''40,000 Years of Dreaming'' (''White Fellas Dreaming: A Century of Australian Cinema'') is an hour-long documentary film presented by George Miller and produced by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

, as part of its ''Century of Cinema'' series. The film is mainly a collage of various pieces of Australian film, past and present, including Miller's own ''Mad Max'' series. Miller focuses primarily on

Australian cinema The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ...

as a vessel of public Dreaming, creating a link between contemporary Australian cinema and the

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology, Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Ja ...

lores from a variety of

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

groups. Miller also places Australian cinema in the context of

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the ...

monomyth In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's journey, or the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. Earlie ...

concept. It has been out of print since its release in 1997, along with several of the other films in the ''Century of Cinema'' series, apart from

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...

. It has occasionally been aired on television.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:40000 Years Of Dreaming 1997 films Films directed by George Miller British documentary films History of film 1990s English-language films 1997 documentary films Documentary films about the cinema of Australia 1990s British films