tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/documentary-film-15325/articles
Documentary film – The Conversation
2024-03-12T12:36:07Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225515
2024-03-12T12:36:07Z
2024-03-12T12:36:07Z
Artdocfest is a crucial outpost of free expression on Russia’s doorstep
<p>On the day of the funeral of <a href="https://theconversation.com/alexei-navalny-reported-death-of-putins-most-prominent-opponent-spells-the-end-of-politics-in-russia-223766">Alexei Navalny</a>, Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, the biggest festival of documentary film in the former Soviet countries opened in Latvia with a minute’s silence. Artdocfest Riga’s programme spoke out resoundingly against the brutal dictatorships of Russia and Belarus, and provided a valuable space for Ukrainian filmmakers and others fomenting freedom and democracy in the region.</p>
<p>Having permanently relocated from Moscow to Riga in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the festival does not permit “<a href="https://artdocfest.com/en/news/mansky-speech-2024/">any film produced in Russian studios</a> in the competition programs”. But it did showcase films by foreign directors showing the Russian legal system’s crushing of dissent: Russia vs Lawyers (Masha Novikova, Germany), The Dmitriev Affair (Jessica Gorter, Netherlands) and The Last Relic (Marianna Kaat, Estonia).</p>
<p>Silent Sun of Russia (Sybilla Tuxen, Denmark) charts the inner turmoil of three young women displaced by the war as they join the <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/10/25/15-of-russians-who-fled-war-mobilization-have-returned-survey-a82885">more than 800,000 people</a> who have left Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This number includes filmmakers, such as Vitaly Akimov, now based in France, whose film The Last Summer celebrates a Russian youth scene of alternative art and anti-establishment attitudes.</p>
<p>When The Motherland Aborts You, also titled Country Abortion (Zoya Vodyanova, a pseudonym, Czechia/US) follows a lesbian couple. One of the women, Zakhara, has moved to India and the other, Lina, starts the film in St Petersburg. Zakhara is desperate to help Ukraine, even as a volunteer, but Lina dissuades her. The couple are distressed by the pro-war views of their family and wider Russian society. </p>
<p>This was also a theme in three anonymous Russian-made films: Point of the World, Musicians and Uno. Each depicts the reactions of youthful protagonists to the situation, from biting their lip and hypocrisy, to private tears and failed attempts to leave.</p>
<p>One of three films in the main competition, Pussy Boys (Darya Andreyanava and Mikalai Kuprych) follows gay Belarusians. They not only address the camera in private, but also discuss their sexuality publicly in random conversations on buses – a political act in a country where homosexuality is <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-proposes-law-against-nontraditional-family-lgbt/32826074.html">soon to be criminalised</a>, as it is in Russia.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Motherland at Artdocfest.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Motherland (Alexander Mihalkovich, Sweden, and Hanna Badziaka, Norway/Ukraine) focuses on a mother investigating her son’s suicide as a result of the bullying of recruits typical in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/06/russian-armys-hazing-culture-drove-son-ramil-shamsutdinov-to-kill-soldiers-says-father">Soviet</a> and now <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-army-suicides-deaths-/28802305.html">Belarusian army</a>. The film is a broader reflection on society’s violence, as recruits realise they will be told to shoot protesters. This is set against the protests against the <a href="https://theconversation.com/belarus-election-contested-result-sparks-massive-unrest-as-europes-last-dictator-claims-victory-144139">falsified 2020 Belarusian elections</a>, when Alexandr Lukashenko brutally suppressed those demanding he resign in favour of the winning candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. </p>
<p>Tsikhanouskaya’s campaign and the protests are the subject of Accidental President (Mike Lerner and Martin Herring, UK). The film received an emotional reception, with the audience shouting “<em>Zhyve Belarus</em>” (Long live Belarus), the slogan of the protests. </p>
<p>Franak Viačorka, Tsikhanouskaya’s chief political advisor spoke at the festival, necessitating heightened security and illustrating Artdocfest’s importance. Latvia shares a border with Belarus and Russia: these dictatorships are a threat to their neighbours as well their own citizens.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4AYWYmoooW","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>‘Ukraine Above All’</h2>
<p>The festival screened five films about Ukraine in its main competition, as well as a special programme entitled <a href="https://artdocfest.com/en/program/ukraina-ponad-use--artdokfest-2024/">Ukraine Above All</a>. Artdocfest has promoted films by and about Ukraine ever since the 2014 illegal annexation of Ukraine, even when it was based in Russia. This was a major reason it had to relocate.</p>
<p>However, a global appetite for Ukrainian documentary films about the war means some of the biggest now head to Sundance or Berlin festivals, achieving wider distribution. Such was the case with the 2024 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlab8EvzxRw">Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol</a>. Instead, Artdocfest screened films evoking the war indirectly, but no less poignantly.</p>
<p>The Mist (Dmytro Shovkoplias) is an immersive film conveying the confusion and disorientation of suddenly finding yourself caught in a war. Position (Yurii Pupirin) showed the daily tedium of Ukrainian soldiers waiting in trenches, fighting the weather and mud more than the enemy. A Picture to Remember (Olga Chernykh) and A Bit of a Stranger (Svitlana Lishchynska) both reflect on identity and family history, a process triggered by the displacement forced on Ukrainians by Russia’s aggression. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Artdocfest Riga 2024 showreel.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This same dislocation of up to <a href="https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/ukraine/">10 million people</a> was depicted by winner of the main prize, In the Rearview. Polish director Maciek Hamela filmed the Ukrainian passengers he picked up and ferried to the border as they processed the first days of the war and began their lives as refugees. The documentary evolved from his work as a volunteer driver, as he wanted to document the stories he witnessed. It is a fusion of ethics and aesthetics exemplifying the greatest possibilities of the medium.</p>
<p>British historian and Russia commentator, <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-the-west-can-truly-avenge-navalnys-death/">Mark Galeotti, suggested</a> that one effective way the west could avenge Navalny’s death is by investing in Russian language media. This would offer a different perspective on domestic and world affairs for growing numbers of Russians, realising that their own state is lying to them. </p>
<p>Artdocfest is an important part of that approach, offering an outpost of free expression on Russia’s doorstep. Just as it screened and acclaimed Navalny’s films in life, so the festival continues his legacy, speaking out and amplifying others who do the same.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Hicks is a member of the UK Labour Party</span></em></p>
Artdocfest 2024 was a showcase for films that show the reality of the war in Ukraine, and the spread of Russian politics to neighbouring countries.
Jeremy Hicks, Professor of Russian Culture and Film, Queen Mary University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212155
2023-12-03T13:27:34Z
2023-12-03T13:27:34Z
Payment controversy over ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ provokes questions about documentary storytelling
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561956/original/file-20231127-24-i7re4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C2556%2C1398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The Elephant Whisperers' dramatizes the emotional bond between an orphaned elephant, Raghu, and the couple who care for him. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/payment-controversy-over-the-elephant-whisperers-provokes-questions-about-documentary-storytelling" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Months after the Indian film <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23628262/">The Elephant Whisperers</a></em> won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short
at the Academy Awards this past March, the <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mahout">mahout</a> (elephant rider or caretaker) couple Bomman and Bellie at the centre of the film <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/bomman-bellie-send-legal-notice-asking-for-rs-2-crore-from-the-elephant-whisperers-director-8880259/">filed a legal notice</a>.</p>
<p>The notice from the Indigenous couple, who belong to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66458475">Kattunayakan community</a> in India’s Tamil Nadu province, demanded 20 million rupees (about $330,000) from the filmmaker <a href="http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/">Kartiki Gonsalves</a> and the film’s production house, Sikhya Entertainment, run by Guneet Monga. </p>
<p>The couple complained about being subjected to trying situations during the shoot and <a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/the-elephant-whisperers-couple-bomman-belli-accuses-the-makers-of-exploitation-and-non-payment-622872">the expenses</a> incurred to help execute scenes according to the filmmaker’s convenience. </p>
<p>In defence, the makers <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/the-elephant-whisperers-bomman-and-bellie-allege-exploitation-by-docu-makers-kartiki-gonsalves-calls-claims-untrue/article67161291.ece">issued a statement</a>. Though not responding to the allegations directly, it said the film created awareness about the mahout community and led to socioeconomic benefits for them. </p>
<p>They mentioned <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/tamil-nadu-cm-mk-stalin-congratulates-the-elephant-whisperers-caretakers-on-their-oscar-win-and-awards-cash-prizes/articleshow/98662130.cms">donations</a> from M.K. Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, towards assisting 91 elephant caretakers in the state’s two elephant camps. </p>
<p>Strangely, the controversy remained focused on the issue of financial compensation following the film’s success. It eclipsed the structural conditions in contemporary documentary filmmaking that likely affected this complication in the first place. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The Elephant Whisperers’ trailer.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The missing story</h2>
<p>Set in the Theppakadu Elephant Camp inside the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, <em>The Elephant Whisperers</em> dramatizes the emotional bond between the couple and an orphaned elephant, Raghu, whom they have nurtured since finding him as an infant dying of injuries. For the film’s 41-minute runtime, viewers witness idyllic moments of human-animal relationships that peak when the forest authorities eventually separate Raghu from the couple. </p>
<p>As the filmmaker notes, the short film is intended to <a href="http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/the-elephant-whisperers-thefilm">highlight “the beauty of the wild spaces in South India and the people and animals who share this space</a>.”
