We Don’t Need a Map
as part of THE WINTER GAZE ARTHOUSE FILM SERIES

(2023, Warwick Thornton, Australia, 52 min)

Through the celestial lens of the Southern Cross, Warwick Thornton examines Australia’s history, identity, and contested cultural memory. The gaze here is both political and poetic: Indigenous perspectives are framed with reverence, insight, and lyricism, challenging viewers to reconsider inherited narratives of nationhood. Thornton’s visual essay weaves myth, history, and landscape into a constellation of meaning, asking how we see, understand, and acknowledge stories that have been obscured.

Warwick Thornton is an Aboriginal Australian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. His debut feature Samson and Delilah won the Caméra d’Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. He received the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Film again in 2017 for Sweet Country. His latest film, Wolfram, premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival on 26 October 2025.

Bruce Isaacs is Associate Professor and Chair of Film Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. He is the author of three books on film history and aesthetics and is the co-creator and co-host of the popular podcast, Film Versus Film. He is a specialist in American cinema and Hollywood, with a special focus on the relationship between mainstream studio cinema and independent film traditions.

About This Series

Winter Gaze is an arthouse film program exploring how filmmakers challenge perception, time, and memory through experimental and narrative forms. Hosted by Assoc. Prof. Bruce Isaacs, the series invites audiences to reflect on the ethics, intensity, and intimacy of cinematic observation.

This screening forms part of The Weight of the Gaze, a research‑led project examining how looking shapes power, perception, and the visibility of women’s labour. Through the Winter Gaze film series and the development of the performance work Holding the Line

“We are not a home for creativity. We are a home for art that won’t stay quiet.”