Content area
Full Text
More than 40 years after David Gulpilil ventured from Manin grida to Cannes with the film Walkabout, a tribe from Vanuatu took their own film to the Venice Film Festival.
And rather than a British director escorting Gulpilil from Arnhem Land, two Australian directors, Bentley Dean and Martin Butler, introduced the Yakel tribe from the Vanuatu island of Tanna to the world.
"JJ", the only English-speaking member of the 200-odd-member tribe and who collaborated in the production of the feature film, said the Australians were "part of our community".
"Every night we have kava (with them)," he said. "They shared our food, they lived with us and shared our huts." Tanna is the first feature film shot entirely in Vanuatu....