Lady Lash + My Survival as an Aboriginal

Join us for a double feature of Lady Lash and My Survival As An Aboriginal, featuring an in-conversation with Lady Lash star, Crystal Clyne Mastosavvas, and producer Rochelle 'Rocky' Humphrey, moderated by NITV/SBS broadcaster, Kerri-Lee Harding.

Lady Lash (2020, dir. Rochelle Humphrey)

Meet Lady Lash, a Kokatha and Greek MC, who returns to her ancestral lands for women’s business.

Lady Lash is the alter ego of Crystal Clyne Mastosavvas, a Kokatha woman with Greek ancestry who has carved out a successful career in the male-dominated Melbourne hip hop scene. Lady Lash follows Crystal as she returns to Country seeking self growth and connection after living in Melbourne for decades.

The documentary's star, Crystal Clyne Mastosavvas, will appear in-conversation after the screening with producer Rochelle 'Rocky' Humphrey and Bindal, Juru and Koa woman Kerri-Lee Harding - SBS/NITV Executive Producer of Radio and Podcasts.

My Survival as an Aboriginal (1979, dir. Essie Coffey)

The first documentary directed by an Aboriginal woman, Essie Coffey’s work endures as an invaluable piece of Australian and film history.

“Without this family, you wouldn’t have Essie Coffey to deal with,” our narrator and writer/director Essie Coffey informs the audience as she proudly presents the people most important to her. It’s through this personal and intimate lens that she introduces us to her family and through them, her history in My Survival as an Aboriginal. The first documentary directed by an Aboriginal woman, it’s impossible to separate the discourse around the film from its historical significance as it truly was a game changer in terms of Own Voices representation on screen.

Its impact, not just locally within Australia and the Indigenous communities it portrayed, but internationally as it reached a global audience through the film festival circuit, was invaluable. An activist, advocate and storyteller, Coffey’s family become the entry point for the personal and painful story of her people as she dissects the impact of Colonisation on the oldest living civilisation on the planet. Unflinching in its depiction of life for Indigenous Australians in the 1970s, it’s also imbued with her signature humour as she examines what was, what is, and what could be in a voice that is uniquely and distinctly her own.

Presented in association with the National Film and Sound Archive’s digital restoration program – NFSA Restores: Reviving our cinema icons.