We are excited to have launched the YURLU | COUNTRY Host a Screening program. This Walkley Award-winning documentary is now available to screen directly in communities, schools and workplaces, across the globe.
Hosting private film screenings is a powerful mechanism to convene groups for discussion, spark community engagement, and raise awareness about important issues. YURLU | COUNTRY provides a poignant conversation starter for discussions on human rights, Indigenous rights, environmental devastation, lessons from the past, asbestos contamination, Western Australia, the love of Country, resilience, family and much more. It also highlights the urgent call from Banjima people to the Western Australian government to Clean Up Wittenoom, once and for all.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Yaara Bou Melhem and co-created with Banjima Elder Maitland Parker. This deeply moving film follows his final year as he fights to heal his ancestral lands, scarred by the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia’s own Chernobyl.
Set against the breathtaking yet contaminated landscapes of Western Australia’s Pilbara region, YURLU | COUNTRY lays bare the devastating impact of the Wittenoom asbestos mines, where millions of tonnes of waste laced with deadly asbestos fibres have poisoned both land and people. This largely unknown toxic legacy has been on Banjima lands for more than 60 years and the contamination is spreading.
After sold out film festival screenings, international accolades and winning the 2025 Walkley Documentary award, this film is now able to be brought to your community.
Whether hosting a screening for 30 people in the local library, or 300 in a cinema, the process is simple. Select a venue and date for your screening, then go to www.yurlucountry.com/hostascreening to purchase your screening licence. You will automatically receive access to a suite of materials to help make your screening a success. These include a comprehensive guide, marketing materials and more. Following that, you’ll get temporary access to the film in full, with ample time to test.
Hosting a screening of YURLU | COUNTRY contributes significantly towards our impact work with the Banjima community and amplifying the campaign to #CleanUpWittenoom.
