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Backroads (1977)

Just... wow!

A lust for gritty, seventies Australiana was quenched by this gem. It's not for everyone and clearly unapologetically so. No sooner has I watched an SBS special on Aboriginal activists had I realised that one of the lead actors is one of Australia's most notorious. It speaks to a certain reality about us as Australians and a kind of awkward adolescent phase of social integration that was the seventies. I'd like to think a lot has changed, perhaps it hasn't. But it's who we are and it's unmistakably captured here. Despite all that, it's a great time capsule of the bush in the late seventies and well worth a watch.

I'm not sure who the bush Aboriginal musos were, but they were absolutely awesome. We should be as proud of them as the Americans are the blues.