About
Black Harvest, the final film in the Highlands Trilogy, charts the progress of Joe Leahy in convincing the Ganiga tribespeople to join him in a coffee growing venture. He provides the money and the expertise; they supply the land and labor. But on the eve of success, the world coffee price collapses and tribal warfare erupts in the valley. Always suspect because of his mixed-race status, Joe is in deep trouble with the tribespeople when his promises of riches fail to materialize. As he organizes to emigrate with his family to Australia, he is a saddened man with an uncertain future.
Black Harvest was restored in 4K from the original 16mm camera negatives and master audio elements in 2024.
Films in the The Highlands Trilogy
Reviews
"...a documentary of extraordinary historical resonance... so rich that watching it feels like taking an inspired crash course in economics and cultural anthropology." — Stephen Holden, The New York Times
"Perhaps the best documentary of all at Sundance was the Australian Black Harvest. With the scale and richness of classical tragedy, Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson's movie records the clash between tribalism and capitalism, the ancient and the modern, and the downfall of a man caught between two cultures. ..The audience is witness to a spectacle few fiction writers could rival." — Newsweek
"...a brilliant and utterly convincing film. As a demonstration of how a documentary should be made it will repay study a hundred years from now. I find it difficult to praise this film too highly." — Evan Williams, The Australian
Indigenous Studies:
Credits
Edited by
Robin Anderson
Bob Connolly
Ray Thomas
Associate Producer
Chris Owen
Cinematography by
Bob Connolly
Produced with the assistance of
The Australian Film Commission, in association with the Australian Broadcasting Commission; La Sept (France), Channel 4 (Britain), and the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies