[7]Thornton shared a personal as well as professional relationship with Beck Cole, and along with producer Kath Shelper called themselves "the trinity", working together from 2004.

The following year he filmed the documentary series Art + Soul about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, which was written and narrated by curator Hetti Perkins.

[1] The installation Mother Courage (inspired by Bertolt Brecht's 1939 character) was commissioned by dOCUMENTA and ACMI, and first exhibited in 2012.

The video, using John Farnham's iconic 1986 song "You're the Voice" as a soundtrack, was released on 3 September 2023[19] and was rolled out on social and other digital media and television.

We asked to have that dialogue in parliament and Australia proceeded to feel … that they know better and said no.In 2020 Thornton was co-presenter, with Beck Cole, of a five-day development workshop called the Aboriginal Short Film Initiative, held at South Australian Film Corporation's Adelaide Studios.

[31] Glynn-McDonald is the founding CEO of Common Ground, an organisation focused on reconciliation, and co-founder of First Nations Futures.

[22] Critic David Stratton describes Thornton as "one of our greatest filmmakers", while Cate Blanchett calls him "the most brilliant visual storyteller".

[22] Author and broadcaster Virginia Trioli writes that Thornton's work is "driven by his emotional and intellectual response to the historical dispossession and contemporary despair of his people", using his films to tell stories with the minimum of dialogue.