Shifting Sands - Passing Through: Roadside stop

Title:

Shifting Sands - Passing Through: Roadside stop

NFSA ID

370994

Year

1998

Warnings

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons

Summary

The family pull up at a gas station. The children are sent off to the toilet. Margie (Margaret Harvey) spies two elders Bert Nandy (Bruce Oliver) and Uncle Sam (Gnarnayarrahe Waitarie) sitting in a shed across the road. Flashback; a young Margie (Llania Pender) skipping a hoop across the road. Present; Margie gets out of the car. She tells Charlie (Luke Elliot) she’s going for a yarn. Margie approaches the elders who introduce themselves. Charlie enters the shop. The two children Janaya (Janaya Pender) and Shannon (Shannon Elliot) are in an old corrugated toilet. They run out screaming. They run to their father in the shop.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

CURATOR'S NOTES

Passing Through is based on a story of the same name by Janice Slater Herring. Margie (Margaret Harvey) and husband Charlie are taking their children to Margie’s Aunt An (Justine Saunders), and pass through a somewhat desolate town.Passing Through has an unresolved storyline and essentially leaves the ending of the film up to the audience. A directorial debut from filmmaker Mark Olive, Passing Through weaves myth and legend to tell an Indigenous flavoured ghost story.

Mark Olive (AKA Black Olive) is the celebrated Indigenous chef of Outback Café on the Lifestyle Channel, offering Indigenous inspired recipes using traditional Indigenous foods in culinary delights that mix ancient foods hunted and gathered in new ways. Black Olive had a regular spot on ABC’s Message Stick, and recently won the Deadly Award (2006) in the entertainment category.