Firestarter—The Story of Bangarra

By Nel Minchin and Wayne Blair

Australia | In English | 2020 | 96 min | NC16 (Some Nudity and Coarse Language)

Asian Premiere

Firestarter—The Story of Bangarra is a feature-length documentary on the beginnings and subsequent spectacular growth of Bangarra Dance Theatre, a company of professional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performers. The film acknowledges the company’s founders and tells the story of how three Aboriginal brothers—Stephen, David and Russell Page—developed an amateur dance group into one of the most successful First Nations companies in the world today.

Bangarra, which means ‘to make fire’ in the Wiradjuri language, was formed in 1989 in Sydney. In Firestarter, interviews with founding artists are woven together with archival footage of landmark performances like the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony (2000). In tracing the history of the company, the documentary inevitably touches on political events in Australia that have profoundly affected Aboriginal ways of living, including the policy of assimilation that caused many First Nations children to be forcibly removed from their families. Firestarter explores this loss and reclaiming of culture, the burden of intergenerational trauma, and crucially, the extraordinary power of art as a messenger for social change and healing.

Firestarter had its world premiere at the Brisbane International Film Festival (2020), followed by screenings at film festivals across Australia.

 

Nel Minchin (b. 1985, Australia) is a director, producer and writer with a reputation for making smart, thought-provoking and engaging documentaries. Firestarter—The Story of Bangarra was her debut feature documentary. Minchin’s primetime television documentaries have reached a wide range of audiences. The AACTA nominated Matilda & Me and Making Muriel were listed in Screen Australia’s most watched documentaries in their respective years of broadcast, while Capturing Cricket: Steve Waugh in India won its timeslot when it was broadcast.

Wayne Blair (b. 1971, Australia) of Batjala, Mununjail and Waka Waka descent, is an acclaimed film, television and theatre director, writer, actor and producer. Blair’s debut hit feature film The Sapphires had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. The film was screened at festivals including at Telluride, Toronto, Aspen, Zurich and Hamburg. He directed Septembers of Shiraz, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (2015) and featured an impressive award-winning cast including Salma Hayek and Adrien Brody.

 

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This presentation belongs to a three-part film programme that explores prevailing narratives concerning Indigeneity in Australia and Vietnam. It is conceived in conjunction with the ongoing special exhibition, Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia, that runs from 27 May to 25 September 2022 at National Gallery Singapore.

The other presentations in this programme feature moving image works by the Karrabing Film Collective, an Indigenous media group based in Australia’s Northern Territories, and Vietnamese artist Nguyen Trinh Thi.

As part of this programme, there will be free curator tours of the Ever Present exhibition on Sunday 10 July, 11am and 12pm. Please click ‘BOOK TOUR’ to register.

The screening of Firestarter—The Story of Bangarra on Fri 8 Jul is exclusively for Insiders only. Sign up as a Gallery Insider now and bring a friend to the screening for free! Other Insider perks include 50% off all other tickets for Painting with Light 2022, $200 worth of shopping and dining vouchers at the Gallery, and more. 

 Get in touch with membership@nationalgallery.sg to reserve your seats once you have signed up. Limited slots available on a first come first served basis.