In the film that bears his name, all that Zach Doomadgee wants to do is grow up. Indeed, the documentary’s title also references the ritual that will mark his transition from a child to an adult. Both loom large over Zach’s Ceremony, which chronicles six years of his life. Zach will take the giant leap into maturity at the appropriate time, but he’ll also come of age gradually, learning that it’s a cumulative and continuing process.
That’s just one of the lessons at the heart of a feature filled with more, and yet remaining careful in ensuring that each unspools authentically, earnestly and organically. First-time director/editor Aaron Petersen trained a camera on his subject at the age of 10 in 2009, then watched as Zach went on through school, struggles, yearning for direction, straining against his father Alec’s strong viewpoints, flitting between school in Sydney and his ancestral homeland of Doomadgee in far north Queensland, preparing for the day he’ll leave adolescence behind, facing his duties and finding his own path forward among.
Zach’s tale is personal, intimate and specific, tied not only to his heritage and to his family, but to his personality and his journey of self development; however, it’s also broad, urgent and vital, painting a portrait of what it means to be a young indigenous Australian caught between tradition and modernity. Above all else, it’s also a story that has been willingly shared. The significance of Zach’s life, troubles, questions and experiences is never in doubt, and nor is the importance of his culture. The significance of revealing all of the above to the world — including aspects of his ceremony, a sacred rite of passage in his tribe — is the film’s biggest gift to its viewers.
Such generosity characterises Zach’s Ceremony from start to finish, as Zach himself repeatedly demonstrates. “I want to be a man — not just a little boy that thinks he knows everything,” he says at the outset, wise words made all the more resonant by his unflinching frankness and his young age. At the age of 13, he’s still expressing the same sentiments. “I just want to prove my point that I’m not little anymore,” he offers.
As the documentary moves through its 93-minute running time, more eager, honest, self-reflective expressions follow, demonstrating just why Zach has captured the filmmaker’s attention. “I’m not black, I’m not white,” Zach describes as he keeps grappling with the push and pull of two different ways of living. Making his first feature, writer/editor Petersen smartly lets his subject do most of the talking to flesh out his situation. The film intertwines of archival footage and interviews with his family, but never lets Zach step out of the spotlight. And, when it provides an informative primer on the historical and current treatment of the nation’s Aboriginal population, as well heartbreaking statistics that touch Zach himself — such as the fact that 14 people from his community of 1000 committed suicide in one year — it does so to provide context.
That Petersen, with cinematographer Robert C. Morton (TV’s Making Families Happy), also favours to-camera chats that venture up close and personal rather than feeling formal, is integral to the affecting end result. Throughout, though peppered with on-screen titles introducing key figures and graphics providing background information, Zach’s Ceremony retains the sheen of a home video within its polished packaging. Any other approach wouldn’t quite suit the content, the openness the central father and son display in inviting the film to capture their lives, or the access Petersen gains to indigenous rituals. And, nor would it match Zach himself as the boy embraces becoming a man, as well as the responsibility and revelations that come with it.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Zach’s Ceremony
Director: Aaron Petersen
Australia, 2016, 93 mins
Release date: March 30
Distributor: Umbrella
Rated: M
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