel- bourne to Canberra to speak to the Prime Minister. Further back in time, it might have been the mass Reconcilia- tion walks that attracted participation and provided a public focus for the reconciliation of versions of history as well as reconciliation and acceptance of the effects of the forced removal of Indigenous children by draconian Gov- ernment policies for over 100 years. Perhaps there is the public profile of the Close the Gap lobby group whose aim is to close the seventeen-year gap between the life expectancy of Indig- enous and non-Indigenous people. Perhaps you like the Bangarra dance troupe or Indigenous painting or the songs of Archie Roach. Perhaps some of your sporting heroes are Indig- enous. Perhaps you have read books like Home by Larissa Behrendt or Burnt Stick by Anthony Hill or Doris Pilking- ton’s Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence which triggered the important film on the stolen generations. Perhaps you have watched films like Activity herent in all lives. Samson & Delilah as Rabbit-Proof Fence (Phillip Noyce, a film challenges the assumptions not 2002), Ten Canoes (Rolf de Heer and • Make a list of all the points of entry only about cultures but also percep- Peter Djigirr, 2006) or Beneath Clouds to Indigenous experience that the tions of cultures. As an idea and a re- (Ivan Sen, 2002). class can bring together, including ality, ‘culture’ is often framed by West- direct personal experiences with ern and non-Indigenous interests and Perhaps you have heard the young Indigenous cultures. It must be criteria. This can lead to what is called hip hop act, Tjimba and the Yung remembered that there is a multi- ethnocentrism; a narrow perception of Warriors. plicity of Indigenous cultures and culture in which the dominant culture languages. is always the cultural benchmark. Perhaps you have heard or read the ideas of Indigenous leaders Pat or Activity But culture is a lived, living and breath- Mick Dodson, Noel Pearson who has ing experience which, while it can just written the most recent Quarterly who and what frames invite comparisons, is autonomous Essay, Larissa Behrendt or Lowitja culture? and specific to a time, place and the SCREEN EDUCATION O’Donoghue. inhabitants of that time and place. So The notion of culture or cultures is in- culture is not really singular or 4 experienceS perSonal definitionS write short responses on how these concepts are realised in the experi- Grief ences of characters in Samson & Delilah. Survival forerunners to Samson & Compassion Delilah love The screen is a cultural marker and refractor of Indigenous identity. In cin- DeSpair ema, there is a continuum of the repre- sentation of Indigenous experience and loss identity. This continuum on the screen starts from the ethnographic/anthro- Blame pological gaze of non-Indigenous film- makers in the late nineteenth century Spirit and goes to the emergence of screen Self-knowledge narratives that privilege and promote heterogeneous Indigenous identities DeSire and voices. More and more of these films are being made by Indigenous Hope filmmakers such as Warwick Thornton. anxiety This study guide recommends two relevant websites that will provide reDemption information on this continuum of films. These websites have comprehensive fear lists of films made by both non- Indigenous and the growing number of fate Indigenous filmmakers. CHanCe Both <http://australianscreen.com. au/indigenous/> and <http://www. CHoiCe creativespirits.info/resources/movies/ Commitment index.html> have this information.