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No backward steps: Imogen Thomas seeks to connect communities with 'Emu Runner'
The life of a young Aboriginal girl dealing with her mother's unexpected death is the subject of Thomas’ debut feature film Emu Runner, which was screened at various festivals before arriving in Jakarta for the 2020 Australia Indonesia Cinema Festival.
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Bird meets girl: 'Emu Runner' tells the story of Gem (right), a 9-year-old Indigenous girl who makes friends with one of the flightless birds after the unexpected death of her mother. (Courtesy of emurunnerfilm.com/-)
S
ome may know Australian cinema through The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and the Mad Max franchise, but there is so much more to the country’s culture that you can discover through movies, as filmmaker Imogen Thomas can attest.
While drag queens in the desert and post-apocalyptic muscle cars can be an entertaining watch, you might not come across them every day.
What you can observe, though, are the lives of Australia’s Aboriginal people and their connection to the universe and to one another.
A look into the life of a young Aboriginal girl is the subject of Thomas’ new film Emu Runner.
The story focuses on 9-year-old Gem (Rhae-Kye Waites) and her connection to an emu – considered a creator spirit by the Ngemba people – as she and her family deal with the sudden and unexpected death of her mother.
The movie, Thomas’ first feature-length film, has been screened at various festivals such as the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the 2019 Gold Coast Film Festival, taking home the PKF Best Australian Independent Film Award at the latter.
Emu Runner made its Indonesian premier in the 2020 Australia Indonesia Cinema Festival (FSAI) in Jakarta, which ran from Feb. 14 -28 across five cities.
