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Radiance

Rachel Perkins | Australia 1998 | 83 min

Three sisters reunite after some years apart, for their mother’s funeral.

Cressy, the eldest of the three, is a diva — an opera singer who is reluctant to visit the past and definitely doesn’t want to share it with her sisters.

Mae, has stayed behind looking after mum, and believes that Cressy hasn’t shared enough.

Nona, the youngest and the party girl, just wants them to all be one happy family. She may even help grow the family if her pregnancy test is accurate.

Deep and dark family secrets and personal conflicts start to unravel, but not all is gloom.

Cast Rachael Maza - Cressy
Trisha Morton-Thomas - Mae
Deborah Mailman - Nona
Release dates October 8th, 1998 - Australia
Video/DVD Release Date April 21, 1999 (e.g. at Mongrel Media)
Awards Best actress (1998 Australian Film Institute Awards)
Best film (1998 Australian International Film Festival)
Best sound design (1998 Australian Screen Sound Guild)
Best actress (1998 Film Critics' Circle of Australia)
Best feature film (1998 Sydney Film Festival)
Best full length film (1999 Creteil Film Des Femmes Festival)
Best actress (1999 Turin Film Festival Italy)
Best direction (2000 Tudawali Film and Video Awards)
Byron Kennedy Award (44th annual Emirates AFI Awards 2002)
Rating PG - Parental guidance
Language level medium
Distributor Polygram Filmed Entertainment (AUS); Beyond Films (international)
Soundtrack Alistair Jones
Genre Drama
Notes

Based on the stage play “Radiance” by Louis Nowra first performed in 1993 at the Belvoir Street Theatre.

According to Amanda Meade in ‘Shifting Visions’, The Australian, Monday, June 1998, Radiance is the third feature to be made by an Aboriginal person—-and only the second to get a theatrical release. (Source: Bonza film database)

Other films by Rachel Perkins:
Freedom Ride (1993)
One Night The Moon (2001)
First Australians (2008)
Bran Nue Dae (Brand new day) (2010)
Mabo (2012)

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