Indigenous-led animated film asks us to imagine a more united future

AN animated film that blends Indigenous knowledge with innovative storytelling and technology will screen at Brunswick Picture House on Monday January 26 – one of 50 screenings launching around the country on Australia Day/Survival Day.

Imagine follows the story of 15-year-old Kim and their alien canine companion, Jeff, as they explore themes of identity and freedom in a world on the brink of collapse.

The film features voice performances from several well-known identities, including Ian Thorpe, Yael Stone, Wayne Blair and Taika Waititi. Main Arm–based actor and dancer Waangenga Blanco also lends his voice to the film as the pelican.

Aimed at audiences aged 12 and over, Imagine was co-created by more than 400 people, including Bundjalung director Jack Manning Bancroft.

Artwork by Bancroft’s mother, Bronwyn Bancroft, is featured throughout the film, and she will introduce the movie at the local screening.

More than 100 young people, many of them from the Northern Rivers, participated in live writing sessions on the script.

Sam Refshauge from AIME with Archie Taylor holding his artwork from the film that he gifted the student at a screening of Imagine at Miami State High School on the Gold Coast. Photo: SUPPLIED

Bogangar-based Sam Refshauge, from Indigenous non-profit organisation AIME, said the team began drafting the script at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.

“IMAGINE shines a spotlight on the current and very relevant challenges facing young people with the rapidly evolving tech landscape and the current environmental crisis that we’ve all found ourselves in,” he said. “Instead of just focusing on the problems, Imagine provides hope by highlighting the deep, long and rich Indigenous knowledge systems that we can and should be tapping into in order to find the solutions we need to navigate these times.”

Refshauge said launching Imagine on January 26 gives people the opportunity to gather in their local communities and collectively imagine a better, more united, positive, healthy and hopeful future together.

All profits from the film will go back into AIME’s work to alleviate inequality across Australia and around the world.

Imagine screens at Brunswick Picture House at 4pm on Monday January 26.

For more information and tickets, visit imaginefilm.org or brunswickpicturehouse.com/imagine-26-jan