Wrong Side of the Road

Wrong Side of the Road opens with scenes of police breaking up a performance of the two groups, arresting a band member and his subsequent escape from a police vehicle. It continues with run-ins between the musicians and the establishment. The racism encountered when the bands turn up at a gig and the white hotel manager discovers they are black, the insensitivity of the police and bureaucrats, and the difficulties in tracing one's family after being adopted out ("Stolen Generations"), reflect the problems encountered by many urban Aboriginal people. Wrong Side of the Road (named after a song from Us Mob) reveals the injustices Aboriginal people constantly face. The thread that runs through Wrong Side of the Road is the story played by Les Graham in the film, of a young man looking for his mother. The film's script comes from the life stories from members of the bands, and people around the bands and at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music.