Viewer Advice: First Nations viewers are warned that the following film may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

Prolific Australian producer Penelope McDonald returns to the director’s chair with this 10-years-in-the-making tribute to an artist, actor and proud Warlpiri woman.

Audrey Napanangka has never lived a still life. She was born during a time of societal upheaval for the Central Desert region, with settlements, relocations and forced displacement. Now, after decades in the visual arts, she is using her deep understanding of her ancestors’ culture to enrich the lives of those around her, aided by her Sicilian-born partner, Santo. Based in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Napanangka balances her Warlpiri world with that of modern postcolonial Australia, navigating differences in language, law and custom with her family by her side.

Best known for her work as producer on such films as Tracey Moffatt’s Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (MIFF 1989) and Safina Uberoi’s My Mother India (MIFF 2001), McDonald brings her first directorial effort in 33 years to MIFF following its Sydney premiere. Made in true collaboration with its subject, whom McDonald has known for four decades, this observational documentary is a natural extension of the Australian cinema classics that Napanangka has appeared in – including Samson & Delilah and Rabbit-Proof Fence – in allowing us to bear witness to the richness and complexity of Aboriginal lives today.