First Contact (1983 film)
7.6 /10 1 Votes
Music director Ron Carpenter Country Australia | 7.4/10 IMDb Genre Documentary Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Director Robin AndersonBob Connolly Release date 7 December 1983 Initial release December 7, 1983 (New York City) Cast Mick Leahy, Richard Oxenburgh, James Taylor, Daniel Leahy Awards Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary Similar movies Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson directed First Contact and Rats in the Ranks |
First contact highlands trilogy preview
First Contact is a 1983 documentary by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson which recounts the discovery of a flourishing native population in the interior highlands of New Guinea in 1930 in what had been thought to be an uninhabited area. It is based on the book of the same name by the same authors. Inhabitants of the region and surviving members of the Leahy brothers' gold prospecting party recount their astonishment at this unforeseen meeting. The film includes still photographs taken by Michael Leahy leader of the expedition and contemporary footage of the island's terrain. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It won Best Feature Documentary at the 1983 Australian Film Institute Awards.
Contents
- First contact highlands trilogy preview
- First contact the day the plane came
- The Highlands Trilogy
- Box office
- References

First contact the day the plane came
The Highlands Trilogy

First Contact is the first documentary in what later became known as The Highland Trilogy. The other two films are Joe Leahy's Neighbours (1989) and Black Harvest (1992). These three films, between them, have won some thirty major awards, included each film winning both the Grand Prix at the Festival Cinéma du Réel in Paris and AFI Award for Best Documentary.

Joe Leahy's Neighbours and Black Harvest pick up the Leahy story started in First Contact but in the next generation with Michael Leahy's mixed-race son, Joe Leahy, and his family. These two films document Joe Leahy's life as owner and manager of two coffee plantations on land acquired in controversial circumstances from the Ganiga tribe. Much of the drama in the two films stem from the implications and expectations of these two plantations, that is, from conflicts about ownership both within the Ganiga people and between the Ganiga and Leahy. The films chart a society in transition from a tribal life to a western capitalist one.
Box office

First Contact grossed $120,000 at the box office in Australia.

References
First Contact (1983 film) WikipediaFirst Contact (1983 film) IMDb First Contact (1983 film) themoviedb.org