Ringtone # 17

09:00, Thursday 18th June, Cinema 3

Director/Anthropologist: Jennifer Deger, Paul Wunungmurra
Year of Release: 2014
Duration: 30 mins
Country of Production: Australia
Location: Australia
Ethnic Group: Yolngu Aboriginal
Language: Yolngu Aboriginal language with English subtitles

Yolngu Aboriginal families offer glimpses into their lives and relationships through their choice of ringtones. From ancestral clan songs to 80s hip hop artists and local gospel tunes, these songs connect individuals into a world of deep and enduring connection. And yet, simultaneously the phone opens Yolngu to new vectors of vulnerability and demand. Made collaboratively by a new media arts collective of indigenous and non-indigenous filmmakers, the film offers a beautiful and surprisingly moving meditation on the connections and intrusions brought by mobile phones to a once-remote Aboriginal community.

Return to the 2015 film programme