Aussie documentary on song as women take tunes ‘back home’
The Song Keepers (E, 84 mins) Directed by Naina Sen Reviewed by James Croot ★★★1⁄2
Fans of documentaries like Young@Heart and Hip Hoperation should check out this warm and fascinating look at the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir.
Naina Sen’s tale charmed many an audience during this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival and it’s easy to see why as this eclectic group of singers from the back-of-beyond embark on their ‘‘boomerang’’ trip to Germany. For most of the mainly mature, morethan-30-strong group, it’s their first time outside Australia, but the rebounding moniker they’ve dubbed their three-‘‘state’’, threeand-a-half-week tour with is because they are taking the tunes they are singing ‘‘back home’’.
Their programme consists of Western Arrernte and Pitjantjatjara-language versions of the hymns and other choral works taught to their ancestors by German Lutherian missionaries 140 years ago. Their joy in singing them is palpable and the women’s affections for those sometimes much-maligned church representatives is clear. Some speak of their kindness and another claims one minister helped prevent her family becoming part of the ‘‘stolen generation’’.
While the film does become a little bit of a travelogue and victory lap in its latter stages, it shines in its first half, as we meet genial Guyana-born choirmaster Morris Stuart and see the efforts required to bring the widely scattered choir together for practice (there’s a 10-hour trip by bush bus for some, not to mention the competing interests of dancing or cooking kangaroo tails).
Stuart is a delight, whether it’s throwing himself into his work, or mock-lamenting that ‘‘they all behave like they are my mothers even though I’m older than them’’.
A spirit-lifting treat.