Landmark Aboriginal film marred by killing

Roxanne Williams. Photo / Supplied

The Australian film world is buzzing with excitement after a new movie depicting the grim realities of Aboriginal life, Mad Bastards, received glowing reviews in the United States following a screening at the Sundance Festival in January.

The Hollywood Reporter called the film, set in the Kimberley town of Wyndham, in Western Australia, a "moving story of men trying to take responsibility for their damaged and damaging lives".

Variety said it was "richly informed by the real struggles of Western Australians to overcome legacies of male violence, alcoholism and parental neglect".

But on the day that Mad Bastards opened in Australia, life imitated art. One of the actors, Roxanne Williams, was jailed for three years for fatally stabbing her partner, Joseph Johnston, with a kitchen knife.

Like Williams, Johnston had a small part in the movie, which traces the efforts of an Aboriginal drifter, TJ, to conquer his demons and build a relationship with his troubled teenage son.

The film has been described as unflinching in its portrayal of the violence, dysfunction, alcoholism and abuse that blight many Aboriginal lives. It features mainly untrained actors, many of them Wyndham residents, who said Mad Bastards mirrored some of their experiences.

The killing of Johnston though, a few months after filming ended, shocked the cast and crew. Director Brendan Fletcher told the court that Williams, 29, had behaved in an exemplary way during filming and was a loving and caring mother.

The court heard that 30-year-old Johnston had assaulted her many times over the years. On the night of his death, he attacked her during a row in their home.

Williams, who was 14 weeks pregnant, grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the chest, intending to disable him, she said. After trying in vain to resuscitate him, she called an ambulance and the police.

Justice Michael Murray said Williams had acted out of fear and was clearly remorseful. He also observed that Johnston's violent behaviour "reflected his cultural deprivation and, no doubt, difficult life circumstances".

Williams already had two convictions for violence, one for kicking her elder daughter, now 8 years old, in the head because she would not stop crying.

The court heard a bleak catalogue of facts about Williams' life. She was born to an alcoholic mother who rejected her. She was sexually abused at the age of 8. Her father is in jail for sex offences and her brother hanged himself when she was 15.