Do we like Warwick Thornton?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent on the record and on the right side, with a thin file on some topics; one provocative remark in 2010 is the only blip.
Warwick Thornton is a Kaytetye man born in Alice Springs in 1970, who grew up at Barrow Creek. His mum, Freda Glynn, co-founded the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), and he became a DJ there at 14, which led to camera traineeships. He has said he picked up a camera because he knew he had to do something.
That path took him from the desert to Cannes. His first feature, Samson and Delilah, won the Caméra d'Or in 2009, and Sweet Country later picked up the Special Jury Prize at Venice and the Platform Prize at Toronto. He has since made The New Boy and the documentary We Don't Need a Map.
The nearest thing to a stoush is a 2010 one. As an Australian of the Year finalist, he said the Southern Cross risked becoming “the new swastika”, because he saw it taking on an us-against-them meaning in some right-wing uses. It drew heated debate, and he said he wanted that conversation before it actually happened. He later made We Don't Need a Map about the symbol. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a warning or as a provocation.
On the harm check, we found nothing nasty. Searches on LGBTQ+ people, women, climate and politics turned up no harmful statements and no donations to or campaigns for anyone pushing harm. His recent work is with Bunya Productions, and Wolfram's cast includes Deborah Mailman. He told the ABC he voted yes in the Voice referendum and was writing a film about the day of the result. He called it “an incredibly angry movie”. The record on some topics is thin, and we're saying so.
Wolfram is the recent big one. It's a 1930s colonial Western shot around Alice Springs, in which Aboriginal children escape forced work in a mine, and it draws on his great-grandmother's and co-writer David Tranter's grandmother's real history as child miners. Thornton said of the characters that they are not victims, they are survivors. It opened nationwide on 30 April.
Court records, lawsuits and allegations came up empty across several searches, so we have nothing to weigh against him on the nice test. He's no saint-in-a-hurry type to gush over, but the pattern is a working artist using his platform for his community. He passes both tests, with the caveat that the public file on his views is thin.