Jason Tamiru

Questioning the world we live in. An outrageous Los Angeles producer sets out to make the most extreme and controversial Reality Television show ever, but gets more than he bargained for.

Are eligible Indigenous bachelors an endangered demographic in the 21st century? That’s the question cheekily posed by Tracey Rigney’s debut documentary short, which invites First Nations individuals to confide what they desire, what holds them back, and their hopes and worries about whether they’ll ever find The One. Endangered first screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2005.

Debil Debil Baldwin Spencer is inspired by Jason Tamiru, a proud Yorta Yorta man and the Melbourne School of Design’s Indigenous Cultural Advisor, and his profound experience upon first entering the Walter Baldwin Spencer Lecture Theatre, located on the University of Melbourne’s grounds. Drawing on Spencer’s controversial legacy as an evolutionary biologist whose work influenced the Stolen Generation policy, the film seeks to decolonize the space and reimagine its significance.
 Walter Baldwin Spencer’s legacy is etched into the institution through the building and his ideology lingers in unsettling ways beyond the foundational bricks and mortar of the building itself. The film is made through a sensitive observational and experimental documentary style lens which aims to translate the weight of his experience into an evocative and deeply immersive form.