As Ivan Sen’s new feature film, Mystery Road, takes centre stage on Wednesday as the opening night film at the 60th Sydney Film Festival, it’s timely to reflect on the rise of indigenous filmmaking in this country.

When I began my career in film and television in the 1970s, a white (English) man played the central Aboriginal character in the TV series Boney. Films such as The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Walkabout and The Last Wave, ostensibly Aboriginal stories, had white directors (Fred Schepisi, Nicolas Roeg and Peter Weir).

This year, Aboriginal director Wayne Blair’s The Sapphires continues to roll out to record crowds around the world. Here in Australia, we will see series two of Redfern Now and another prime-time Aboriginal drama series, The Gods of Wheat Street on ABC TV. Feature length films such as Catriona McKenzie’s Satellite Boy and Warwick Thornton’s The Dark Side, along with Sen’s Mystery Road, mean we can confidently say, within a generation, Australian indigenous filmmakers have become a force to be reckoned with worldwide.

More profoundly, Aboriginal writers, directors, producers and actors are now firmly at the heart of contemporary screen practice. They are using film and television to document their cultures, promote social change and entertain and these productions are now mainstream.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/cinema-culture-richer-after-rise-of-indigenous-voices-20130604-2no4e.html#ixzz2VGUTFCiw