Producers: Ned Lander, Andrew Myer
Screenwriter: Louis Nowra
Director of Photography: Warwick Thornton
Production Designer: Sarah Stoliman
Editor: James Bradley
Music: Alistair Jones
Principal cast: Rachael Mazza, Deborah Mailman, Trisha Morton-Thomas.

On the windswept Queensland coast, three estranged Aboriginal sisters have gathered at their childhood home for their mother's funeral. The eldest, regal opera singer Cressy, flies in to join pregnant party girl Nona and bitter caregiver Mae for a healing process-fueled by alcohol, sorrow and resentment-in which dreams are dashed, fragile bonds are forged and split apart, harmful myths are dispelled, and hard truths are learned. Directed with confident insight by debut helmer Rachel Perkins (daughter of prominent Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins), Radiance is only the second feature, after Tracy Motfatt's Bedevil (1 993), to be directed by an Aboriginal woman. The film benefits greatly from its unusu-ally long rehearsal period (more than five weeks), which marinated the racial melodrama into a ferociously authentic experience. - Eddie Cockrell