Yet, in this focus, it fails to generate a critical understanding of systemic problems hindering elephant conservation practices. </p>
<p>These include mahouts’ <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264850834_Daily_routine_of_captive_Asian_elephants_Elephas_maximus_in_three_management_systems_of_Tamil_Nadu_India_and_its_implications_for_elephant_welfare">underpaid contracts</a> with temples and the tourism industry, or as activists in Kerala have documented, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/indian-temple-captive-elephants-kerala-chained-beaten-whipped-died-modi-a8313696.html">abusive overworking</a> of captive mammals, leading to a high elephant mortality rate in that province. </p>
<p>Despite Bomman and Bellie hailing from the Kattunayakan tribe, the documentary ignores the forest department’s <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/mudumalai-adivasis---displaced-by-deceit/">deceitful resettlement of Kattunayakan, Paniyan and other Adivasi communities</a> from their ancestral hamlets in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve’s buffer zone. Nor does it dwell on the filmmakers’ navigation of the Indigenous environment and their framing <a href="https://www.cinemaexpress.com/tamil/interviews/2023/jan/25/the-elephant-whisperers-interview-we-wanted-the-indigenous-people-to-have-a-voice-39241.html">of the story as outsiders</a>. </p>
<h2>Preference for individual over social</h2>
<p>In her article, “<a href="https://worldrecordsjournal.org/how-does-it-end-story-and-the-property-form/">How Does it End? Story and the Property Form</a>” filmmaker and writer Brett Story critiques the conventional three-act story structure prevalent in contemporary non-fiction narratives. </p>
<p>Such narratives usually involve a main character with a heroic journey, a climax and a resolution. According to her, this story structure is considered universally valid and timeless. </p>
<p>But most importantly, this structure corresponds with the “property form” under capitalism. There is a bias for the individualism of the “hero” who owns the story — like property. As a result, documentary film markets tend to prioritize a “preference for the individual over the social, the ‘character’ over the condition, experience over consciousness.” </p>
<h2>Unpaid labour</h2>
<p>Concurrent with this preference for individual heroes is the unacknowledged labour of the documentary protagonist. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118884584.ch7">Media scholar Silke Panse argues</a> that “the work of the documentary protagonist cannot be seen separately from the aesthetics of the work.” She outlines the emotional and material labour involved when they perform for the documentary gaze. This labour co-creates the quality, form and nature of images. Therefore, in documentary realism, the “protagonists <em>are</em> the image.”</p>
<p>When the story becomes a marketable product, the production conditions, processes and relationships behind the storytelling are further obscured. It devalues the passage of negotiations and emotional investment that contribute to the filmmakers’ relationship with documentary subjects. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494231208501">Post-doctoral scholar Emily Coleman contends</a> that in this context, relationship-building between the maker and the subject should be understood as “a practice of creative labour.”</p>
<p>Independent filmmakers often begin by self-financing documentary projects, motivated by underlying feelings of responsibility toward concerned issues. About wildlife documentaries, film scholar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90332-3">Alexa Weik von Mossner highlights the “altruistic motivation”</a> behind emotional animal stories that end up helping filmmakers connect their projects to specific conservation projects. </p>
<p>But, personal altruism potentially feeds into the power dynamics between the one who cares to represent and the other who needs representation.</p>
<h2>Market menace</h2>
<p>Project development support for creative non-fiction mostly comes through pitching sessions at documentary film forums like <a href="https://hotdocs.ca/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAsIGrBhAAEiwAEzMlCzQ4roBvwLKYE1D7hwwRmacYwFSkLQ7wv5umPFGibpjm44Bbg9QkHhoCaicQAvD_BwE">Hot Docs</a>, <a href="https://sheffdocfest.com/show/whickers-pitch">Sheffield DocFest</a>, the <a href="https://www.idfa.nl/en/">International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam</a> and so on.</p>
<p>These spaces facilitate a financial market for producers, commissioning editors, broadcasters, film festival scouts and related commercial agents. According to Francesco Ragazzi, associate professor of international relations at Leiden University, this <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Documenting-World-Politics-A-Critical-Companion-to-IR-and-Non-Fiction-Film/Munster-Sylvest/p/book/9781138208193">funding circuit exclusively relies on attracting profit and large audiences</a>. Filmmakers are pushed towards character-oriented narrative documentaries that are sellable to a broader demographic. </p>
<p>Ragazzi notes how typical pitching forum questions such as “Can your character hold 52 minutes?” or “What is the story arc of the film?” shape the values and aesthetics of contemporary documentary films. </p>
<p>With <em>The Elephant Whisperers</em>, after Gonsalves started an independent round of production in 2017, Netflix <a href="https://alphauniverse.com/stories/the-making-of-the-elephant-whisperers--and-the-power-of-story-to-change-minds/">accepted her promo pitch in 2020</a>. Producer Monga also joined the project following its preliminary development. More than <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/03/05/1160659634/the-elephant-whisperers-an-oscar-nominated-love-story-about-people-and-pachyderm">450 hours of footage filmed over five years was cut into the documentary short</a>.</p>
<h2>Re-evaluating terms of participation</h2>
<p>It is not surprising for contentious claims to emerge concerning the extensive labour hidden underneath compact, character-driven documentary stories once films have gained substantial success or cultural capital.</p>
<p>A source close to the production <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/07/indian-couple-who-starred-in-oscar-winning-film-say-director-backed-out-of-pay-promises">dispelled Bomman and Bellie’s allegation</a>, stating they got duly paid according to the documentary’s contract. </p>
<p>While production and distribution companies must compensate documentary subjects, it is equally necessary to re-evaluate the terms and conditions of people’s participation in creative non-fiction projects.</p>
<p>Market-driven motives of documentary storytelling reduce people to attention-holding characters and their lives to the service of dramaturgy. This extractive approach is characterized by transactional terms. Filmmakers and producers should acknowledge subjects as co-creative partners in production and distribution processes. For that, documentary storytelling needs to change first.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Santasil Mallik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A focus on financial compensation for subjects of ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ overshadowed the need to examine storytelling conventions and creative practices in contemporary documentary filmmaking.
