The Karrabing Film Collective, Fourth Cinema, and Radical Ecologies of Solidarity

Karrabing Film Collective is a group of over 50 Indigenous members based in Australia’s Northern Territory, as well as one non-Indigenous member, the American anthropologist Elizabeth A. Povinelli. The name “karrabing” means “tide out” in the Emmiyengal language and represents the northwest coastline of Australia, where most of the Collective reside. The Collective creates films and media projects as a form of grassroots collective organizing that harnesses film, media, and art installations as a critique of the lasting impact of settler colonialism and capitalism on the lives of occupied Indigenous communities. The Collective’s work is not easily categorized as documentary or fiction, but rather a hybrid form that invokes ancestors, animals, dreaming, and everyday life to challenge state institutions and the exploitation of Indigenous people. Their approach is one they call “improvisational realism” that fosters a loose filmmaking atmosphere and non-linear narratives, where members of the collective develop the plot and dialogue as they go, based on their everyday experiences. This essay explores several films from the Collective, arguing that their work is a form of Fourth Cinema that is made by Indigenous filmmakers that represents and engenders radical ecologies of solidarity. The essay first analyzes several of the Collective’s films exploring how they intervene in forms of oppression and state violence such as harassment, environmental destruction from mining, and the levying of substantial fines. The essay then examines the idea and development of Fourth Cinema in relation to Third Cinema. Finally, the essay explores how the Collective’s film practices, as forms of Fourth Cinema, are created through and work toward engendering larger radical ecologies of Indigenous solidarity more broadly as well as the ability of Indigenous communities to speak adjacently to one another.