Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy

Tracey Moffatt
Australia 1990
17 min

A middle aged Aboriginal woman nurses her old white mother. During her tending of the old woman we feel her frustrations of duty, her suppressed anger, her own need for warmth and love, her personal loneliness. Her memories and dreams invade her nerve fraying routine until the old woman dies and we share the daughter's immense sense of loss.

Shot entirely in a studio, the power of "Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy" lies in the artificially treated vibrantly coloured landscape and carefully constructed soundscape. The environment contributes another personality... an unbending, unchanging force.

Inspired by 'Jedda', Moffatt resurrects the two primary characters and propels them 30 years into the future, transforming the relationship between child and mother into carer and invalid.
(www.chilifilms.com.au)

"Night Cries" is about "loving and hating your mother", says Tracey Moffat.

Cast	Akira Fitzgerald Elizabeth Gentle Agnes Hardwick Marcia Langton Jimmy Little
Release dates	1987 - Australia
Video/DVD Release Date	not available
Awards	1990 Melbourne Film Festival, Best Australian Film 1990 Montreal Women's Film Festival, Best Short Tampere Short Film Festival, Special Jury Award
Rating	G - general
Language level	medium
Distributor	not available
Soundtrack	Jimmy Little
Genre	Drama
Notes	Tracey Moffat was born in 1960 and is an artist who works in both film and photography. Tracey also wrote a book, "Tracey Moffatt Fever Pitch", published in Sydney by Piper Press in 1996. Other movies by Tracey Moffatt: Bedevil (feature)