Santasil Mallik, PhD Student, Media Studies, Western University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218715
2023-12-01T00:25:18Z
2023-12-01T00:25:18Z
A Kid Called Troy at 30: this beautiful Aussie film was one of the most important HIV/AIDS documentaries ever produced
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562837/original/file-20231130-19-ywh7v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C1%2C955%2C665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NFSA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since 1988, <a href="https://www.worldaidsday.org.au/about/about-world-aids-day">World AIDS Day</a> has been held each year on December 1. This World AIDS Day, we’re reflecting on one of the most important HIV/AIDS documentaries ever produced: <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/a-kid-called-troy-1993/6902/">A Kid Called Troy</a>, released in Australia 30 years ago.</p>
<p>The film tells the story of Troy Lovegrove, a seven-year-old Australian boy who became HIV-infected during birth, and the support and advocacy of his father, Vince Lovegrove. The story of Troy’s mother, Suzi Lovegrove, and her experience with HIV/AIDS had been documented in 1987’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQZ_9xFp3Fc">Suzi’s Story</a>, released the same year Suzi died.</p>
<p>The two films mark a significant moment in the cinematic history of health communication. Their agenda – unquestionably progressive for the time – was to document the family’s struggle against systemic injustice and social discrimination, and to centre attention on their story, told in their own words, with authority and agency. </p>
<p>The documentaries promote support and understanding in the place of rampant victimisation, erasure and neglect, just as the Lovegroves had achieved within their own community.</p>
<h2>‘Triumphant testimony’</h2>
<p>The made-for-television documentary tells Troy’s story through direct-to-camera interviews with Troy, Vince and others in their circle. </p>
<p>The crew, under director Terry Carlyon, were careful to build close bonds with the family prior to introducing any filming equipment. This ease and honesty is evident in the way Troy and Vince open up to the camera and thus directly to the viewer, sharing private thoughts on their experiences. </p>
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<p>While the film is focused on Troy as a child with HIV, the emphasis is placed – perhaps for the first time – on living with HIV, rather than dying from it. We see Troy’s ordinary life at home with his father and sister, attending school, gymnastics and doctor’s appointments.</p>
<p>The Age praised the film’s “deeply moving and inspiring” content, “gigantic courage” and “blushingly intimate portrait of private joy and torment”. The ratings report for the week called for the ABC to “repeat this triumphant testimony to the human spirit – and soon”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ending-hiv-in-children-is-way-off-target-where-to-focus-action-now-162351">Ending HIV in children is way off target: where to focus action now</a>
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<h2>‘A minority within a minority’</h2>
<p>The films are a testament to the human spirit. But they are also important works of activism, advocacy and education. </p>
<p>In A Kid Called Troy, a local woman from a rural community in Arnhem Land, which Troy and Vince regularly visited as part of their outreach work, observes “AIDS doesn’t discriminate”. </p>
<p>Suzi became infected with HIV after a “casual affair” with a man in New York. Not yet aware of this, she passed the virus on to Troy at birth.</p>
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<p>These films widened the common cultural understanding of who might be affected by HIV/AIDS. They made clear that, without preventive education and awareness-raising of how the virus works, suffering and stigma will continue. </p>
<p>By focusing on the experiences of an ordinary mother and her child, the films gave viewers an experience they could recognise, rather than insisting on the fundamental “difference” of people living with HIV.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1354595">Vince said</a>:</p>
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<p>Suzi wanted to get into people’s minds and souls and make them aware of what AIDS-fear was doing to our community. She wanted to let people know what life had been like as a minority within a minority.</p>
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<h2>AIDS prevention and education</h2>
<p>The year Suzi’s Story was released so was the infamous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ9f378T49E">Grim Reaper campaign</a>. </p>
<p>Although the advertisement was part of a <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/rampant--how-a-city-stopped-a-plague-2007/25525/">wider policy</a> more transparent and innovative than those that had come before, the campaign relied on fearmongering as a primary strategy. </p>
<p>The commercial, part of a A$3 million national educational campaign, did not specify how HIV/AIDS could be contracted or transmitted, or the prevention and support strategies available. This fuelled a <a href="https://www.bandt.com.au/inquiry-told-famous-grim-reaper-aids-ad-contributed-to-significant-violence-against-gay-people/">moral panic</a> that targeted gay men, in particular those living with HIV and those who injected drugs. </p>
<p>The stigma associated with HIV made the programming of prevention education difficult. In 1987, Ted Coleman’s story in <a href="https://nakedeyeproductions.com/films/living-with-aids/">Living with Aids</a> aired on WBZ-TV in Boston without commercials because the television station was unable to find a sponsor.</p>
<h2>‘A beautiful brief flash’</h2>
<p>A Kid Called Troy stands apart from other HIV/AIDS films of the time because it was concerned with quality of life rather than the spectre of death. It brought Troy’s life into mainstream attention through the accessibility and domesticity of a family-centred television documentary. </p>
<p>It was a landmark moment in the popular depiction of HIV/AIDS.</p>
<p>Troy’s life, in his sister Holly’s words, was “a beautiful brief flash”. He died at the age of seven, just three months before the film was aired.</p>
<p>In his film, Troy’s relentless optimism and zest for life, combined with his father’s unswerving determination, leaves us with the promise of hope, and even the audacity to laugh. In one scene, Troy asks his father, “My video’s going to win more awards than mummy’s, isn’t it dad?”</p>
<p>He seemed to understand his legacy was the very act of understanding itself – comprehension rather than apprehension, compassion above all else.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ending-hiv-as-a-public-health-threat-3-essential-reads-195477">Ending HIV as a public health threat – 3 essential reads</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Gildersleeve received funding from the Queensland World AIDS Day Alliance under the Queensland World AIDS Day Regional Grants, in collaboration with Queensland Positive People and the Inclusive Counselling Collective.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Mullens consults for Queensland Positive People and Mind Evolution Centre.
Amy Mullens has received external funding to conduct HIV-related research from Australian Government Department of Health: Activities to Support the National Response to Blood Borne Viruses (BBV) and Sexually Transmissible Infections (STI); Gilead Sciences, Inc; HIV Foundation Queensland; and the Sexual Health Research Fund (an initiative of the Sexual Health Ministerial Advisory Committee, funded by Queensland Health; administered by ASHM).
Amy Mullens is a member of the Australian Psychological Society-APS (including the College of Health Psychologists-CHP and College of Clinical Psychologists); and has served in a voluntary capacity on the APS CHP National Executive Committee.
Amy Mullens is a member of the Sexual Health Society Queensland, ASHM and GANQ.
Amy Mullens serves as a grant assessor on large health and medical research funding panels.
Amy Mullens serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals in Sexual Health/HIV; and serves as a peer reviewer for abstract submissions for National and International Sexual Health/HIV conferences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tait Sanders has friendships with members of the Lovegrove family.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annette Brömdal and Kate Cantrell do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The film tells the story of Troy Lovegrove, a seven-year-old Australian boy who became HIV-infected during birth.
