It’s well known that indigenous culture is being threatened by the serious issues that plague the news. Drugs, alcohol, and also the divide between indigenous and white communities set the scene for intimate drama Mystery Road – raising awareness about issues director Ivan Sen and lead actor Aaron Pedersen feel strongly towards. TOM Magazine sat down with the two and discussed the prevalence of films such as these.
TOM: Is Mystery Road based on true events?
Ivan: Yeah, everything I do has some kind of truth to it. It’s what I see, and it’s got a lot of my childhood and the whole treatment of indigenous women in this country, and what I’ve experienced in my own family – having some women murdered in my extended family and the lacklustre approach from the police. That’s not unique to my family – almost every indigenous family in Australia has been a victim of crime and police move more slowly. As well as that, having this cop that’s caught between two worlds is something I experienced a bit growing up – being caught in the indigenous part of town and the white part of town, and not really belonging. So that’s what Jay Swan’s like. He’s working for the crown, the government and having to deal with this murder.
TOM: Aaron, do you feel the same about these issues?
Aaron: Definetely. The script’s written at a very personal level, I understood professionally we could make this work quite beautifully, we’ve both got the same ideas. We know a lot of people who wear cowboy hats, boots, belt buckles. I’ve seen that world all my life, I’ve walked between the two worlds. At the end of the day I’ve had to fight for my own recognition of where I stand in this world. There’s a great beauty in using art to not only entertain and inform but to empower yourself. This film is empowerment for myself as much as it is for young aboriginal people.
TOM: So you’re very passionate about young aboriginals seeing this film?
Aaron: Yes. They can see what Ivan does and be inspired by it, they can see what I do and be inspired by it.
Ivan: We think that Jay Swan is a role model for young kids, and seeing some young aboriginal kids in the audience at Winton the other night was amazing. It was just a joy to stand there, introducing the film. You’re in the front row and they’re smiling away, it’s just priceless to see that.
Aaron: They saw us making it. We promised to come back and we fulfilled that and showed it and in a lot of ways we gave them permission to own it.
TOM: Were any of the children in the film actually from Winton?
Ivan: Yes, the initial victim is a girl from there, a few of the young boys are also. We took some of the girls, like Jay’s daughter and her friend came from Moree. The little boy who was playing with the guns, he’s from Toomelah (Sen’s previous film).
TOM: How did you find directing children who’d never acted before to directing actors such talent as Aaron, Hugo Weaving and the other great cast?
Ivan: It’s chalk and cheese. I think the script attracted the right people, they came with their open hearts and generosity so it was like there was a friendship established with all the actors. Directing just became an unconscious thing where there’s no contrivance on either end, it was a very organic process. The whole thing was very organic and we were all on the same level, which enabled the creative process to flow.
TOM: Aaron, what made you passionate about bringing Jay to the screen? You seem to have a penchant for law enforcers, is that a co-incidence?
Aaron: It is co-incidental. Better to be the cop than the criminal. Better to be the lawyer than the victim. It’s good to represent people who aren’t represented. It’s one of the things I always fall for because it’s changing the face of Australian television. This is really no different. I’ve played cops before in teams, but the beautiful thing about this is that he was out there by himself. There’s total isolation.
Ivan: He’s a lone wolf.
Aaron: A lone wolf. He walks on his own land, in his small community. I van had obviously seen a lot of my work on TV and thought that I was the right person for the job because I bring all the technique already. Most actors get better with age so there’s a beautiful thing with it – I think most storytellers get better with age. It was never anything that I was concerned about. The beauty of it is the irony of the place he was in and the fact that the two worlds really did exist. The community was against him – the white community and the indigenous community. In a way there’s a third community, the cops, and they didn’t like him either. I like his soul, I loved the fact that Ivan let me input a lot of my own thoughts into it. I came loaded up being an indigenous man from my own country, I knew what he was writing and shooting and how he was capturing his piece. This is two young warriors from their own nations trying to tell a story.
TOM: What was so unique about the town of Winton that made it perfect for Mystery Road?
Ivan: The variation was the original attraction. It’s beautiful and it’s dangerous.
Aaron: The distance was amazing wasn’t it.
Ivan: Yeah – because the whole area, you can just jump up and see for 200kms, so it’s incredibly strong and that’s what I wanted. That location basically turned the film into a Western as well because originally it was going to be filmed in cotton country, Moree. It totally changed the whole concept.
Aaron: It’s isolation too, you have to drive distances, Jay’s always in the car getting places. He was tracking this wide space for footprints and for clues so it made it so much more complicated and so much harder. It was like a massive jigsaw puzzle.
TOM: Did the location help you find your character?
Aaron: Of course it did. I come from Alice Springs, from large horizons and big skies and I come from cowboy country. I’d always wanted to do a Western, I don’t know whether Ivan was reading my thoughts. But I had wanted to do something that had a Western base to it, a cowboy look to it, with Alice Springs in mind. But we did that with Winton.
TOM: Ivan, you do your own cinematography as well as writing, directing and editing – why do you like to do the whole lot yourself?
Ivan: Because I started that way. I wasn’t planning on shooting this but the Director of Photography fell through so it was last minute.
Aaron: I begged him to.
Ivan: For me filmmaking is a very simple and natural process. I started with picking up the camera and shooting docos before I went to film school and I didn’t really know about the other way of doing it. So when I went to film school they said ‘you can’t hold the camera, you need a camera student’. So that affected my first few short films and my first feature, but after that I was back on track. I also love that it becomes more intimate because it’s just me and the camera, and them (actors). There’s such a trust asset. We’re in the trenches together.
TOM: Aaron you seem to be a big advocate of Ivan taking on those multiple roles.
Aaron: I learnt a lot from this because there were no departmental issues. The writer didn’t have a problem with the DOP, the DOP didn’t have a problem with the Director, because they’re all one person! If he had any arguments you would’ve have known it. But we were side by side on this whole thing. As an actor, what a blessing it was to be asked what my contribution might be. Ivan’s an amazing skipper, the ship never went down, the crew loved him – he was a bit of a demigod.
TOM: To finish off, the subject matter of the film is quite sensitive – is it important to you that the subject matter be further discussed because of Mystery Road, and do you think enough is being done about these issues in indigenous communities?
Aaron: Well I think these things exist in the white community too, so it’s a matter of how relevant it is. It’s relavent to us because our culture’s been decimated and this is the by-product. There’s great culture out there, but this is what’s brought us all down.
Ivan: Every film you make brings an awareness to the topic, but what goes on after that isn’t really my job. Our job is to document the issue in a theatrical, cinematic way and then it’s there. People know about it. So then we move onto the next thing and document that. Every film makes a difference, and without awareness you’ve got nothing. So that’s important for us.
Aaron: We need to change and help each other heal. Maybe that’s what it’s all about.
