This year's Penn Museum's Second Sunday Culture Films, The Family Tree, explore family, ancestry, and connections as they take on different shapes and meanings, depending on geography, heritage, and culture. In what ways do values of the “family tree” manifest? And how do their common traits surprise and humble us?
We Don’t Need a Map
(dir. Warwick Thornton, 2017, 85 min., Australia)
For Aboriginal people, the Southern Cross constellation is part of the origin story of all families. But, recently, the same set of stars has been co-opted as a symbol of white nationalism, exclusion, and anti-immigration sentiment. Thornton’s humorous and brilliant essay-film traces Australia’s colonial and recent history to address this conflict of values.
Remarks by Julia Alekseyeva (English, Cinema and Media Studies, Penn) following the film.
Cosponsored by CAMRA, the Cinema and Media Studies Program, and the Wolf Humanities Center.
