The Producers

Nicole Ma is an award-winning director/producer of new media for Yiwarra Kuju: Canning Stock Route Project and the inaugural exhibitions for the National Museum of Australia; and documentaries Dances of Ecstasy, Kurtal Snake Spirit and Be Happy Be Strong. Nicole began her filmmaking career in New York producing music videos for Whitney Houston, Sonic Youth and long-form concert films for Annie Lennox, Michael Bolton and Newport Jazz Festival. Her New York-based independent film company produced feature films Combination Platter (Sundance screenwriting award) and My Father is Coming. She worked as location manager on Malcom X (Spike Lee) and production manager on Haitian Corner (Raoul Peck). While based in New York, Nicole wrote and directed the experimental short Living Rooms funded by the New York State Council of the Arts. Putuparri and the Rainmakers is her first feature length documentary.

John Moore is one of Australia's leading documentary producers. His many film awards include best documentary at the Melbourne and Sydney Film Festivals for Black Man's Houses (1993) and the NSW Premier's History Award for Thomson of Arnhem Land in 2001. Abortion, Corruption & Cops was nominated for the Sydney Film Festival Dendy Awards in 2006 and the docu-dramas Menzies & Churchill at War and Monash were ratings winners on ABC TV in 2008. His most recent program Gallipoli From Above screened on ABC TV on the Centenary of Anzac Day in April 2015 and feature documentary Putuparri and the Rainmakers will premiere at MIFF in 2015 and be broadcast on NITV. He is currently working on Sperm Donors Anonymous for ABC TV.

Making The Film

At the heart of Putuparri is the story of a man caught between two worlds who finds redemption through the discovery of his traditional culture and the acceptance of his responsibility for passing it on. The underlying cultural philosophy, ‘if you take care of country it will take care of you,’ is made manifest through the rituals and ceremonies that ‘Spider’, Putuparri’s grandfather, performs. Central to their culture are the rainmaking ceremonies performed at Kurtal. These ceremonies are intended to influence the weather through a complex belief system about the spiritual inhabitants of the landscape, one that interweaves family, ancestors and the environment into a holistic cosmology. As town life takes precedence over traditional life for the young people of Putuparri's community, the passing away of the old people further undermines the transmission of their culture. For his culture to survive, Putuparri must learn to take care of 'country' and pass this knowledge on to the next generation.