Sci-Fi & Squeam

9 Jun 2016

The Dreaming of a Hero

Music, performance, Society & Culture, TV & Film

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Sonja Hammer speaks with Ryan Griffen the creator of the new groundbreaking and exciting science fiction dystopical TV show screening on ABC TV Australia: Cleverman. This is a revolutionary television series recognising and representing Aboriginal Dreaming stories and interpreting them through a supernatural sci-fi platform. A world first for Australia’s First Peoples.

What is Cleverman: ‘Cleverman blnds Aboriginal mythology with contemporary superhero style and cutting political commentary.It reaches deep into Australia’s cultural history (and not just the one that began a couple of hundred years ago) to produce a storyline that delivers a superhero, an Australian genre-piece that’s up there with the likes of True Bloodand – if we choose to see it – a searing indictment of how this country deals with people it doesn’t know how to treat humanely.’

Below director Wayne Blair with (Uncle) Jack Charles, Cleverman.

Below the Creator of Cleverman, writer Ryan Griffen.

Series creator Ryan Griffen describes the Cleverman as “like the Pope of the Dreamtime … the conduit between the present and the Dreaming”

“Just like the old dreaming stories, Cleverman would be able to teach moral lessons; not only for my son, not just for Aboriginal people, but for many more out there as well.”

‘ABC’s new indigenous superhero series is off to a flying start, with Cleverman already renewed for a second season after it premiered to rave reviews both at home and abroad.

The drama which features an 80 per cent indigenous cast received glowing reviews on social media after its first episode on Thursday night, with Australian audiences hailing the show as “incredible television”, “brilliant” and “the show Australia needs right now”.

Below Deborah Mailman in Cleverman.

It’s immediately available on iView and, no doubt, much of the audience for this will find it — particularly those looking for something they’ve never seen before from home grown drama.