Jessica Gildersleeve, Professor of English Literature, University of Southern Queensland
Amy Mullens, Professor and Clinical & Health Psychologist, University of Southern Queensland
Annette Brömdal, Senior Lecturer in Sport, Health and Physical Education, University of Southern Queensland
Kate Cantrell, Senior Lecturer — Writing, Editing, Publishing, University of Southern Queensland
Tait Sanders, Researcher, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212699
2023-11-12T19:15:26Z
2023-11-12T19:15:26Z
A 360 camera, 1°C weather and an ambitious VR documentary: what I learnt as cinematographer on Sorella’s Story
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548189/original/file-20230913-23-58a3d9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C1747%2C2043&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How does one successfully navigate obstacles such as extreme weather, a tight deadline and a spontaneous shot list in a foreign country as a solo cinematographer on a 360 project? </p>
<p>In December 2019 I was in a group of Griffith Film School master’s degree students who travelled to Hungary and Latvia to create an immersive short documentary film using 360 virtual reality (VR) technology. </p>
<p>Sorella’s Story, written and directed by Peter Hegedus, associate professor and filmmaker at Griffith University, showcases re-enactments based on photos of atrocities committed against Jewish people during the Holocaust in Latvia.</p>
<p>The shot schedule was ambitious. We had five exterior scenes to be shot in only a few hours because of the limited daylight. We had a crew of about ten people. </p>
<p>I was director of photography and the only cameraperson. A daunting task in any filmmaking situation, it was made tenfold more challenging by being a 360 project that no one on the crew had experience working with.</p>
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<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-air-we-breathe-how-i-have-been-observing-atmospheric-change-through-art-and-science-187985">The air we breathe: how I have been observing atmospheric change through art and science</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>New technology brings new challenges</h2>
<p>Viewed through virtual reality lenses, 360-degree films offer the viewer an opportunity to watch a video from all angles.</p>
<p>Unlike traditional cameras with a single lens, our 360 camera looks like a soccer ball, with six small lenses placed throughout the body. </p>
<p>It was a new technology for me and I was curious to see how it was going to change our approach. For example, the six lenses film simultaneously, so the operator and crew need to ensure we have a safe spot to hide to avoid being caught in the frame. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548184/original/file-20230913-29-8j8p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Split screen: women in white, two people in coats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548184/original/file-20230913-29-8j8p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548184/original/file-20230913-29-8j8p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548184/original/file-20230913-29-8j8p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548184/original/file-20230913-29-8j8p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548184/original/file-20230913-29-8j8p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548184/original/file-20230913-29-8j8p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548184/original/file-20230913-29-8j8p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The documentary film featured re-enactments based on photographs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The distance actors appear from the lens is especially important in 360 filming. This is because the images are “stitched” together in post-production. If the subjects are too close to the lenses, the images can’t be combined to create the appearance of a single shot. </p>
<p>After our test shoots, we gave actors marks to hit in and out of frames and the maximum and minimum distances they could be from the camera. These modifications enabled us to capture the action from all 360 angles. </p>
<p>We needed precise blocking and rehearsed co-ordination between actors and crew to capture the entire scene. Every time a scene was recorded, the director would call action, and the sound and camera crew would have a few seconds to run and hide out of frame. Only then would the actors begin to move. </p>
<p>360 inherently brings with it technical challenges, but Sorella’s Story had the compounding issues of weather, a remote location and myself as a cinematographer without a crew and limited time to learn the technology. </p>
<h2>Shooting plan</h2>
<p>Prior to filming a conventional project, directors and cinematographers break down the script into a shot list – a written breakdown of every shot that will be undertaken – and storyboard, visually symbolising those shots through illustrations or sketches. </p>
<p>Both tools help the filmmaking process and ensure the creative vision is realised on set. </p>
<p>Storyboards are less important in 360: you aren’t considering how different angles will be used in a shoot, and there is much more spontaneity in the actors’ movement. There is so much action to capture at once storyboards would just confuse the issue. </p>
<p>Instead, a shot list and script were followed in some moments, but were used as only a guide.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548186/original/file-20230913-21-k6aatf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A film set." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548186/original/file-20230913-21-k6aatf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548186/original/file-20230913-21-k6aatf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548186/original/file-20230913-21-k6aatf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548186/original/file-20230913-21-k6aatf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548186/original/file-20230913-21-k6aatf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548186/original/file-20230913-21-k6aatf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548186/original/file-20230913-21-k6aatf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cast and crew faced cold and icy conditions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Obstacles and problem-solving</h2>
<p>December is one of the coldest months of the year in Budapest, Hungary, with average temperatures of no more than 1°C. At this time of year the days are short, the nights are long, and icy weather conditions are expected. Those conditions brought another challenge: the battery life of electronic devices.</p>
<p>I quickly learned cold weather drains the battery. I tried to reduce cold exposure on the camera by covering the camera with my beanie, with limited success. Battery life that was usually two hours was down to 20 minutes. </p>
<p>Because of the limited budget, we had only two batteries for each device. Ideally, we would have one battery in the camera and the other plugged into the charger. </p>
<p>However, we had no power supply on set. Every time a battery ran out it would be 10 minutes to the nearest power supply, plus at least 30 minutes to recharge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548185/original/file-20230913-27-37qwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A beanie on a camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548185/original/file-20230913-27-37qwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548185/original/file-20230913-27-37qwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548185/original/file-20230913-27-37qwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548185/original/file-20230913-27-37qwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548185/original/file-20230913-27-37qwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548185/original/file-20230913-27-37qwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548185/original/file-20230913-27-37qwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gilberto Roque protecting the camera from the snow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jemma Potgieter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shooting in this cold climate, ensuring I was invisible on set and maintaining the delicate balance of the distance of actors from the camera demanded a complete re-evaluation of my filmmaking approach. It forced me to be agile in my workflow and engage in real-time problem-solving. </p>
<p>Despite the inherent challenges, working on this project provided me with invaluable experience in this cutting-edge technology. With the current interest in immersive experiences, 360 cinematography has a part to play in cinema’s future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/google-earth-is-an-illusion-how-i-am-using-art-to-explore-the-problematic-nature-of-western-maps-and-the-myth-of-terra-nullius-187921">Google Earth is an illusion: how I am using art to explore the problematic nature of western maps and the myth of 'terra nullius'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gilberto Roque was a master's student at Griffith Film School when working on Sorella's Story.</span></em></p>
How does one successfully navigate obstacles such as extreme weather, a tight deadline and a spontaneous shot list in a foreign country on a 360 project as a solo cinematographer?
Gilberto Roque, Lecturer, Filmmaker and Cinematographer, School of Creative Arts, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216287
2023-11-09T14:10:40Z
2023-11-09T14:10:40Z
Kora: in search of the origins of west Africa’s famed stringed musical instrument
<p>“How come we’ve never heard of this beautiful instrument until now?” This was posted by a first-year college student to my world music course discussion board recently. He voiced what many of his peers probably felt after watching the extraordinary documentary <a href="https://www.womex.com/virtual/piranha_arts_1/event/ballake_sissoko_kora">Ballaké Sissoko, Kora Tales</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://vimeo.com/805181419/7fd122d3aa">film</a> follows <a href="https://www.ballakesissoko.com/en/">Sissoko</a>, a world class musical artist, from his home in Bamako, Mali to a sacred well and baobab tree in The Gambia on the Atlantic coast. In the film, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTzlFlG86qA">award-winning</a> Sissoko revisits his childhood homeland and traces the origins of the instrument that became his destiny. </p>
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<p>Sissoko is a jeli (called a griot by outsiders) – a hereditary oral historian and musician attached to the ruling class. Like generations before him, he plays the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/501115">kora</a>, a unique kind of harp that’s indigenous to the western African savannah. It has 21 strings and is played with four fingers. And it can create dazzling, dense musical textures as well as thin shimmering veneers that accompany the delivery of deep oral history. It is one of the most sophisticated handmade musical instruments in the world, both in its musical capabilities and the depth of its tradition.</p>
<p>Ballaké Sissoko: Kora Tales is a beautifully made film that should be seen by everyone interested in African culture and history.</p>
<h2>Kora’s global spread</h2>
