THE FRINGE DWELLERS

Australia, 1986, 98 minutes, Colour.
Justine Saunders, Kristina Nehm, Kylie Belling, Ernie Dingo, Bob Maza.
Directed by Bruce Beresford.

The Fringe Dwellers is based on the novel by Nene Gare, set in West Australia in the 60s but adapted to contemporary Queensland of the mid 80s. It was filmed in and around Cherbourg and Murgon in Queensland. The screenplay was written by Bruce and Rhoison Beresford, with the collaboration of the cast.

The cast is led by aboriginal actors Justine Saunders and Bob Maza, Kristina Nehmi who began her film career and Kyle Belling had appeared in some films as well as television series. Ernie Dingo was establishing himself as an actor and a comedian at this stage. Aboriginal poet Kath Walker and her grandson Denis also appear.

While the film might have been effective if it had been kept in its original setting of the 60s, there is an attempt to make the story of the fringe dwellers relevant to an Australia approaching the bi-centenary. The film pictures a typical enough Australian town, the aborigines living on the fringe and in the shadow of the whites. It presents aborigines collaborating to build an Australian life style with white people. It also presents the resentment of aborigines, even to those whites who are wanting to be of help and do good for
the aborigines. The plot is familiar enough, even conventional. However, the performances, the atmosphere of the land, the felt issues, all contribute to make the Fringe Dwellers a striking picture of white and aboriginal in Australia.

1. Impact of the film? For Australians? International audiences?

2. The novel-60s setting, the updating to the 80s? The comparison with American films about racial issues, with the Indians, with the blacks for example, The Color Purple? The screenplay written by the director, the collaboration with the aboriginal cast?

3. Queensland settings, the town, atmosphere of hostility? The town and its style, homes and hotels? Separation and integration? The fringe, the shanty houses? Aborigines at home on the land, on the fringe of the towns? Prejudice, 1985?

4. The picture of the town and the shanties, having money or not having money? Issues of rent, moving? School, black and white co-existing? The teen-agers at the milk bar and the prejudice? The man defending Trilby and her anger and resentment? The neighbour trying to do good and give clothes? The invitation, the scones, the Trilby and her know-how - the wearing of the hat, eating all the scones? The gift of the clothes and Trilby's burning them? No more hand-me-downs? The attempts of the whites to try to help? The clothes from the CWA? Trilby's accusation against the whites of self-satisfaction in their charity?

5. The background of the police, the brawls at the pub, picking up the aborigines and putting them in the van? The complaints from people next door about drinking and noise? The police at the door? The memory about the chooks?

6. School, the teachers and their attitudes, the head master and concern? Trilby, study, work and opportunities? Staying in the town, her prospects? Her pregnancy to become wife and mother? The child for adoption - and leaving?

7. The portrait of Molly: her age, the aboriginal matriarch, the good woman with the touch of humour, love for her children? Background, at home, the family? Her husband and the bonds between them? The bed, leaving, grief, returning? Cards and detail? The house, cooking? Her daughters and Bartie? Visiting the hospital, the coat? Wanting to read the comics? The plan for moving, her worries and concern? The new house, its style? The visitors arriving and settling in? Having to pay, not knowing where the money would come from? Evicted? Her care for each of her children? Trilby and her pregnancy? Her wisdom, her ignorance - and her ability to cope? Her memories of tribal background and words?

8. Aboriginal men and women, their enterprise, the men and the sitting around, working or not? The jobs, hard work? Money and gambling, the big game and Joe's loses? Joe leaving, returning, the tradition of walk about? The moving and Joe not wanting to move? The children and their wanting to love? Boys and girls growing up in the 80s? The brother and his style?

9. The younger generation, jobs, cattle and droving, money, drinking and gambling? Phil representing the new generation. a rival, the rodeo? His attraction towards Trilby, love, sexual encounter. clashes? Her pregnancy - his response? The possibilities?

10. Trilby, her age, her place at home, at school, girls together? Her learning white style? Comparisons with home, her impatience? Wanting to move, the delight? Not wanting the other members of the family? The fight at school, her hitting the girl, brought before the headmaster? The meeting with Phil, her moods, pregnancy? Going to see the old woman - her fears, hospital, the birth of the child? The experience, in the corridor - and the "accident"? Her reactions? Leaving home, her mother seeing her? Her new life away from the town?

11. The old tribal man and the town, drinking, separated from origins and traditions? Memories? The cup of tea? The memories of tribal traditions?

12. Traditions, tribal and white ancestry? The children and. the spirit stories? The character of Eva?

13. Noona as a nurse, a good young woman, good with people, her love for her mother, at home, studying, not understanding the books, the authorities at the hospital, possible for her to be only a domestic? yet her skills with the little girl, the exams, failing, the nurse giving her the chance, tuition? Her having the money and wanting to help? Her mother's visit to the hospital, the coat? Trilby and her pregnancy, the birth of the child?

14. Kinship and family, personalities? The brother and his comic wife, severity, the girl and permissiveness, the campsite? The group being together, questions of money and drinking and gambling? The house and the dispute?

15. The whites in the town, the girls, school, the man defending Trilby, the principal, the neighbours, the authorities in the hospital?

16. Bartey and his art, the tradition of Albert Namatjira, Jack Davis's poem on the boomerang and Bartey reciting it in school?

17. Memories of the past and aborigines since 1788? The 80s and the contemporary situation? The future in the light of the past?