It’s a rare thing for a school to secure direct engagement with the creator of a current text studied at the Year 12 level for VCE English, but that’s what happened at the St Kilda Road Campus last term when our students spent an hour with film director Stephen Maxwell Johnson as part of this year’s PQS program.
His 2020 film High Ground has been a fixture in our curriculum for the past three years.
Starring Simon Baker, Jack Thompson and a host of magnificent Yolngu actors, the film is a revisionist Western set in post-WWI Arnhem Land that tells a story of Indigenous resistance in the face of colonial power.
Stephen got his start in the film industry making rock videos for Yothu Yindi, having gone to school with the group while growing up in Arnhem Land.
‘I wanted High Ground to be my first film. I wanted to tell the story about Indigenous resistance to colonialism, but no one was interested,’ he said. ‘Telling the story about the massacres just wasn’t accepted as being real. I had to make films about other stories, and eventually, 20 years later, I got to make the film.’
Knowing the film intimately, the Year 12s eagerly asked Stephen a range of small and big questions about it, captivated by his reflections and the fascinating behind-the-scenes details he shared.
‘Stephen's talk was insightful, educational and an incredible learning experience for the whole cohort,’ said PQS Prefect Tim. ‘Furthering our understanding after expressing our own interpretation of the film was an eye-opening experience for us all.'
