For half a century people across the world have admired and loathed the works of Richard Bell - a man who is so unapologetically Black, that whether you love or hate him, you can't forget him.
Coming to cinemas on January 26 is YOU CAN GO NOW, a confronting and uncomfortable documentary experience that depicts the life and provocative work and writings of artist and proud Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang man, Richard Bell.
The film reveals the 'two Richards'–'Richie' the provocateur and enfant terrible of the art world who challenges its colonial standards, and the Richard who spent his childhood living in a tin shed, learnt his politics on the streets of Redfern, and is a well known and respected activist among his community.
50 years of Black activism spanning across the world to decolonise the minds of the masses is shared through the lens of Richard Bell.
YOU CAN GO NOW was produced by Madman Entertainment and written/directed by proud Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman Professor Larissa Behrendt, an award-winning filmmaker, novelist and writer with a passion for telling the stories of Indigenous Australia.
Appointed Distinguished Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, she has a legal background and is an experienced researcher.
Professor Behrendt won the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Award for best Direction of a Documentary Film for After The Apology and the 2020 MCTA for Best Direction in Factual Television for her documentary, Maralinga Tjarutja.
Her latest work with Richard Bell is nothing short of brilliant and thought provoking.
The National Indigenous Times had the opportunity to speak with Uncle Richie regarding his role within the film and the impact it has.
He explained he agreed to have the film made depicting his life 10-15 years ago and they have been compiling it since.
"I didn't want to go to film school so I started making my own," he said.
"Because in the future I'm looking to make more of my own films and they only way we can do that is to get credits."
During the film we are introduced to the site of Bell's former tin shed dwelling in Mitchell which was destroyed and evacuated, leaving Bell and his family with no option but to live in a previously condemned home deemed unsafe for living.
"Going back there for the first time, it was pretty emotional. I hadn't been there for 50 years. I went looking for the ruins because I knew those lazy white f***s wouldn't take away all the rubbish.
"I was 14 at the time, woke up one morning and people said they were there to bulldoze my home.
"This was about 7:30am and by 9:30 we were out of there."
The documentary continues to bring light to the path Bell and his peers carved for future generations through various political movements.
YOU CAN GO NOW is more than a biography about an important artist, Professor Behrendt said.
"By incorporating the key ideas of Richards polemic, Bell's Theorem, the film is a critique of the 'Aboriginal Art industry' which Richard provocatively claims 'is a white thing.'
"This is a powerful challenge to the lucrative art industry, a call for its decolonisation."
After the 1967 referendum received over-whelming support but resulted in little change in the lived experience of First Nations people, a new era of unapologetic activism emerged in Australia, epitomised by the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in1972 of which Bell was a part.
Mr Bell's solutions, articulated in his creative works and in his writings, are direct:
"Treat Aboriginal Art as its own art movement. Ask us what we Want. Give Back the land that was Stolen. YOU CAN GO NOW."
See artist Richard Bell and director Larissa Behrendt at a Q&A screening before the release.
NSW
- Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, January 24th, 6:30pm.
- Dendy Newtown, January 24th, 8:00pm
ACT
- National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, January 25th, 6:00pm.
