The Darwin premiere of My Name is Gulpilil, a new documentary film on the life of David Gulpilil, was held last Saturday, and the event began with a smoking ceremony on the forecourt of the Darwin Entertainment Centre.
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Inside, 500 people gathered for the sold-out screening.
Nova Peris was there with Luke Carroll, from Ten Canoes, and so was Secret River actor Frances Djulibing and female lead of Charlie's Country Jennifer Budukpuduk. About 30 members of the Yolngu community also attended, and all were related to David Gulpilil in some way.
Larrakia Elder and an old, old friend of Gulpilil, Aunty June Mills, welcomed the audience, supported by Yolngu Elder, founding member of Yothu Yindi and close kin of Gulpilil, Witiyana Marika.
On stage, Aunty June gave a moving, and personal, Welcome to Country.
"Gulpilil is like the lightning bolt you don't see coming," she said.
"And you see him on the screen the first time, and you are AWAKE!
" I love what he does for our people and this country."
Director/producer Molly Reynolds was interviewed on stage along with producers Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, then Witiyana Marika performed a songline representing Gulpilil's country and culture.
The film had its world premiere in Adelaide in March, and David Gulpilil appeared on stage before the film to a standing ovation. This time his deteriorating health prevented him from leaving his home in Adelaide to make an appearance and there was no standing ovation.
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A spokesperson for the film's distributors said it is such a reflective and moving film that people don't tend to stand at the end.
"They are very much in their own thoughts and ready to connect directly with people who have just shared the experience of seeing the film with them," they said.
Director Molly Reynolds reflected on the life of our greatest Indigenous actor.
"There he was, learning to hunt, then he was on a film set, then flying over to England. His life was surreal."
Gulpilil's life was surreal. One moment in 1969, the 16-year-old was destined for the life of a traditional Indigenous man in East Arnhem Land.
Next moment, he was on the set of Nicolas Roeg's film Walkabout as the boy who tries to guide two white city children abandoned in the outback.
Then, he was on the plane to London to meet the Queen, and visit Cannes where Walkabout was screening in competition. How does any boy from the back of beyond get his head around that?
Now 68, Gulpilil's life hangs in the balance. He was diagnosed with widespread, stage-four lung cancer in 2017 and not expected to survive into the following year. Remarkably, he is still with us.
"He rallied for the premiere in Adelaide, but he is no longer hearty," Reynolds says in our interview.
Gulpilil must be very changed from the man who spent six weeks as a house guest of Reynolds and her partner, Rolf de Heer, while working on the voiceover for Ten Canoes.
Since Ten Canoes was released to critical and commercial acclaim in 2006, there have been ongoing collaborations between Reynolds, de Heer and the people of Ramingining, with projects such as Twelve Canoes and Another Country.
Work on My Name is Gulpilil began in 2017, with Peter Djigirr and Rolf de Heer as producers. "The Adelaide Film Festival was first in on funding this. A definitive work, Gulpilil's last work, a film that ought to be made," she says.
"We budgeted for 30 days but the shoot took 67. David was so keen and kept going, and going."
Gulpilil now lives with his carer, Mary Hood, in Murray Bridge, South Australia. "Gulpilil doesn't leave Mary's side now. The only other person he will be alone with, without Mary, is Rolf."
It seems a cruel irony that Gulpilil, a Mandipingu man of the Yolngu culture, is so far from country. "Yes, there have been many attempts to return him to his homeland, but it's his decision to stay where he is."
He used to share an apartment with his carer, a former nurse, in Darwin. "Mary decided to leave Darwin. She'd had enough of the tropics, and the humbug, and David said he was going with her, to which she said 'oh, okay'.
"She is a real character in the film. A hero of the story."
It's lovely to observe these elderly companions, David and Mary, together. They certainly often have a laugh together, even over the oxygen concentrator that helps Gulpilil stay alive.
For a film about a man with a terminal illness, it is heartening to be reminded of Gulpilil's legendary sense of humour, with clips of amusing scenes selected from his filmography like Crocodile Dundee, The Tracker and Ten Canoes.
There are also excerpts from his one-man stage show, including Gulpilil's hilarious recollections of his dinner with Queen and her family.
"He also has tremendous capacity for poetic expression," observes Reynolds. "During the 50 or more interviews we did, he might talk for an hour. Then come up with pure gold."
It's well known that Gulpilil learnt a lot through observation, including English as a teenager.
"He's quick-witted, and as an outsider looking in, he can see the foibles of white-fella culture, and works with that."
- My Name is Gulpilil is out later this month.
