Underplayed Gems

First Contact (1983)

First Contact poster
Directed by
Bob Connolly
Genre
documentary film
Country
Australia
Runtime
58 min
Rating
7.1 of 10 from 7 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This documentary tells the story of Australian gold prospectors who encountered a million indigenous people in the New Guinea highlands in 1930. It uses old footage and interviews with both the settlers and the native inhabitants to show their shock and awe at this first meeting.

historiccontemplativerevelatoryunsettlingawe-inspiringreflectivearchivalsobering

What happens

First Contact is a 1983 Australian documentary film by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson which recounts the incursion of gold-prospecting Australians into the unexplored interior highlands of New Guinea in 1930, then inhabited by a prosperous native population numbering in the region of one million. It is based on the book of the same name by the same authors. Inhabitants of the region and surviving members of the Leahy brothers' gold prospecting party recount their astonishment at this unforeseen meeting. The film includes both moving and still pictures taken by Michael Leahy, leader of the party, and contemporary footage of the island's terrain. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It won Best Feature Documentary at the 1983 Australian Film Institute Awards. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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