Gendered Voice In One Night The Moon

Good morning/afternoon/evening/day to you all, I am honoured to be here in front of all of you today, at the Australian Film Institute, in front of many respected and hard-working English teachers. I appreciate the effort for all of you to come here and for us to discuss distinctive voices in the film that I directed, ‘One Night the Moon’. My purpose in directing and releasing the film ‘One Night the Moon’ is to highlight the systematic discrimination and racism inflicted upon Aboriginal people and minorities and its negative effect on our society. In the film ‘One Night the Moon’, there are several voices that helps draw the viewers into the experiences of others and allow different perspectives to be explored in my film.

Today I will be
discussing the main distinctive voices in our film, which is the spiritual voice, the cultural voice and the gendered voice. I have decided to use these three main voices because these voices are portrayed by a number of characters in the film, giving us a deeper understanding of someone’s perspectives on certain issues and aspects of life.

The Spiritual voice is probably the most abstract voice in the whole film, because this involves understanding how Aboriginal and White people connect with the land. We go from the normal to the supernatural. The main character I have chosen to explore for spiritual voices is Albert Yang and the setting and landscape in which this story has taken place. The Long shot in Scene 2 of Albert walking in the outback shows his connection with the landscape, and serves as a subtle yet powerful reminder of the spiritual association Albert has with the land, hence it appears that the Spiritual voice of the land is communicating with the spiritual voice that Albert holds. I have also chosen a song to be part of the film, called “This land is mine.” With a wide shot and a tracking shot, this scene depicts Albert walking with familiarity of the land while singing, signifying the identity of the land Albert has chosen to respect. However, the land from Jim’s view is a typical portrayal of white settlers who historically came to Australia as a result of colonisation. Jim views the land as ‘property’ and claims ownership of the land, having a businesslike connection to the land. These views are completely different. As you can see from Albert’s perspective, I used a close up shot of Jim’s face whilst saying “No blacks on my land”, and slight sudden pan at the same time to make clear the facial expressions of Jim at finding out that Albert is a police officer. This sudden outburst of hate and spite against Albert prompts one of the police officers who represent non-prejudicial white people to interject saying “Excuse me sir, this is Albert’s country”. The acknowledgement from a white person that the land is Albert’s country proves that with understanding, we can see two sides of a coin and promote more goodwill in our society, which is what I intended to make clear in the film ‘One Night the Moon.’

The second significant voice featured in my film is the cultural voice. As already mentioned earlier, the perception of certain things is influenced by one’s culture. The major problem with modern day Australia is that even today, there is a lack of understanding between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals due to cultural differences and different perspectives. What I have included in the film is the misjudgement of Jim’s cultural beliefs and his own culture and beliefs. In the beginning of the film I deliberately put together a musical piece, its purpose depicting the foreshadowing of Jim’s suicide. Well, one of the songs I’ve chosen to be featured in the film is a song called ‘I don’t know anything, anymore.’ by Paul Kelly. One of the lines in the song is “Once I knew what was wrong and right God was good. Black was never white.” This peculiar sentence grasps the confrontation of one’s mistakes and wrongdoing. You can clearly see here that Jim Ryan questions everything he knows. The Contrast of ‘Once I knew what was wrong and right’ gives an ambiguous meaning due to his use of past tense and his vague but clear message, further hinting at his deteriorating spirit. During this scene I decided to film him bending over to look in a kitchen cabinet, the mid shot, and non diegetic sound of an acoustic piece in the background, which afterwards he pulls out an open palm with a bullet in it, with the special effect of slow motion. All of these factors help us to understand what it means to be confronted with something, when the person thought everything they did was alright. The other significant cultural voice featured in the film is from the Aboriginal perspective, mainly from the character Albert Yang. Song and music is also utilised to represent the cultural voice from the Aboriginal perspective, as music is at the heart of the Aboriginal culture and often music is a gateway to knowledge passed down and stories unique to Aboriginal culture. In the film ‘One Night the Moon’ diegetic sound and split lighting is utilised for a scene in which a group of Aboriginals sit in a circle, in a sing-along inside a dilapidated hut. The community spirit in the scene is obvious and represents the confident mentality of the Aboriginal people, even if they are being underestimated by the white people, I also wanted to include them having a get - together in a dilapidated hut because historically they lived in bad housing, but they had high spirits, even in hard times. The collective spirit in a positive way makes the Aboriginal people in the film more open to others when compared to Jim’s mentality. So, the Cultural Voice often allows different perspectives to be explored in a single text, as presented in my film ‘One Night the Moon.’

The final voice I will be speaking about today is the gendered voice.
Throughout my film I wanted to include gendered voices to see different perspectives between the genders. Throughout the film, ‘One Night the Moon’, the male and female voice has influenced the characters decisions and the outcomes as a result. The female gendered voice, mainly portrayed by Rose. Throughout the film her voice has been largely ignored or suppressed, but her decision to reach Albert without her husband knowing, led to the discovery of Emily’s corpse. This is shown through the utilisation of music and song to represent the emotions of a person. In scene five, after Rose confronts Albert who entered her house without her knowledge, sits back down to do her crocheting, with the song in the background “What do you know?” by M Hannan, D Hannan, P Kelly and K Carmody. The last line of the first verse is ‘What do you know?, What do you see?’ Rhetorical Question is utilised to evoke the sudden epiphany that Albert may have knowledge that maybe Rose or Jim might not have. The non - diegetic sound and the soft front light shows Rose’s gaining curiosity about finding out about what happened to Emily and her fear of discovering something that could devastate her. As we all know, every parent cares for their child, no matter what. No difference here with Rose. The other gendered voice, that had a subtle but a major impact was the voice of Albert’s wife. I decided not to give her a name in the film, not
because she was a secondary character, but also to acknowledge the strength that an everyday mother and wife has for their families. In the very last chapter of the film ‘One Night the Moon’ Emily’s funeral takes place, with Albert and his wife attending. Throughout the film she is portrayed as a caring person who doesn’t say much and tends to her family. In Emily’s funeral however, we see Albert and Albert’s wife standing next to him singing a Christian hymn called ‘O breath of life’ over Emily’s grave. Medium shot and panning is utilised in the scene to capture the sorrow over Emily’s death, but on a positive note within this whole scenario is that Albert’s wife has unified in a sense the Aboriginal and white community together on which could’ve been a bridge built a long time ago but now a bridge built too late. Also, The gendered voice helps the responder to bring know the different experiences and perspectives through the distinctive voices of characters in the film.

All in all, my film ‘One Night the Moon’ has successfully manage to draw the responder into the experiences of others and see issues from another perspective through spiritual, cultured and gendered voices.
Spiritual voices through the passionate views of the land from Albert and Jim, the cultured voice shown through how the Aboriginal people and the White people handle confrontations and have different cultures that clash, and finally the gendered voice where often the female voice especially is not at the forefront of the issues but is more subtle than the other voices throughout the film. My intention in directing this film is that I wanted to portray problems in our society through the camera lens and the possible solutions to the problems. Through the film I hope people will look at themselves and say to themselves ‘Is that how I treat other people?’ Or ‘Does these types of issues still persist today?’ And I hope that all of you English teachers alike will understand, take this to the next level and pass on the message to your students, because at the end of the day today’s children are Australia’s
future.