Tag: nonfiction book review

Listening to Country, by Ros Moriarty

‘This big land, Australia. It’s big enough for everyone!’ calls Annie Karrakayn across the pre-dawn campfire to the other Law women stirring from the perfect quiet of a still, desert night. ‘Strong Dreamin’,’ she whispers.

This intimate look at a journey across the country and across cultures is a delight to read. Ros Moriarty, cofounder of Balarinji designs, shares her journey, through her married life, to an Aboriginal man with strong ties to his land and people in the Northern Territory, through their business life together, and also through her sharing a journey with her husband’s matriarchal relatives to perform ceremony. These three journeys are intertwined and revealed side by side.

Moriarty’s style enables the reader to share her discoveries about herself and her husband’s people in a way which uplifts and inspires. Listening to Country is a book which calls readers to listen.

Listening to Country

Listening to Country, by Ros Moriarty
Allen & Unwin, 2010
ISBN 9781741753806

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Third Take, by Raffaele Caputo & Geoff Burton (eds)

With much regularly written about Australian films and the Australian film industry by journalists and critics, it is refreshing to have an entire book given over to the subject from the perspective of the film-makers themselves. Third Take presents a collection of articles by and interviews with Australian film-makers, exploring the place of Australian film in today’s globalised society.

Contributors include those working in the industry in Australia as well as those who have chosen to work the United States. An entire section is devoted to the classic film Newsfront (elsewhere reviewed on this site), a film which iteself looks at the birth of the Australian film industry.

Contributors to Third Take include Peter Weir (director of Gallipoli, The Truman Show and Green Card, among many others), John Seale (cinematographer on such films as Dead Poet’s Scoiety, Lorenzo’s Oil and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) and actor Bill Hunter (Newsfront, Gallipoli and An Indecent Obsession.

Editors Raffaele Caputo and Geoff Burton are both well-acquainted with the Australian film industry, with Caputo a writer on film for over fifteen years and Burton working continuously in the film industry for thirty three years.

Third Take is an enlightening volume for those with a passion for Australian film.

Third Take: Australian Film-Makers Talk, Raffaele Caputo & Geoff Burton (eds)
Allen & Unwin, 2002