Servant or Slave
Thousands upon thousands of Aboriginal girls were kidnapped from their families and forced into domestic servitude by the Australian government during the Stolen Generations. They were ostensibly engaged as servants, but because they had complete control over their movements, salaries, and housing conditions, their lives all too frequently devolved into an irreversible cycle of abuse, rape, and captivity, with lasting consequences. Servant or Slave is a powerful piece of first-person testimony to a dark and unrecognized corner of Australian history, chronicling the tales of five of these women: Rita, Violet, and the three Wenberg sisters. Servant or Slave is a work of profound grief and urgency, shot with exceptional technique and humanity by documentary filmmaker Steven McGregor (Croker Island Exodus, MIFF 2012).