40,000 Years of Dreaming

40,000 Years of Dreaming is 1997 British documentary film directed and written by George Miller and produced by the British Film Institute, as part of its Century of Cinema series.

Premise

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 as a vessel of public Dreaming, creating a link between contemporary Australian cinema and the Dreamtime lores from a variety of Aboriginal Australian groups. Miller also places Australian cinema in the context of Joseph Campbell's monomyth concept.

Availability

The film 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's feature.