<p>If you haven’t heard of the kora, it’s not for lack of exposure. Dozens and dozens of kora albums have been released since Gambian <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jali-nyama-suso-mn0000782773#biography">Jali Nyama Suso</a>’s debut solo album in 1972. The kora has won more Grammy Awards in the World/Global Music category than the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sitar">sitar</a>. An <a href="https://seckoukeita.bandcamp.com/album/african-rhapsodies">album</a> featuring the kora with the BBC Symphonic Orchestra was released in 2023. The reach of the kora beyond western Africa is <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3hfZqOzSQplKqClwf0gMRn?si=bdcd4e9447e746f3">expansive</a>. It can be heard on recordings by musicians across the world. </p>
<p>I first heard the kora on a 1973 album by Gambian <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/alhaji-bai-konte-mn0000003544">Alhaji Bai Konte</a>. It was an early formative experience that put me on the path towards becoming an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Eric+Charry&btnG=">ethnomusicologist</a>. In the 1980s, Senegalese-American kora player <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/04/09/djimo-kouyate/d73afa76-13bc-4cce-82a4-2accdde56373/">Djimo Kouyate</a> inspired me to study regional differences in kora playing in four neighbouring countries. I wound up in Bamako, living three doors down from Ballaké Sissoko, studying with <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/991801-Sidiki-Diabat%C3%A9">Sidiki Diabaté</a> (father of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/22/toumani-diabate-sidiki-kora-music-industry-family">Toumani</a>), who lived two doors down. That became the basis of my first book in 2000, <a href="https://echarry.faculty.wesleyan.edu/mande-music/">Mande Music</a>.</p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>Constructed from a large half calabash, cowhide, thick wooden neck and leather tuning loops and strings (now nylon), the kora is several centuries old. Precursors go back much further.</p>
<p>It is intimately intertwined with the history of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mande">Mande</a> homeland along the Niger River, slicing through modern-day Mali and Guinea. This chiefdom rose to power in the 1200s when the legendary Sunjata conquered an oppressive king, Soumaoro Kante, with the help of neighbouring allies. Kante owned the primordial bala (also called <a href="https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/balla-kouyate">balafon</a>), a magical xylophone, which was passed on to the jeli (griot) of Sunjata. His name was Balla Faséké Kouyaté and his direct descendants guard that very instrument in a hut in northeastern Guinea. </p>
<p>In 2008 Unesco declared the instrument a site of intangible cultural heritage and today a museum is being constructed on the <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/cultural-space-of-sosso-bala-00009">site</a>. At its height, the Mande empire extended across much of western Africa and its mines supplied most of the gold circulating in Europe. A visit to Mecca by Mande king <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Musa-I-of-Mali">Mansa Musa</a> in the 1300s secured his reputation as one of the <a href="https://money.com/the-10-richest-people-of-all-time-2/">wealthiest people</a> in the history of the world. Migrations westward to the Senegambia region led to the development of a related language and culture, Mandinka.</p>
<p>Just as the bala (Mande xylophone) has origins in Mali in the 1200s, the kora has origins in the Kaabu federation of the Senegambian Mandinka in the 1700s. Traditionally, jelis have the exclusive right to play both of these instruments. Many origin stories of musical instruments in Africa refer to a jinn (genie) first bringing it out. So it is with the kora. </p>
<h2>What the film is about</h2>
<p>One of my favourite lines in the documentary comes from Sissoko’s aunt Kadiatou Diabaté, herself a jeli: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This person before you, he was born with the kora. The seventh generation of his lineage. Even if you just touch him, out comes the sound of one of the strings. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Travelling by car, Sissoko leaves his capital city Bamako for a voyage of over 1,000km west to the birthplace of the kora on the Gambian coastline. All of this was part of the Mande empire at its height, as far as the northern reaches of the Niger River at Timbuktu. Sissoko stops at Sibi, where Sunjata is said to have united his armies, made pacts and created the governing constitution of what would become the largest empire in Africa.</p>
<p>The cinematography of the countryside, much of it from aerial drones, is magnificent. Passing through southern Senegal, they cross the Casamance River by boat for a visit with kora master Malan Diébaté. This is kora country and a half dozen kora players appear, singing the praises of Sissoko and his lineage. </p>
<p>They are accompanied by the women in their extended family tapping out a diasporic source of the signature Cuban <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/learn-about-music-clave-rhythm-definition-and-examples">clave pattern</a>. </p>
<p>Diébaté recounts the supernatural origins of the kora, and Sissoko takes off for that very spot, Sanementereng in The Gambia. In one sense all musical instruments are magical, given the impact they may have on our lives. Widespread oral traditions attribute the origins of the kora to this specific place on the Gambian coast. When Sissoko arrives here towards the end of the documentary, at a sacred well and a baobab tree that marks the spot, it is a moving experience.</p>
<h2>Inspiring work</h2>
<p>The writers and directors of the film, Lucy Durán and Laurent Benhamou, have done inspiring work in conveying the beauty of the landscape, the depth and humanity of the tradition, and the artistic persona of Sissoko. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/lucy-duran">Professor</a> of music and former <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/4TSBr0qL391y8lDnM4NZHVM/lucy-duran">radio presenter</a> Durán has an awesome track record in this part of the world over many decades, from producing early albums by Toumani Diabaté and other Malian artists to <a href="https://www.growingintomusic.co.uk/">Growing Into Music</a>, a pioneering documentary <a href="https://www.growingintomusic.co.uk/mali-and-guinea-music-of/films-of-growing-into-music.html">film series</a> laying bare the process of children learning the musical arts of jelis in Mali and Guinea. </p>
<p>Narrated by French-Malian rap star <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/oxmo-puccino-mn0000502254#biography">Oxmo Puccino</a>, the documentary takes you deep into one of Africa’s great classical traditions through the eyes of one of its great artists. For the eyes, ears and collective cultural memory, this film is a treasure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Charry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The extraordinary documentary Ballaké Sissoko: Kora Tales takes a journey from Mali to The Gambia.
Eric Charry, Professor of Music, Wesleyan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213066
2023-09-14T20:05:32Z
2023-09-14T20:05:32Z
Tim Flannery’s message to all: rise up and become a climate leader – be the change we need so desperately
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548177/original/file-20230913-48731-y1vy63.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C2858%2C1586&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Totem Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As humanity hurtles towards a climate catastrophe, the debate has shifted – from the science to solutions. We know we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. But progress has been painfully slow. </p>
<p>It’s clear the world is lacking climate leadership. So what makes a great climate leader and why are we not seeing more of them?</p>
<p>For two years now I’ve been on a journey, a quest if you like, to find good climate leaders. This is the subject of my new documentary, <a href="https://climatechangersmovie.com">Climate Changers</a> with director Johan Gabrielsson.</p>
<h2>Missed opportunities and wasted time</h2>
<p>Saul Griffith is an engineer who wants to “electrify everything”. The co-founder of non-profit group <a href="https://www.rewiringaustralia.org/">Rewiring Australia</a> decried the “dearth of political leadership” when he told us:</p>
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<p>We haven’t had any head of state, of any major nation, positively and proactively engage on climate as an emergency, as an opportunity […] we haven’t had a Churchill or Roosevelt or John F Kennedy ‘let’s go to the moon’ that says: ‘here’s a threat, here’s an opportunity, here’s a vision for how we collectively get there’.</p>
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<p>If we’d been on the right emissions reduction trajectory a decade ago, we’d have more time to deal with the problem. But we’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/failure-is-not-an-option-after-a-lost-decade-on-climate-action-the-2020s-offer-one-last-chance-158913">wasted ten years</a>. </p>
<p>Over that period, probably 20% of all of the <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/research/environmental-impacts/climate-change/state-of-the-climate/greenhouse-gases">carbon pollution</a> we’ve ever put into the atmosphere has been emitted. </p>
<p>A lot of money was made creating those emissions, and that has only benefited a few. But of course the consequences of the emissions will stay with humanity for many, many, many generations.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Introducing Climate Changers.</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/group-therapy-helps-scientists-cope-with-challenging-climate-emotions-208933">Group therapy helps scientists cope with challenging 'climate emotions'</a>
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<h2>A different style of leadership</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, modern Western politics doesn’t select for great leaders. But there are a few scattered about.</p>
<p>One such example is <a href="https://100climateconversations.com/matt-kean/">Matt Kean</a> in New South Wales. In 2020, as state energy minister and treasurer during the Liberal Berejiklian government, he managed to get the Nationals, the Liberals, Labor and the Greens all supporting the same bill, on addressing climate change through clean energy. In my opinion, that is true leadership. </p>
<p>As Kean told us: </p>
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<p>What you’ve got to do if you’re going to try and solve the challenge is find those areas of common ground. […] it was about finding the big things that everyone could agree on and designing policy that brought everyone together. And I think that was the key to our success.</p>
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<p>Climate leadership requires humility. It requires listening to your political antagonists as well as your allies. </p>
<p>That sort of leadership is rare in our political system. And yet you see it in Indigenous communities and in the Pacific nations where I’ve done a lot of work over the years, that sort of leadership is much more common. Because people understand they need to be consultative. And transparent.</p>
<p>West Papuan activist and human rights lawyer, Frederika Korain, and Solomon Island Kwaio community leader and conservationist, Chief Esau Kekeubata, are shining examples. They show individual bravery and diligence, but they’re also humble and listening.</p>
<p>On the subject of leadership, they share similar sentiments with Australia’s Dharawal and Yuin custodian and community leader Paul Knight.</p>
