Origins - Festival of First Nations
Allan Collins Night - (8 May – Ciné Lumière 6.15pm)
Two hauntingly beautiful, exquisitely photographed films from the leading Aboriginal Australian director and cinematographer.
Spirit Stones
Spirit Stones is both a contemporary and historically stylised documentary of Nyoongar elders giving their
account of mysterious stones that fell on Aboriginal (Nyoongar) camps in rural Western Australia. In the 1940s and 1950s,
stone "showers" delivered stones in locations up to 250 kilometres apart, falling at various places across
south-west WA for hours, sometimes days and even weeks and months.
The Spirit Stones came through roofs, tents, walls and tables without leaving holes. Sometimes
warm or hot, spirit stones travelled in peculiar directions. Even today there is no single
explanation for this mysterious phenomenon. Spirit Stones is filmed with a gentle, poetic
calm, offering a glimpse into both the
portraiture of Nyoongar elders and into a phenomenon that remains unexplained until today.
- 52 mins
- Director: Allan Collins. Australia 2007
Venue 3: Ciné Lumière, 17, Queensberry Place, London SW7 £9 (£7). 020 7073 1350.
www.institut-francais.org.uk
Screening with:
Sunset to Sunrise
Back to the film page