From Tambay A. Obenson of Shadow And Act: Cinema of the African Diaspora:
Described as Australia’s answer to Harold and Kumar, as well as Cheech And Chong, and also Australia’s first indigenous comedy feature film, Stone Bros stars Aboriginal actors Luke Carroll and Leon Burchill, and is directed by Richard J Frankland.
The movie was released in Australian cinemas in September, 2009 and is now making its debut in the USA, viaiTunes, as I’ve been informed.
Previously profiled on this blog, the synopsis for the pot-fueled road-trip reads:
Sick of the city life and their dead end jobs, primo-stoner Charlie and his up-tight cousin Eddie decide it’s time to reconnect with their homegrown roots. Taking off in a beat-up Ford they spark it up on a spiritual journey across the Australian Outback to find and return a sacred stone, which Charlie lost in a blaze of confusion. To succeed they will have to survive a series of hilarious encounters with a demonically possessed dog, a depressed drag queen, a jilted ex-lover, a soul-searching cop, and a deadly spider that has come along for the ride. Only one thing is for certain, it’s going to be a blast!
While I can’t say that I’m looking forward to seeing it (I’m not really a fan of stoner comedies), I’ll check it out eventually. It’s not everyday that one gets to see an Aboriginal stoner comedy.
When asked in THIS interview, why there haven’t been more Aboriginal comedies, the director replied with this:
Essentially we’ve been in a situation where in the early 1990s there were some 10,000 hours of film footage with Aboriginal content or subject matter, and over 90 per cent of that was written, directed and produced by non-indigenous people. So Wal Saunders began the Australian Film Commission’s Indigenous Branch in 1993, with the support of Cathy Robinson who was the then CEO. And it went through the roof. That was the renaissance in my opinion of indigenous filmmaking. There have been individuals before who’ve stepped out, but all of a sudden both Warwick Thornton and I did that first [mentored] program, Sand to Celluloid, and now here we are doing feature films. So I think both Cathy and Wal deserve to be commended for what they did. It was absolutely courageous and so needed. It essentially changed the cultural landscape of Australia.
He also added that we’re about to see many more indigenous filmmakers making feature films, saying that it’s going to be fantastic, and he’s really excited about what’s to come.
In recent years, we’ve profiled indigenous films like Warwick Thornton’s Samson & Delilah, and Rachel Perkins’ musical Bran Nue Dae, to name a few.
Check out the trailer for Stone Bros. below, and, if so inclined, look for it now on iTunes.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idVcyXHrq1I&w=560&h=315]
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