Acclaimed Alice Springs director Warwick Thornton reveals next project on failed Voice referendum

Alice Springs based and globally acclaimed filmmaker Warwick Thornton has revealed his next project will focus on the rejected Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

The globally acclaimed Alice Springs director behind films including Samson and Delilah and The New Boy will make his next project about the failed Voice referendum.

Appearing on the ABC’s Creative Types, Warwick Thornton said the idea was sparked when he cast his vote in London last year.

“I thought, ‘The pen that I write Yes with, I’m going to steal it from the election commission, and if Australia says No, I’m going to use that pen to write a movie about that day’,” he said.

“And I’ve kept that pen and I’m writing a movie about that day, and it’s an incredibly angry movie.

“We’re still getting the scraps. We asked for Australia to walk with us. We asked to have that dialogue in parliament and Australia proceeded to feel … that they know better and said No.”

Deborah Mailman, Alice Springs actor Aswan Reid, Cate Blanchett, Warwick Thornton and Wayne Blair during a photocall for Thornton’s 2023 film, The New Boy, at the Cannes Film Festival. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

As Indigenous youth crime continues to plague his hometown, Thornton said measures like the emergency curfew would make no difference to the neglect, violence and racism that defined the young people’s lives.

“These kids are bored shitless – there aren’t enough community centres, they close at 6pm, there is never a long-term solution,” he said.

“There is no respect from a lot of these children but that comes from being treated like shit and that will be passed down.

“It’s generational, these kids, their parents are in their 20s and they saw the same crap, their grandparents are in their 30s and they saw the same crap.

“The authorities say, ‘Oh no why is this happening?’ It’s been happening for 50 years.”

Thornton said he wished policymakers and services would spend more time talking to young people.

“We should be asking them, ‘Why are you being such little shits?’ Talking to them is not a solution, but it’s a start.”