Sydney Opera House

Come to Sydney Opera House and celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Message Sticks Festival.

Enjoy 7 world premieres of 7 Short Films by 7 new Australian directors including directorial debuts by Deborah Mailman and Leah Purcell.

FREE public screenings, FREE live music,and a FREE photographic art exhibition.  You will also have an opportunity to meet and talk with filmmakers after each session.

“Sydney Opera House is proud to present the 10th Message Sticks Festival, a program of  film and performance celebrating the creativity of indigenous artists from Australia and overseas. Through our public and performance programmes, we seek to give a range of artists and performers a place at Sydney Opera House in which to speak to the wider community. 

A significant feature of this festival is that the works must be by indigenous artists and not simply about indigenous issues. The films and shorts in this year’s festival showcase excellence in performance and filmmaking, and demonstrate Sydney Opera House’s longstanding commitment to the process of reconciliation. I invite you to experience these culturally significant works that will resonate with indigenous and non indigenous audiences alike.”

Richard Evans CEO, Sydney Opera House

Curators Message 

Nothing is quite as exhilarating for a filmmaker than to sit with an audience as they experience the particular world you have painstakingly crafted, sometimes over many years, into a film.

Somewhere in the half light between audience and screen, a conversation begins that magically opens hearts and minds if you have told your story well. Indigenous artists have been sharing their stories at Message Sticks for ten years, yet it is a tradition that reaches into deep time and more recently across cultures.

Message Sticks is Australia’s longest running Indigenous film festival yet is merely the blink of an eye in our ancient traditions. We are proud to contribute to our ongoing cultural evolution, alive and kicking and free to all at the people’s House.

Darren Dale & Rachel Perkins
Curators, Message Sticks  Indigenous Film Festival 2009
 
Download the Message Sticks 2009 Brochure