<p>It’s about bringing other people along with you. It’s not some strong-arm thing, like you often see at our federal level, in our politics. It’s about listening, developing a consensus. It takes time, a lot of effort, and you’ll probably never get full consensus, but we’ll get most of the way there, convincing people. </p>
<p>I’ve seen Chief Esau work. He says very little in the most important meetings, but when someone says something he thinks is on the right track, he’ll say, “Oh, that’s really interesting. Can you can you tell us a bit more”. He directs the conversation. </p>
<p>So in a species like ours, that’s what true leadership consists of. Intelligence, persistence, bravery bordering on heroism sometimes, because climate change is the enemy of everyone.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/study-finds-2-billion-people-will-struggle-to-survive-in-a-warming-world-and-these-parts-of-australia-are-most-vulnerable-205927">Study finds 2 billion people will struggle to survive in a warming world – and these parts of Australia are most vulnerable</a>
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<h2>What’s holding us back?</h2>
<p>There’s a very strong relationship in Australia between political power and fossil fuels. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-walk-the-talk-on-climate-labor-must-come-clean-about-the-future-for-coal-and-gas-183641">links are interwoven</a>, with people moving <a href="https://theconversation.com/revealed-the-extent-of-job-swapping-between-public-servants-and-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-88695">from the fossil fuel industry to politics and back</a>. </p>
<p>And we still allow people to become <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/19/life-earth-wealth-megarich-spending-power-environmental-damage">extremely rich</a> at the expense of all of us. I think that’s what’s holding us back. </p>
<p>I expect those who are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/17/greenhouse-emissions-income-inequality/">very wealthy</a>, who have made their money in fossil fuels, imagine they’ll be able to retire to some gated community and live their life in luxury. </p>
<p>But we all depend on a strong global economy and trade, which is <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/impact-climate-change-global-gdp/">under threat</a> as the climate breaks down. </p>
<p>The idea that you can somehow isolate yourself from the environment and the rest of society is one of the great failings of human imagination that has brought us so close to catastrophe.</p>
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<h2>Rise up</h2>
<p>I do see individual people rising to the occasion. And the story is usually somewhat similar: people realise they could lose something very precious. We heard it time and time again in the making of this documentary. </p>
<p>For community campaigner Jo Dodds the trigger was the Black Summer bushfires, the near-loss of her house and the loss of her neighbours’ houses. For former US Vice President Al Gore it was having his son in critical care for 30 days, having to put aside his politics and think about what his life was really about. Those sort of moments do bring out great climate leaders. Even Kean talked about bringing his newborn son home from hospital, shrouded in bushfire smoke. </p>
<p>The level of public awareness is far greater now than when I came to this issue in the early 2000s. </p>
<p>The most important thing I can do now is inspire and enable others to be climate leaders. Because we need a diversity of voices out there. We need women. We need younger people. We need people from the Pacific Islands, and First Nations people.</p>
<p>This documentary is about trying to inspire and encourage emerging leaders to give us the diversity of voices we need to make a difference. It’s never too late – we can always prevent something worse from happening. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://climatechangersmovie.com">Climate Changers</a> launches nationally with a livestreamed Q&A on September 17 and will <a href="https://climatechangersmovie.com/screenings/">screen in cinemas</a> and at community events.</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-urgently-need-100bn-for-renewable-energy-but-call-it-statecraft-not-industry-policy-213351">We urgently need $100bn for renewable energy. But call it statecraft, not 'industry policy'</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213066/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Flannery is Ambassador for RegenAqua, which uses seaweed and river grass to clean up wastewater before it flows out to sea and on to the Great Barrier Reef. He consults for the not-for-profit environmental charity, Odonata.
He is Chief Councillor and Founding Member of the Climate Council, Governor at WWF-Australia and Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.</span></em></p>
What makes a great climate leader and why are we not seeing more of them? I’ve been searching for good examples of climate leaders. This is the subject of our new documentary, Climate Changers.
Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212307
2023-09-11T15:42:19Z
2023-09-11T15:42:19Z
Choose Irvine Welsh: new documentary explores the life of Scotland’s ‘urban Shakespeare’
<p>On August 23, Scottish novelist <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/167724/irvine-welsh">Irvine Welsh</a>’s beloved Edinburgh football team, Hibs, went head-to-head with Aston Villa in the Europa League. But they were also competing for attention with the world premiere of Choose Irvine Welsh, a documentary by filmmaker <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11822898/">Ian Jefferies</a> about the life, writing and cultural impact of the man it dubs Scotland’s “urban Shakespeare”. </p>
<p>The latter was debuting at the <a href="https://www.eif.co.uk/archive/eiff-choose-irvine-welsh">Edinburgh International Film Festival</a>, the former at Easter Road in Leith. As a fellow “Hibby”, on the buildup to the night I found myself wondering: “Which of the tickets would Welsh choose?” I suspect there was little competition. (<a href="https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/matches/aston-villa-vs-hibs">Hibs were defeated five-nil</a>).</p>
<p>Ian Jefferies’ last documentary – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJgidQLuN4">Kick Out the Jams: The Story of XFM</a> (2022) – was a 90-minute dive into 1990s culture via a rebellious pirate radio station. Choose Irvine Welsh is a 90-minute documentary that dives into 1990s culture via a rebellious novelist, exploring and celebrating the cult(ure) surrounding the various films his work inspired.</p>
<p>The two musically augmented, talking-head films are arguably cut from the same cloth. With this in mind, here are some quick strikes against the documentary before getting to what I loved about it.</p>
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<h2>Choose Irvine’s weaknesses</h2>
<p>First, there is an over tendency to use found archival footage to illustrate any proper noun or place name mentioned throughout the 90 minutes. A grating exception being that the film incongruously illustrates discussions of Welsh’s life in dockside Leith with stock images of tartan-clad bagpipers, Edinburgh castle and the Georgian New Town.</p>
<p>Then, there is a predictable, but overwhelming, preference for enthusing testimonials from celebrities such as Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor, Iggy Pop and Gail Porter, rather than academics or “the real cunts” Welsh knew before he was famous.</p>
<p>The documentary often feels like a formulaic paint-by-numbers job that ubiquitously deploys era music to underscore recorded and archival testimonies. All this gives it the anachronistic feel of a bonus feature for a Trainspotting DVD box-set.</p>
<h2>Choose Irvine’s strengths</h2>
<p>But not all is lost. Choose Irvine’s strengths make it very worth seeing and appreciating. The film opens with a shot of Princes Street (which is definitely not in Leith, as the documentary suggests) in 1958. This serves double duty. It not only evokes the year of its subject’s birth, but aesthetically anticipates the dynamic opening scene Boyle filmed on this same street in his adaptation of <a href="http://www.imdb.co.uk/title/tt0117951">Trainspotting</a> (1996), Welsh’s most famous book.</p>
<p>Unlike that sequence though, this archive footage holds close an image of the iconic <a href="https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/scott-monument">Scott monument</a>, a memorial to another great Scottish writer, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/what-did-sir-walter-scott-write">Sir Walter Scott</a>. Thereafter, Jefferies secures a relaxed and insightful interview with Welsh, which serves as the film’s vertebrae and elevates the whole production.</p>
<p>Welsh’s salty reflections on his near-death experiences, being in various failed “bedroom bands” and his troubled path to becoming a breakthrough author are riveting and illuminating. The story of how his first novel became popular with Scottish prisoners, football types, the “clued-up working class” and then university students also offers a lesson in <a href="https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/12/the-tipping-point-between-failure-and-success">tipping-point success</a>.</p>
<p>Welsh’s reflections on becoming a breakthrough national novelist in 1993 before catapulting to global success after the release of the Trainspotting film also offer a fresh rat run through the scrapheap of clichés about the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/commentisfree/2017/jul/05/cool-britannia-inequality-tony-blair-arts-industry">cool Britannia</a>” era, which Welsh describes as a “requiem Mass for British culture”.</p>
<p>Because of Welsh’s well-documented lust for life, the documentary is also laced with funny stories and anecdotes that make the hedonistic 1990s seem incredibly long ago. The story of why Welsh failed to turn up to meet his hero David Bowie is a gas, as is the story of signing a young Martin Compston’s Trainspotting poster with “fuck the Tories and fuck the Jambos” (the nickname for Hibs’ rival football team, Hearts), scrawled across Ewan McGregor’s forehead.</p>
<h2>Choose Irvine’s philosphy</h2>
<p>Although wild and rough around the edges, the documentary paints the author of extremely dark and disturbing tales as an optimistic soul with a solid moral compass. His friends perceive his novels to be “not just about drugs, shagging, getting pissed and fighting” but about “love between groups of people, or couples”. </p>
<p>In reflexive discussion, Welsh talks perceptively about his observations on group dynamics and manages to get across a grounded practical philosophy for getting on in life. This we might call, with echoes again of his being a lifelong Hibs fan, “choose failure”.</p>
<p>As Welsh puts it himself in response to a question about possible future success: “You want to think to yourself, ‘Nothing is a complete success or failure’. I think if you can do that, in the knowledge that you’ve given your best, then that’s a success really.”</p>
<p>And Choose Irvine Welsh is a success. For anyone interested in the life and times of this much-read Scottish author, the 1990s more generally and the fandom surrounding the adaptations of his work, it’s a must see.</p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David H. Fleming does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A riveting and insightful portrait of the much-read Trainspotting author, replete with funny stories and memorable anecdotes.
