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CALL ME MUM (2005)


76 minute drama from Big and Little Films

Directed by Margot Nash

Written by Kathleen Mary Fallon

Produced by Michael McMahon

 

When Kate decides to reunite her Torres Strait Islander foster son with his birth mother, dangerous family and racial tensions surface.

 

Kate is on a plane taking Warren, her 18 year old Torres Strait Islander foster son, to meet Flo, his birth mother, who is gravely ill in hospital in Brisbane. Flo hasn’t seen

Warren since she took him to the hospital on Thursday Island when he was a toddler and the white authorities took him away. But as Warren, Flo and Kate all prepare themselves for the reunion, unbeknown to them, Kate’s Brisbane based parents, Keith and Dellmay, are planning a different kind of reunion.

 

Set in the recent past, Call Me Mum is a series of interlinked monologues where five characters unravel a complex tale of mothering, race relations and family in Australia.

 

PURCHASE A COPY OF THE FILM from Ronin Films

Review: Call Me Mum by Adrian Martin

FESTIVALS, SCREENINGS and AWARDS

2023 Unknown Pleasures - Thornbury Picture House July 18 Q&A Filmmakers

2017, 2018, 2019 NITV broadcast plus SBS On Demand
2016 NITV broadcast plus SBS On Demand
2009 European Association of Studies of Australia 10th Biennial Conference Palma Spain, Seen and Heard: Festival of Women’s films, Sydney

2008 Sydney Writers Festival (21st & 22nd May) – The Edge (Blue Mountains) Bangarra Theatre.

IAPL (International Association of Philosophy and Literature) Conference, Melbourne

Adoption Symposium Monash University

2007  AFI Awards: Best Supporting Actress Television Drama (Vicki Saylor), Outstanding Achievement in Screen Craft Television (Paddy Reardon)

AFI Nominations:  Best Actress Television Drama (Catherine McClements) , Best Supporting Actress Television Drama (Lynette Curran)

Cinema des Antipodes, Saint Tropez, France

Ordinary Lives - Narratives of Disability University of South Australia

Créteil International Women’s Film Festival 2007 (in competition)

NAIDOC week screening Australian Embassy Paris

Adelaide Film Festival 2007 (official selection)

ANZJA Conference Sydney

2006  Shortlisted New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards

Nominated for the AWGIES (Australian Writers’ Guild script awards)

Sydney Film Festival (official selection)

Winnipeg Film Festival, Canada (in competition)

Female Eye Festival, Canada (Closing Night feature film; nominated for Best in Show)

Young at Heart Festival, Sydney,

Townsville Cultural Centre, Genres of History Conference ANU

CRITICS REVIEWS

“Call Me Mum is among the finest of recent Australian films, and certainly one of the most affecting and resonant.”

- Adrian Martin, The Monthly, February 2007

 

“Margot Nash is to be applauded for taking on Kathleen Mary Fallon’s unique story and giving it a very special life.”

 

“Fallon’s vision has been subtly shaped by Nash’s own, closing in on the characters and defining their realities through Andrew de Groot’s camera and Patrick Reardon’s production design, and their carefully scaled gradation of these worlds from the real to the almost illusory.”

 

“In a narrow, naturalistic feature film culture it’s critical that other voices be heard, other visions seen. Call Me Mum is a finely crafted and disturbing venture into the politics of race and the possibilities of filmmaking.”

- Keith Gallasch, RealTime August/September 2006

 

“Call Me Mum weaves together a journey home with a coming-of-age story in an experimental narrative that engages with the politics of the Stolen Generations”.

 - Felicity Collins - A Proper Sorry Film - Metro Magazine, October 2006

 

“The theatrical monologues are offset by the beauty of the design and overall direction, creating a genuinely cinematic work. More importantly, there is nothing tentative or sentimental about the film: it clearly details the realities of stolen kids, and it aches along with its characters.”

- Bill Mousoulis, Senses of Cinema, September 2006

 

“The film is a ‘must see’ for all Australians, especially people from the Torres Strait and their descendants, family and friends.”

– The Koori Mail, November 2006

FURTHER INFORMATION

Broadcast: SBS May 6th and Dec 9th 2007 and Sept 1st 2010

Distribution: Ronin Films

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