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This broadcast is a made for primetime Australian TV series. It has been hailed as being a landmark achievement for the Aboriginal filmmakers.
The series consists of 6 slightly connected dramas. They follow the lives of indigenous families of today experiencing life inside inner-city Sydney. There is a precinct within Redfern known as 'The Block' and this is where the story is set. The Block is well-known as being the center for Aboriginal policital activism.
Redfern Now is the first among any TV series ever commissioned to be acted in, produced, and written by indigenous Australians. These are very unique stores and extremely rare. Aboriginal communities will take audiences to places they have never been before. This was the view of Sally Riley (head of ABC's indigenous dept.) who actually commissioned this project. Many people have told her they never knew that such a world ever existed.
The addition of Riley happened two years ago. There was a demand for getting more indigenous content onto the TV. She noted that some progress had already been made in films like 'The Saphires' and 'Samson and Delilah'. However, up until this time the showing of any small-screen indiginous dramas was marginal at best.
She had a $5 million dollar per year budget so she sent off an email to a Liverpudlian screenwriter named Jimmy McGovern whose name is connected to 'Cracker'. He put in several months of intense work alongside the Aboriginal writers in order to help shape the stories that made up Redfern Now.
Riley stated that she approached Mr. McGovern in part because she believed he held a solid grasp of issues that influenced the working-class communities and marginalized cultures. He has an offbeat sense of humor that actually fits in quite nicely with the sense of humor of the Aborigines. It's the type of humor that enables you to laugh through all the adversity because otherwise you would be crying.
Riley hopes to bring the indigenous films and TV programs into a more modern and edgier territory. She is currently working on a couple of indigenous comedies. They will launch on ABC next year. One of them is a comedy sketch by the name of 'Don't be afraid of the darkies'.
By any account Redfern Now appears to be as hard-hitting as most anything ever done by McGovern before. The episodes cover areas of fractured families, mental health, and daily hardships experienced in the inner-city lifestyle. If focuses on plenty of actors that until now were previously unknown. It also includes some actors that already existed and were well-known Aboriginal stars.
The Sapphires was what launched Deborah Mailman into international fame. She plays the leading role in Redfern Now (one episode). She believes the mainstream Australian drama will give good insight into how the Aboriginal communities live like never before.
Redfern Now's success will not be measured so much by rating numbers as by how it made it into primetime at all. This 6-part series has also unearthed and brought with it an entire generation of indigenous storytellers.
Dalton does not anticipate Redfern Now to be the top rated show of the year for them. It is filling in the spot left by a popular show called 'Rake'. When the call for ideas went out in September of 2011 from indigenous writers that was when Redfern Now came to be.
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