David H. Fleming, Senior Lecturer in Film & Media, University of Stirling
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201600
2023-03-10T17:01:51Z
2023-03-10T17:01:51Z
Meet Me in the Bathroom: documentary shows how 9/11 shaped New York’s indie music scene
<p>In 2021, trend forecaster <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@oldloserinbrooklyn?lang=en">Mandy Lee</a> predicted the return of “indie sleaze”, referring to the hedonistic and unfiltered UK and US indie music scene which stretched from 2006 to 2012. As of March 2023, the Instagram account “@indiesleaze”, which shares images of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/indiesleaze/?hl=en">“the decadence of the mid-late aughts and the indie sleaze party that died in 2012”</a>, has amassed over 135,000 followers.</p>
<p>The appetite is there, then, for Meet Me in the Bathroom. Based on <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/meet-me-in-the-bathroom-lizzy-goodman?variant=32117003419682">the 2017 book</a> of the same name, the documentary is an oral history of and an “<a href="https://www.meetmeinthebathroomfilm.com/synopsis/">immersive journey through</a>” the New York scene.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Meet Me in the Bathroom (2023).</span></figcaption>
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<p>Before indie’s “sleaze” era, the New York music scene exploded in the early years of the 2000s, with bands such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWSK-3CN4Nw">LCD Soundsystem</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkpgz3uQ58U">Interpol</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY">The White Stripes</a> transforming the genre for the rest of the decade. </p>
<p>Its influence is still felt today. Sheffield band, Arctic Monkeys, opened their 2018 album Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino with a lyric referencing the defining band of the New York indie scene: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2rM8A_1-w">I just wanted to be one of The Strokes.</a>”</p>
<p>The documentary pieces together fan footage, band video diaries and news broadcasts. These frames are stitched together with audio – some from slick media interviews, others that sound like they were recorded in a tin can. </p>
<p>Indie music is a sonic collision of alternative rock, pop and electronica. The indie artist, like their punk predecessor, is a “<a href="https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/levistrauss.pdf">bricoleur</a>” – a performer of large number of tasks who takes whatever tools and material that are available to them and creates something new. </p>
<p>The structure of the documentary is presented in a bricolage fashion through its fragmented narration of a city experiencing huge changes. The attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11 2001 reshaped New York’s indie music scene. Shock waves were sent through the city and its inhabitants, including a generation of young musicians.</p>
<p>Indie, like the bricoleur, works with a collection of fragments to form something new. In response to the 9/11 attacks, the New York indie scene transformed both sonically and physically, just as bands including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs moved from Manhattan to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. </p>
<h2>The impact of 9/11 on New York’s indie scene</h2>
<p>To ask Meet Me in the Bathroom to be as expansive as its source material would be an impossible task. The 621-page book follows the New York music scene from 1999 up to 2011, whereas the prominent moment in the documentary is 9/11 and its aftermath.</p>
<p>The claustrophobia and paranoia of the city is represented through shots of news channel coverage of 9/11 as music by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs play in the background. The documentary also uses harrowing amateur footage that captures a grieving city and a community of musicians processing that in their music.</p>
<p>Scenes of a mass exodus from Manhattan transition into an acoustic performance of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUcoRjhynB0">NYC’s Like a Graveyard</a> (2001) by The Moldy Peaches, the first indie band the documentary follows. Although not written as a response to 9/11, the song’s release coincided with the attacks. It takes on a specific meaning, distinct from its original intention, as it is paired with the footage.</p>
<p>A notable shift in the documentary occurs here as gig footage no longer represents the youth culture surrounding indie music. Rather, New York’s indie gigs represent a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340103292_Emotion_memory_and_re-collective_value_shared_festival_experiences">loss of innocence</a>. </p>
<p>As the camera pans across a sweaty crowd, both audience and musician are experiencing a collective trauma. The experience of both the loss of loved ones and a once-familiar city. In one scene, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O shares that, for her, performance offered escapism.</p>
<p><a href="https://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1867/poems/184">Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass</a> bookends the documentary and acts as a reminder of the New York music scene’s resistance, resilience and growth. The music coming out of New York in the early 2000s shaped the next decade of music. But, as Meet Me in the Bathroom shows, it was forged in a time of collective trauma.</p>
<p><em>Meet Me in the Bathroom is in UK cinemas from 10 March 2023</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy McCarthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The oral history showcases how the indie music scene became a way for many New Yorkers to channel their grief after 9/11.
