Through a Blak Lens: The work, influences and legacy of Michael Riley

Rated G
Directed by Michael Riley, 1996
Duration: 28 minutes

From the early 1800s, Aboriginal people have been used as guides and trackers by the police force. This century, one of the most highly regarded was Michael Riley’s Grandfather, Sergeant Alexander ‘Tracker’ Riley of Dubbo, NSW. In 1943 Alexander Riley was awarded the highest police award, the King’s Medal, for distinguished services. During Tracker Riley’s time with the NSW Police Force between 1911 and 1950 he was instrumental in solving several murder cases and finding numerous people lost in the bush. A great many people owe their lives to his exceptional tracking skills. A beautifully made and penetrating film directed by Riley that is a tribute to Tracker Riley, one of the greatest of all Aboriginal trackers, as told by his family and descendants.
– Screen Australia

Screened with the permission of ABC

Rated M
Directed by Rachel Perkins, 2001
Duration: 57 minutes

A musical drama set in 1930s outback Australia. Entranced by the beautiful, beaming moon, a young girl steps out her window. When her parents check, she is gone. The local police recommend Aboriginal tracker Albert, but the father insists ‘no blackfella is to set foot on my land’. Albert watches helplessly as her every trace is stamped to dust by the white men conducting a line search. Based on the true story of Aboriginal Tracker Riley in Dubbo.
– Screen Australia

Footage courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and Boomalli Five Koorie Artists.

Rated MA 15+
Directed by Warwick Thornton, 2009
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Samson and Delilah is the story of two Indigenous teenagers growing up in a socio-economically disadvantaged community in central Australia. Samson (Rowan McNamara) and Delilah (Marissa Gibson) struggle to find the strength, courage and resilience to rise above the challenges of poverty, grief and racism around them.

To escape a small and poor community, Samson and Delilah move to the nearest large town, Alice Springs. They have no money and sleep under a bridge. Samson uses petrol to control his perception of reality, to blank out his pain, loss and misery; Delilah begins sniffing petrol too and together they traverse the streets of Alice Springs and suffer disdain, abuse and deprivation.

Supported by a homeless alcoholic called Gonzo (Scott Thornton) and family from the community, the two survive their lowest ebb and rebuild their lives. They return to the desert to Delilah’s traditional country to rehabilitate from petrol sniffing and try to build a life in tune with their cultural heritage.
– National Film and Sound Archive

Screened with the permission of Felix Media

Not rated – may contain adult themes
Directed by Michael Riley, 1993
Duration: 24 minutes

Connecting community and Country, Quest for country is the filmic bridge between Michael Riley’s two portrait series, A common place: portraits of Moree Murries, 1990 and Yarns from Talbragar Reserve, 1998. Following Riley as he travels from his home in the city of Sydney to his parents’ traditional homes in regional New South Wales, this film is very much located in the artist’s traditional Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi Country. Passing familiar landmarks, like the Blue Mountains, much of this film’s action is based on the car and its movement, with the camera, strapped to the car, either focused on the road ahead or reflecting images via the surface of the car – a recurring motif seen in Riley’s photographic series such as Flyblown, 1998. Quest for Country was produced under the international From spirit to spirit co-production series for SBS Television.
–The Michael Riley Foundation

© Michael Riley Foundation/ Copyright Agency/ SBS 2024

Not rated – may contain adult themes
Directed by Michael Riley, 1991
Duration: 29 minutes

Michael Riley’s experimental short film Poison was made in response to a Rolling Stone article, ‘Seven Little Australians’, which detailed the tragic lives of Aboriginal teenage girls at the hands of drugs. Switching between colour dream sequences and black and white dramatic narrative, Poison documents the effects of heroin overdoses around The Block in Redfern, Sydney. The film shares themes with Riley’s 1992 photographic series Sacrifice, which also references substance abuse. The work was celebrated at the New York Film Festival in 1991, where he won a Golden Tripod Award and the Bronze for Best Short Television Drama. Written and Produced by Riley, the film stars Indigenous actress Lydia Miller in the main role.
–The Michael Riley Foundation

© Michael Riley Foundation/ Copyright Agency/ ACMI 2024

Non rating but adult content
Directed, Michael Riley, 1997
Time: 17 minutes

Empire is a visual and aural journey through the dark recesses of a decaying empire; the British Empire in Australia. Through stylised, minimalist images of decay, desolation and death, the film shows how the British have impounded Aboriginal society and country. Directed by Michael Riley, the film is set to a soundscape composed by Antony Partos, produced by Supersonic, orchestrated by Derek Williams and performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Soprano Cinzia Montresor.
- The Michael Riley Foundation

© Michael Riley Foundation/ Copyright Agency/ ABC 2024

Rated G
Directed by Michael Riley, 1988
Duration: 28 minutes

Boomalli is an artists cooperative formed by urban Aboriginal and Koorie photographers, painters, sculptors, designers and filmmakers.

This visually inspiring film focuses on contemporary rather than traditional work and ways of life. We see the work of clothing designer Bronwyn Bancroft (the first Australian fashion designer to be invited to show in Paris) and the sand sculptures of Fiona Foley. Tracey Moffatt discusses her film Nice coloured girls, and the painters Raymond Meeks and Jeffrey Samuels discuss the thematic approach to their art and how they incorporate aspects of traditional Aboriginal painting. The artists also talk about Aboriginal identity and how this is expressed in their work.
– National Film and Sound Archive

Screened with the permission of National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

Not rated – may contain adult themes
Directed by Destiny Deacon and Michael Riley, 1999
Duration: 30 minutes

I don’t want to be a bludger is a satirical look at Aboriginal contemporary life. It documents the exploits of Delores – played by Destiny Deacon (1957–2024) – as she seeks employment in a variety of occupations. Michael Riley makes a cameo appearance in the film as Uncle Harold, Delores’s cousin. The cast also includes members of Deacon’s extended family, including the late Lisa Bellear, distinguished writer, radio broadcaster and political activist.
– Art Gallery of New South Wales

Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales - Purchased with funds provided by the Aboriginal Art Collection Benefactors 2008. Screened with the permission of Art Gallery of New South Wales

Rated M
Directed by Tracey Moffatt, 1987
Duration: 17 minutes

An early short film classic by Tracey Moffatt, one of Australia’s foremost visual artists. This stylistically daring film audaciously explores the history of exploitation between white men and Aboriginal women, juxtaposing the ‘first encounter’ between colonisers and native women with the attempts of modern urban Aboriginal women to reverse their fortunes.

Three Aboriginal women cruise through Kings Cross and pick up a ‘captain’ (a drunken white man). They encourage him to spend his money on them and to drink until incapacitated while they steal his wallet and race off to catch a cab.

Nice coloured girls contrasts the relationship between Aboriginal women and white men in the past and present. The film juxtaposes contemporary images of black women taking advantage of a white man with a voice-over of extracts from early journals of white settlers and sailors, in order to question the validity of conventional white history and to deny the image of Aboriginal people as passive and powerless.

Through counterpoint of sound, image, and printed text, the film conveys the perspective of Aboriginal women while acknowledging that oppression and enforced silence still shape their consciousness. The soundscape recalls a rural environment, while the voice-over of extracts from the diary of colonist Lieutenant William Bradley recalls the first settlement.
– Ronin Films

Screened with the permission of Ronin Films