My Name is Gulpilil
MY NAME IS GULPILIL
21The other day I watched the Netflix 2021 documentary called "My name is Gulpilil". The film covers Gulpilil's acting career, his life in Murray Bridge, the cancer, alcohol addiction, and his various marriages and relationships, and wow what an amazing documentary and an amazing man he was!
The name Gulpilil meaning "Kingfisher".
The documentary was shot in 2017 with the expectation that Gulpilil (who died in November 2021) would not live much longer. The use of Gulpilil's name in the title, potentially problematic in Aboriginal culture after his death, was a deliberate choice by the actor.
David Gulpilil was a legendary Yolngu actor, a First Nations person of Northern Australia, born around 1953. The local missionaries gave him his birthdate of July 1, 1953, just as they gave him his Christian name David, although he admits he liked that name from the start. His last name, Gulpilil, was a totem, the kingfisher. He'd never seen a white person until he was 8 when he visited the mission school, but he never really allowed them to teach him anything.
In 1969, the British film director Nicolas Roeg, scouting locations in the Outback, appeared at a mission in the north and asked if anyone knew a boy who can throw a spear, who can hunt, and who can dance, and everyone pointed at David.
David's easy smile made him a natural, and it quickly became obvious that he was unlike anyone the white man had met in the outback. He was not reserved or suspicious of strangers, and carried song on his lips and rhythm in his legs. David Gulpilil was fearless.
My Name Is Gulpilil (2021), filmed while dying of terminal lung cancer, that he never acted, that acting wasn't something he had to do because it was natural. "I know how to walk across the land in front of a camera, because I belong there," Standing on stage, before a camera, or before the Queen of England, David felt comfortable in his own skin whether it was barely dressed in a loin cloth, or stuffed into the white man's dinner jacket.
When he'd been discovered, he spoke no English, though he knew a few dialects of the First People's language, and he was such a quick learner. He began picking up English while just listening during the making of the film, Walkabout, and afterwards as he travelled about the world.
Some information about David:
Full Name: David Dhalatnghu Gulpilil
Born: 1 July 1953
Best known for films: Walkabout, Storm Boy, Crocodile Dundee, Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Tracker.
I Give the documentary **** 4/5 stars I highly recommend checking it out!!!
PEACE X
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