Next week, we’re celebrating the work of iconic Australian actor Jack Thompson – just in time for his 80th birthday!
Jack Thompson at 80 : A Tribute is presented by David Stratton with the support of the Sydney Film Festival and the National Film and Sound Archive.
David Stratton has selected three classic Australian features to mark the actor’s milestone birthday and 50+ years in the industry. The three films – Breaker Morant, Sunday Too Far Away (recently restored and preserved digitally by National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), and The Sum of Us – will be presented online from Monday 31 August (Jack’s birthday) to Sunday 6 September.
There are afternoon and evening sessions to enjoy, plus special introductions by the filmmakers. Funds raised from the online screenings go to the Indigenous-owned and run health service Purple House, a charity close to Jack’s heart.
The story behind Purple House :
It’s bad enough you’ve been told your kidneys are no good. Now you’re forced to leave family and country to go on dialysis in a strange city far away. You don’t know if you’re coming back. You’re worried about the old folks you care for and the kids and grandkids you’re bringing up. How will knowledge be passed down? Will family and culture stay strong?
This growing health and community crisis drove the Pintupi people from the Western Desert of Central Australia to find a solution. In 2000, their artists developed extraordinary collaborative paintings which were part of an auction at the Art Gallery of NSW. The million dollars raised started the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation, now called Purple House, and saw a new model of care based around family, country and compassion.
Run from Alice Springs by an all-Indigenous Board, Purple House’s mission is ‘Making all our families well’. Currently, Purple House runs dialysis in 18 remote communities (NT, WA, SA), social support, aged-care and NDIS services, and a bush medicine social enterprise. Their iconic mobile dialysis unit, the Purple Truck, enables patients from communities without a permanent unit to get home for family and ceremony, and in 2018 it made a special Kakadu trip for Jack Thompson to make High Ground.
Central Australia has gone from the worst to best national survival rates for dialysis. More patients are getting home and culturally appropriate, community-led care is being acknowledged as the right way of working. But the demand grows and so too the need for support to reach more communities.
To book to see one or more of the Jack Thompson films visit https://ondemand.sff.org.au/?utm_source=Sydney+Film+Festival+-+Main+List&utm_campaign=fe8747129a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_06_01_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_abc4e17558-fe8747129a-81547943