The Dennis O'rourke Collection Vols 1 And 2
The Age
Thursday October 9, 2008
The Dennis O'Rourke Collection Vols 1 and 2
Shock, 333 min, MA, documentary, 1976-914/5Shock is releasing two box sets of the work of Australian filmmaker Dennis O'Rourke, from his first feature, Yumi Yet (1976), on Papua New Guinea's achievement of independence, to his complex and still-controversial exploration of the life of Aoi, a Thai prostitute, The Good Woman of Bangkok (1991). There are four films in each set, plus a bonus feature in which O'Rourke speaks about his work, often reflecting in a wry fashion on the role that chance plays in what he has captured. The films are all engrossing, confronting and remarkably open explorations of subject, process, culture, self and viewer. Ileksen, his film about the first PNG election, is a wonderful portrait of the paradoxes of the democratic process; Couldn't Be Fairer, made in collaboration with Mick Miller, is a still-devastating portrait of Aboriginal Australia; Cannibal Tours, about tourist engagement with other cultures, is also a wry examination of the documentary process; and The Good Woman of Bangkok remains one of the most challenging of documentaries.DVD extras include: O'Rourke on O'Rourke
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