Techno Tribal

Synopsis

In Vis à vis: TECHNO TRIBAL, two highly-committed individuals from different parts of the world take part in a satellite television experiment, and an international audience watches as they explore the differences and similarities in their societies, their objectives and themselves.

Ningali Lawford and James Luna are both powerful indigenous performance artists in countries with different histories and colonizing cultures. Ningali’s family home is a cattle station in the northwest of Australia, James lives on the La Jolla Reservation in the Californian mountains. US co-producer Steve Lawrence and Nick Torrens approached them with the idea that if they set up this exchange, then the agenda for the following days of dialogue would evolve as they progressed, and the 2 artists would explore the possibilities of the encounter on their own terms. Both were enthusiastic about collaborating in the experiment.

The dialogues were recorded by 2 cameras on each side. Each day can be thought of as one act in a play – in which James and Ningali start from knowing almost nothing of each other, to achieving an intimacy and an understanding of their respective worlds and perspectives.

Impact

CINE AWARDS – USA, GOLDEN EAGLE AWARD, DOWN UNDER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – AUSTRALIA, BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AWARD