Synopsis

Gulpilil: One Red Blood is a documentary about the career of Aboriginal actor, dancer, and cultural delegate, David Gulpilil, using interview as well as archival footage.

David Gulpilil asked director Darlene Johnson to create One Red Blood, where on the set of The Tracker he speaks about Aboriginal philosophy which bridges the Aboriginal world view and Western sensibility.

The film follows Gulpilil into his dual life: as a renown actor in the spotlight and as an Aboriginal elder in his isolated community of Ramingining where his tribal status and relative affluence leads to social obligations. It is surprising how spartan Gulpilil lives.

With the title of the film – One Red Blood – Gulipilil wants to express the universal connectedness of all creatures within the same inhabitable world of the Dreaming, similar to the Eastern philosophical tradition of the presence of the Divine in all things.

Gulpilil: One Red Blood is a rare insight into both David Gulpilil's life beyond the acting, and into the Aboriginal world view, expressed by one of the great actors of Aboriginal Australia.

I was a young fair skinned Koori woman from the city and he was a fully traditional man from Arnhem Land. What a challenge!

— Darlene Johnson, director