Zach's Ceremony is an Australian coming of age documentary film. It looks at the transition to adulthood from an indigenous cultural perspective. It features Zach Doomadgee and his father Alec Doomadgee.
| Zach's Ceremony | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Aaron Petersen |
| Written by | Sarah Linton |
| Starring | Zac Doomadgee, Alec Doomadgee |
Release dates | 2 May 2016 (2016-05-02) Canada, (Hot Docs International Documentary Festival) 11 June 2016 (2016-06-11)Australia, (Sydney Film Festival) 7 August 2016 (2016-08-07), Australia, (Melbourne International Film Festival) |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
The film looks at what it means to be an indigenous Australian and Zach Doomadgee's cultural journey. Zach who is of indigenous and Caucasian descent is influenced by two cultures.[1] It also looks at how Zach is affected by being one of the few Indigenous children at his Sydney school, being too dark. It also looks at his being too light-skinned when he visits his father's community in far-north Queensland.[2]
Alec Doomadgee played a major part in the film in both direction and production.[3] The film was shown at New York's Margaret Mead Film Festival.[4]
The film was begin in 2009 when Zach was aged around 10.[5]
It was announced by FilmInk that the documentary would open across Australia from Thursday 30 March, 2016, and screen at Cinema Nova in Carlton, Victoria.[6]
At the Byron Bay Film Festival, Zach's Ceremony along with Brendan Shoebridge's film, The Bentley Effect took the top awards. Alec Doomadgee was also winner of the Festival’s Best Documentary Award.[7] It also won Best documentary awards at both the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival.[8]