At Uluru is the result of the first journey the Cantrills took to central Australia in 1977. The film conveys their sense of awe when faced with the monumental structure of Uluru, which is shown to be both static and ever-changing through the interplay of light and shape. For the Cantrills, the rock evades cinematic documentation while also providing compelling metaphors and suggestions for its practice. Remaining inviolate and grander than any artistic attempts to ‘capture’ it, the enigmatic monolith meanwhile offers the filmmakers the opportunity to explore a mysterious creative synthesis between content and form, landform and film-form.
— Note that At Uluru is very rarely screened and can only be seen through this film print, as opposed to The Second Journey (To Uluru) (1981), in which the filmmakers revisited the place. —
“We are interested in a continuing dialogue between content and form. We also see this synthesis of landscape and film form as bringing together our attitudes as citizens to the conservation of land, forests and seashore, and to Indigenous land rights. We have no difficulty in sharing the Indigenous belief that the landscape is the repository of the spiritual life of this continent.” (Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, 1982)
