Tasmanian arts and social change company Big hART and the Namatjira family have collaborated on this project since 2009, delivering an award-winning theatre production, a workshop program between elders and younger generations in central Australia and finally the documentary Namatjira Project.

Big hART co-founder and chief executive officer, and 2018 Tasmanian of the Year Scott Rankin will be a special guest of BOFA and will speak after the premiere screening.

From the remote Australian desert to the opulence of Buckingham Palace – this is the iconic story of the Namatjira family, tracing their quest to regain the copyright to their grandfather’s artwork.

Despite being first indigenous person to be made a citizen by the Australian Government, exhibited globally, and introduced to Queen Elizabeth, Albert Namatjira was later wrongfully imprisoned and died a broken man.

In 1983, the government sold the rights to his work to a dealer for $8500, despite Namatjira having left his art to his wife and children.

The film documents their successful fight to have his legacy returned to its rightful home.

In a great victory for social justice, in October 2017, this campaign was successful in righting an historical wrong, reinstating the copyright of Albert Namatjira’s artworks to his family.

Namatjira Project will screen at 5.15pm on Saturday, May 19 at the Village Cinema as part of BOFA 2018, and will be followed by a Q&A session with Mr Rankin.

BOFA started in 2010 and was Tasmania’s first-ever major annual film festival.

The mantra of the festival is to use film to inspire positive change and discovering fresh and innovative stories to inspire the audience to view the world differently or to offer a “breath of fresh air”.

For full details of the 2018 BOFA program, go to the BOFA website breath-of- fresh-air.com.au.

Bookings are now open at the Village Cinema in Launceston.

BOFA runs from May 17-20.