FESTIVAL ’90 : Screenings Present Pacific Rim Cultures

My Survival as an Aboriginal

Australia Today, 7 p.m., Warner Grand, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro

This documentary, engaging and moving by turns, is the personal record of Essie Coffey, an aboriginal community leader, expert on lore and customs and occasional actress for Phil Noyce. She uses her film as a kind of diary/autobiography/personal testament. Through Coffey’s experiences--the old Muruwarri tribal lifestyle contrasted with the new world of TV, rock ‘n’ roll and omnipresent car culture--we can see the plight of her people: dispossessed of their land, robbed of their birthright, forced to hang onto shreds of their culture and heritage in a world that increasingly ignores or negates them.--M.W.