NINGLA-ANA Hungry For Our Land film restoration

We're only Gofundme's commission ($500) short of our total.  Help us get too the target!

NINGLA-ANA is an iconic documentary film made by activists at the Aboriginal Embassy in 1972.  It's  rapidly deteriorating and is at risk of being lost forever.  In this fiftieth anniversary year, can you chip in to have it digitally restored so this incredible piece of history can be preserved and shared with future generations?

"The single most important film on the Aboriginal political struggle in the last 50 years"  Dr. Gary Foley, Professor of History, Victoria University

On January 26th 1972 Prime Minister McMahon declared that under his government land rights would never be granted to Aborigines. Later that night four young men planted a beach umbrella into the ground outside parliament house and sat under it. They called it the Aboriginal Embassy.

 

That single action set off a chain of events which reverberated around the world. Watched by ASIO and harassed by police, the embassy was the beginning of a movement that lead to the establishment of the Aboriginal legal and medical services, the national black theatre and initiated a tide of support from across Australia which lead to the granting of native title land rights.

 

NINGLA-ANA is a unique 72 minute film record of those events. It is the only film shot from within the Embassy and close to the people who created it. It is now 50 years old and in danger of being lost forever. The glue in the splices is failing and the magnetic soundtrack is about to collapse. Government agencies have declined to assist the restoration of this extraordinary film. Our company, Smart St. Films distributes the film and we've decided that we have to take matters into our own hands. We've set about raising money to commission expert a specialist restoration and digitisation service to carry out critical work to preserve this priceless work.  We're seeking support from anyone who believes in the struggle for social justice for Aboriginal Australians.

 

It's 50 years since those momentous events and the gap between black and white Australians' - health, lifespan, education and housing is as wide as ever. NINGLA-ANA,  is a call to action that reverberates down the years .

 

The work to be done on the images requires high tech image manipulation to repair the splices and recreate the sharpness of the original film. It will then be digitised to a fantastic high definition master copy. The soundtrack will be copied and then cleaned up to remove hiss and where possible create a stereo version. This work is highly technical and expensive. We have financial support from people within the film industry and are now only$500 short. This is the commission and fees Gofundme take.  So we're asking you to join us in saving this unique film for future generations.

 

Here's a test sample of the difference between the 50 year old film and how it will look when we're finished.

Before

After

 Gofundme have asked me to add the following:  "no raffles, sweepstakes, giveaways, or returns on investment are offered in exchange for any donations made to this GoFundMe project"