Directed by Beck Cole
Karen (Shai Pittman) is a beautiful young woman, but she is a rough diamond with a dark past. Fresh out of prison, she knows she has made mistakes but she wants to turn her life around. Finding herself on the streets with no one to call for help, she makes her way to a shelter for women who are in the same predicament as herself. With the support of her new community of friends, Karen begins the journey of reconnecting with her mother and her daughter. But this is not going to be an easy journey as there are some difficult truths she needs to face up to along the way.
Writer/director Beck Cole lives in Alice Springs and is fascinated with the place of indigenous women in the world. She says ‘I strongly wanted to make a film about a family of women on the brink of no return. A family that has suffered loss, grief, anger and resentment but was glued together by love – and in this story love is a child.’ She worked with the creative team that was responsible for Sampson and Delilah (producer Kath Shelper and cinematographer Warwick Thornton) and used many non-actors for the film. Here I am was shot entirely in Port Adelaide, including the Adelaide Women’s Prison where the inmates painted the mural that appears on the wall in the counselling session.
Although the film is set in an Aboriginal community, stories about broken families and difficult relationships between mothers and daughters are universal. Cole points out that there are a disproportionate number of Aboriginal women in custody but ‘the story speaks beyond the realms of race and hopefully resonates with all of us as people capable and worthy of love and forgiveness.’ Here I Am is a moving story of strength, resilience and hope.
Lezly Herbert
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