Dennis O'Rourke

Dennis O'Rourke

1945-08-14
67 (2013-06-13)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Australian-born director Dennis O'Rourke is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. While living in Papua New Guinea, he completed the critically-acclaimed feature Yumi Yet - Independence for Papua New Guinea. O-Rourke died in 2013.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Australian-born director Dennis O'Rourke is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. While living in Papua New Guinea, he completed the critically-acclaimed feature Yumi Yet - Independence for Papua New Guinea. O-Rourke died in 2013.

Dennis O'Rourke photo
Dennis O'Rourke photo

Most Known for...

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Cannibal Tours 1988 (5.9)

The film follows a number of European and American ecotourists as they travel from village to village throughout the Sepik River area in Papua New Guinea, driving hard bargains for local handcrafted items, paying to view formerly sacred ceremonies and taking photographs of every aspect of "primitive" life. With some prodding, the tourists unwittingly reveal an unattractive and pervasive ethnocentrism to O'Rourke's cameras. The tourists thus become somewhat dehumanized by the camera, even as the tourists themselves are busy exoticizing even the most mundane aspects of Sepik River life.
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Yumi Yet 1977 (5.5)

Documents Independence Day of Papua New Guinea on September 16, 1975, comparing the pageantry of local celebrations with the official ceremony in the capital. Also provides historical background about the area's 19th-century colonization by Holland, Germany, and Great Britain.
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Cunnamulla 2000 (5.6)

Cunnamulla, 800 kilometres west of Brisbane, is the end of the railway line. In the months leading up to a scorching Christmas in the bush, there's a lot more going on than the annual lizard race. Here, Aboriginal and white Australians live together but apart. Creativity struggles against indifference, eccentricity against conformity.