Karrabing Film Collective

The Karrabing Film Collective is a grassroots Indigenous based media group who uses filmmaking, screenings and publications to provide a means of self-organization and social analysis for the Karrabing. The collective was formed in 2008 as a response to the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act (aka “The Intervention”), which was largely abhorred by the Indigenous communities in the area. The word “karrabing” itself means both “low tide” in the Emmiyengal language and a form of collectivity that exists outside an official government.

To Karrabing, the medium of film is a form of survivance – a refusal to relinquish their country and a means of investigating contemporary social conditions of inequality. The films represent their lives, create bonds with their land, and intervene in global images of Indigeneity. Through this process, the collective allows audiences to understand new forms of collective Indigenous agency.

Since their founding, Karrabing has produced eight creative nonfiction/fiction films, five short commissioned films, and a series of installations accompanying screenings in multiple galleries, biennales, and film festivals throughout the world.