Two Laws

The concept of two laws, being colonial and Indigenous law, can also be spoken about as two ways of storytelling. This landmark documentary delves into what two laws stand for; two ways of being and two ways of perceiving. Made collaboratively by the Borroloola Tribal Council and filmmakers Carolyn Strachan and Alessandro Cavadini, it tells of an awful moment of police and judicial brutality in the 1930s in the Northern Territory. It is very much an Aboriginal-structured film, using scripted moments and re-enactments yet shot wide-angle, from a seated position among a circle of people, in visual sync with Indigenous storytelling traditions. Challenging Western filmmaking conventions, Two Laws remains a groundbreaking work of nonfiction cinema, forty years on.