First_Contact_(documentary)
First Contact (1983 film)
1983 Australian film
First Contact is a 1983 Australian documentary film by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson which recounts the incursion of gold-prospecting Australians into the unexplored interior highlands of New Guinea in 1930, then inhabited by a prosperous native population numbering in the region of one million. It is based on the book of the same name by the same authors. Inhabitants of the region and surviving members of the Leahy brothers' gold prospecting party recount their astonishment at this unforeseen meeting. The film includes both moving and still pictures taken by Michael Leahy, leader of the party, and contemporary footage of the island's terrain.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[2] It won Best Feature Documentary at the 1983 Australian Film Institute Awards.[3]