Wrong Side of the Road

Wrong Side of the Road

Infobox Film
name = Wrong Side of the Road


image_size =
caption =
director =
producer =
writer =
narrator =
starring =
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = 1981
runtime =
country = flagicon|AustraliaAustralia
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0083342

"Wrong Side of the Road" is a 1981 low-budget documentary film made in South Australia in 1980. It is distinctive for being one of the first attempts to bring modern Australian Aboriginal music to a non-indigenous audience.

The film grew out of the work that a white musician, Graeme Isaac, was doing with disaffected Aboriginal youths in Adelaide, South Australia, in the late 1970s. He encouraged them to move beyond country music (which had been the principal idiom for non-traditional Aboriginal musicians), and to explore rock and reggae. Out of this, a number of garage bands were formed, and attained a limited but ardent following in South Australian indigenous communities. The marginalised lifestyle of the musicians often brought them into contact with police and the courts, and Isaac recognised that this provided the raw material for a story that could be made into a film.

Isaac approached Ned Lander (an established socially-committed documentary film-maker from Sydney) with his idea, and a script was written, loosely based on the real lives of two of the bands Isaac had nurtured, Us Mob (who played straightforward rock) and No Fixed Address (whose music was strongly reggae-influenced). The script interspersed the music of the bands with episodes of conflict with the police, and finished with a triumphant home-coming gig at an Aboriginal community. The musicians, their families and their community committed to the movie, and largely played themselves, under their own names, even though the story was fictionalised.

With limited funding, mostly from an Australian government film-funding scheme, and the support of a group of non-indigenous film technicians and actors, shooting on 16mm film took place over a period of four weeks in 1980.

The film, combining elements of road-movie and musical, drama and documentary, was released in 1981. It won a number of awards, both in Australia and internationally. The harassment and discrimination that indigenous Australians routinely endured was exposed to an audience that had been largely oblivious, and contributed to an increased awareness of those issues in the wider Australian and international communities. Both bands in the film gained increased popularity, with "No Fixed Address" in particular achieving ground-breaking (though limited) exposure on mainstream Australian AM and FM radio.

External links

* [http://www.kooriweb.org/wsotr/ Interviews with Isaac & Lander, stills, video clips]
*imdb title|0083342
* [http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=Number%3A26957;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=10 Wrong Side of the Road at the National Film and Sound Archive]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Side of the road (disambiguation) — Side of the road may refer to:*Driving on the left or right *Shoulder (road), a reserved area alongside the verge of a road or motorway *Sidewalk, also known as a pavement or footpath *Bright Side of the Road, song by Van Morrison *Wrong Side of… …   Wikipedia

  • Down the Road (Van Morrison album) — Down the Road Studio album by Van Morrison Released May 14, 2002 Recorded …   Wikipedia

  • road — [ roud ] noun count *** 1. ) a way that leads from one place to another, especially one with a hard surface that cars and other vehicles can use: He was driving on the wrong side of the road. A cat suddenly ran into the middle of the road. All… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • Down the Road — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Down the Road Álbum de estudio de Van Morrison Publicación 14 de mayo de 2002 Reedición: enero de 2009 Grabación …   Wikipedia Español

  • Wrong-way driving — Fatalities caused by wrong way driving in the United States, 1996–2000 Wrong way driving is the act of driving a motor vehicle against the direction of traffic. It can occur on either one or two way roads (in the latter case, arising from driving …   Wikipedia

  • wrong — wrong1 W1S1 [rɔŋ US ro:ŋ] adj ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 1¦(not correct)¦ 2 be wrong (about somebody/something) 3¦(problems)¦ 4¦(not the right one)¦ 5¦(not morally right)¦ 6¦(not suitable)¦ 7¦(not working)¦ 8 be the wrong way round/around 9 the wrong way up …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • side — [[t]sa͟ɪd[/t]] ♦ sides, siding, sided 1) N COUNT: usu prep N of n The side of something is a position to the left or right of it, rather than in front of it, behind it, or on it. On one side of the main entrance there s a red plaque. ...a… …   English dictionary

  • wrong — 1 adjective 1 NOT CORRECT saying, believing, or depending on something that is not correct: Your calculations must be wrong. | be wrong to think/say: I m sorry; I was wrong to assume that you wanted to go. | prove sb wrong: I wish you d stop… …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

  • side — noun 1 flat surface of sth thin ADJECTIVE ▪ flip, reverse ▪ The reverse side of the coin has a picture of a flower. 2 either of the two parts of a place/object ADJECTIVE ▪ far, opposite …   Collocations dictionary

  • road */*/*/ — UK [rəʊd] / US [roʊd] noun [countable] Word forms road : singular road plural roads 1) a way that leads from one place to another, especially one with a hard surface that cars and other vehicles can use All roads leading into the village are… …   English dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”