Sukundimi Walks Before Me is exemplary of what feature documentary cinema does best—pulling audiences into a raw and palpable face-to-face encounter that leaves a perduring mark. Premiering in Australia at this year’s Sydney Film Festival, the film offers an intimate look into the grassroots organisation of a local resistance campaign against a major mining development project in Papua New Guinea. The Frieda River Copper-Gold Project, spearheaded by Brisbane-based mining giant PanAust, poses devastating threats to the health of the highly revered Sepik River, and to the cultural, economic and spiritual systems of communities living on its shores. The audience walks alongside Emmanuel (Manu) Peni, the coordinator of the resistance campaign Project Sepik Inc, as he rallies neighbouring communities against the mining project. Peni follows the River, gathering the support of Haus Tambarans, centres of community-based political and spiritual leadership, in the name of the venerable entity that unites them. 

With a light yet sharp touch, the film engages in a form of storytelling that is completely devoted to Sepik Peoples’ sovereignty in narrative. Besides the story of Peni’s arduous journey —rallying different actors under the pressing evidence of the Copper-Gold Project’s hazardous implications—a major part of the film is dedicated to the mundane, relational practices of the community and their environment. With a delicate and contemplative eye, the film lingers on the repetitive motions of fishing, logging, building, cooking and more, underbearing Peni’s story with a personal and continuous living rhythm that both makes the campaign necessary and powerful. This immersion is deepened by the graceful stylistic commitment to visual proximity; the compositions honour the daily imbrication of human bodies and natural elements with a touching attention to detail and texture. The River herself is given an unapologetically large amount of visual footage, shown in all her dynamism and beauty. This display of mastery in visual storytelling, braided with the narrative of the Project Sepik campaign, offers a stunningly intimate representation of Sepik Peoples’ embodied relation with the River.  

The film grapples with broader tensions around what “development” means and how it is discursively deployed to justify projects that often cause more harm than good in “developing” places. The audience joins Sepik community members as they are invited by Peni and his peers to question the colonial undertones of development discourse, learning about the long legacy of economic and ecological harm caused by foreign developers. Alongside this thought-provoking discussion, the visual emphasis on routine practices and interactions with the Sepik’s living environment attest to the sheer brilliance of their community-based systems. The audience is brought to understand the evident strength of the Sepik communities’ sovereign economic and political orders in a meticulous and subtle way. The community members’ spoken testimonies are the only narrative voice in the film, deepening the audience’s immersion in a stripped and simple tête-à-tête with the featured activists. Comparatively, actors involved in the mining project proposal are alluded to but never shown; the authorial focus remains clearly in line with the Project Sepik’s refusal to accept the mining proposal by itself disengaging from featuring advocates in favour of the mine.  

Watching Sukundimi Walks Before Me felt like being offered a gift you know is precious. Being invited to witness Sepik peoples’ traditional knowledge—shown with such intimate and sensible craft—was a privilege. This one will reach audiences who appreciate the meticulous craft and deeply humane experience of documentary filmmaking.  

Sukundimi Walks Before Me is a part of the 2026 Sydney Film Festival, running from 3-14 June. Tickets are on sale now at sff.org.au