Amy McCarthy, PhD Researcher in English Literature, York St John University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196577
2023-01-25T20:23:47Z
2023-01-25T20:23:47Z
‘An activist masquerading as an artist’: we should all be talking about Richard Bell
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505747/original/file-20230123-38008-udnr26.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C45%2C7527%2C4977&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman Entertainment</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: You Can Go Now, directed by Larissa Behrendt.</em></p>
<p>A new documentary from Larissa Behrendt, You Can Go Now, highlights the life, work and activism of Richard Bell: a self-described “activist masquerading as an artist”. </p>
<p>Bell is an internationally renowned artist who works across painting, installation, video and performance, describing himself as “bold, brash and brazen” in his approach to dealing with the art industry in Australia.</p>
<p>An array of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people appear in the documentary and chime in to reflect on their relationship with Bell and his work. </p>
<p>John Maynard muses Bell’s work is “just taking the piss: we love taking the piss out of white fellas”. He laughs.</p>
<p>Gary Foley speaks of Bell’s work as “beautifully subversive” and “satirical”. He smirks as he thinks about how Bell’s work shocks the straight-laced people in the Australian art scene. </p>
<p>Chelsea Watego describes Bell as someone who “knows no boundaries” and “is unashamedly and unapologetically Blak”. </p>
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<h2>Bell’s early life</h2>
<p>Bell is a Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman, Gurang Gurang man born in 1953 in Charleville, Queensland. He grew up living in a “shanty” with his family. </p>
<p>In You Can Go Now, he recalls life as a child living in abject poverty. The film includes historical footage of life on missions and reserves, which demonstrates clearly the oppressive and invasive conditions Aboriginal people were forced to endure. </p>
<p>As Aileen Moreton Robinson comments in the documentary, as an Aboriginal person during this era “you understood you were not free”. </p>
<p>Indicative of the way Aboriginal people are treated, Bell’s family home was bulldozed by the government. His family relocated to the town to live in a house that had been issued with a demolition order and deemed unfit for human habitation. </p>
<p>The land missions and reserves were built on was increasingly being targeted for tourism and bought up by mining companies. Bell shares this experience in
his video work <a href="https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/richard-bell-embassy/richard-bell-no-tin-shack/">No Tin Shack</a>, which includes a re-enactment of the bulldozing of his family’s home to demonstrate the brutality of the act. </p>
<h2>Unapologetic Blak activism</h2>
<p>Bell is part of a generation of staunch Aboriginal activists. He has remained strong in his commitment to self-determination and to the goal of getting our land back. He claims in the documentary the government should give it all back, then negotiate with us. </p>
<p>In the early 1970s, inspired by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in the United States, a new era of “unapologetic Blak” activism emerged in Australia – exemplified by the establishment of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-short-history-of-the-aboriginal-tent-embassy-an-indelible-reminder-of-unceded-sovereignty-174693">Aboriginal Tent Embassy</a> in 1972: the longest continual protest in the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505749/original/file-20230123-61764-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting: signs read 'we want land rights' and 'we walk on sacred land'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505749/original/file-20230123-61764-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505749/original/file-20230123-61764-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505749/original/file-20230123-61764-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505749/original/file-20230123-61764-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505749/original/file-20230123-61764-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505749/original/file-20230123-61764-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505749/original/file-20230123-61764-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bell’s work captures decades of continuing protest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-short-history-of-the-aboriginal-tent-embassy-an-indelible-reminder-of-unceded-sovereignty-174693">A short history of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy – an indelible reminder of unceded sovereignty</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In this decade Bell found his political voice in Redfern with the likes of Sol Bellear, Gary Foley, Paul Coe and others. Along with fighting for land rights and self-determination, these activists established the Aboriginal Medical Service and Aboriginal Legal Service to provide much needed services to Aboriginal people.</p>
<p>In his work <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-02/richard-bell-tent-embassy-documenta-tate-london/101189166">Pay the Rent</a> (2022), presented at Germany’s Documenta, one of the world’s most prestigious art exhibitions, a digital counter provides a calculation of what the government owes Aboriginal people. </p>
<p>Also as part of this exhibition, Bell created paintings based on old photographs from the 1970s to bring to attention the work of political activists and the untold story of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/made-in-1972-the-documentary-ningla-ana-is-a-powerful-look-at-establishment-of-the-aboriginal-tent-embassy-191499">Black Liberation movement</a> in Australia.</p>
<p>After the <a href="https://youtu.be/WIPUvDZ5TJA">1967 Referendum</a> it became clear little had changed in regard to the circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who still suffered under oppressive and racist regimes. </p>
<p>The McMahon government <a href="https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/21/among-our-prime-ministers-whitlam-stood-tall-land-rights/">declared</a> it would never grant land rights, quelling any hopes inspired by the referendum. </p>
<p>Reflecting the significance of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Bell’s <a href="https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/works/2017.10A-G/">Embassy</a> (2013–) has been shown in galleries around the world, showing archival videos and providing a space for the truth to be told via public talks and informal conversations.</p>
<h2>A man with two personas</h2>
<p>In You Can Go Now, Bell is described as having two personas – Richard and Richie. Richard, the one everyday Blackfullas know, good for a yarn and to hang out with. Then there is his other persona, Richie: the life of the party, an attention seeker. The one who is loud, boisterous and sometimes even obnoxious. </p>
<p>Behrendt captures Richie looking in the mirror as he states “no doubt about it Richie, you’re a fucking genius”. </p>
<p>Often referred to as a dissident, Richie claims all his paintings are attention seekers – just like him. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505750/original/file-20230123-52741-6h3ksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bell painting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505750/original/file-20230123-52741-6h3ksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505750/original/file-20230123-52741-6h3ksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505750/original/file-20230123-52741-6h3ksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505750/original/file-20230123-52741-6h3ksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505750/original/file-20230123-52741-6h3ksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505750/original/file-20230123-52741-6h3ksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505750/original/file-20230123-52741-6h3ksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bell claims his paintings are attention seekers – just like him.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2019, Bell was shortlisted to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. He was not ultimately selected. In response, Bell decided to “<a href="https://artguide.com.au/richard-bell-on-gate-crashing-the-venice-biennale/">gatecrash</a>” the biennale, creating a replica of the Australian Pavilion wrapped in chains. </p>
<p>Taking his own advice – “you don’t need permission to make it happen” – We Don’t Really Need This sailed past the 58th Biennale on a motorised barge.</p>
<p>In the film, musician Bob Weatherall notes Bell “has captivated the world” yet it is a very different story in Australia. </p>
<p>Bell is an internationally renowned artist invited to exhibit his work across the globe. Yet he has not found the same acclaim in Australia. Foley suggests his international standing is a really good slap in the face to the Australian arts establishment who have not recognised Bell in the same way the international market has embraced his work. </p>
<p>The documentary is entertaining and informative. While some may see it as confrontational, Bell’s work highlights histories that are unknown to some and should be known to all. Bell is highly critical, funny and fearless. The documentary is a must-see. </p>
<p><em>You Can Go Now is in Australian cinemas from January 26.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/protest-art-rallying-cry-or-elegy-for-the-black-throated-finch-120593">Protest art: rallying cry or elegy for the black-throated finch?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Carlson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Bell is an internationally renowned artist who works across painting, installation, video and performance, and a new documentary brings him to cinemas.
Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194057
2022-11-30T19:09:42Z
2022-11-30T19:09:42Z
Am I ever gonna see your face again? Nuanced and thoughtful, Kickin’ Down the Door puts The Angels back in the spotlight
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497828/original/file-20221129-18-eez8qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C4%2C2982%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maslow Entertainment</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I was a kid, my dad Max took me to basketball games at Melbourne’s Entertainment Centre. I’d wait in my plastic bucket chair as the cheerleaders shook their pom poms and the teams did lay ups. The music was loud, and around the time everyone had found their seats, one song would often come on. </p>
<p>It opened with a wailing, single note guitar, followed by a chunky, palm muted riff, driving along until bursting into the chorus when the vocals would demand “Am I ever gonna see your face again?” And as I licked my lemonade icy pole I’d delight as the whole stadium would <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/australia-culture-blog/2014/apr/15/australian-anthems-the-angels-am-i-ever-gonna-see-your-face-again">chant back</a> “No way, get fucked, fuck off.”</p>
<p>I had no idea the band was called The Angels. I didn’t know they were supposed to be the next AC/DC but didn’t quite “make it”. The intense relationships at their core were lost on me. I was just delighted by how wild it felt, this song the audience owned, breaking rules, answering back. </p>
<p>A new documentary, Kickin’ Down the Door chronicles Australian band The Angels across four decades, from suburban Adelaide to the gloss of <a href="https://themusic.com.au/news/iconic-alberts-music-studios-to-be-torn-down-to-make-way-for-luxury-apartments/wSnS1dTX1tk/08-10-15">Albert Studios</a> and beyond. </p>
<p>The classic Oz rock vibe is omnipresent: dudes, riffs, volume. </p>
<p>But this story’s star quality is how hard it works to showcase the band from both front of house and backstage, offering something far more nuanced than the well-thumbed tale of these national music icons. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HVsWwFZo3iw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Finding intensity</h2>
<p>The documentary centres on the songwriting team of the Brewster brothers, vocalist Bernard “Doc” Neeson, and a revolving cast of drummers, bass players and producers. </p>
<p>The themes are what you might like in a documentary about Australian rock ‘n’ roll: journeys to adulthood, mateship, resistance, lashings of hope, dollops of luck. Interviews from the band and their nearest and dearest sidle up against archival footage with cute animations bridging scenes. </p>
<p>There’s the ubiquitous drop-in from a couple of international names to provide cred – thankfully a Bono-free endeavour. There’s a slither of pre-hat Molly Meldrum. The eye candy of 70s and 80s Aussie life abounds.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497830/original/file-20221129-14-5dw5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The band on stage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497830/original/file-20221129-14-5dw5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497830/original/file-20221129-14-5dw5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497830/original/file-20221129-14-5dw5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497830/original/file-20221129-14-5dw5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497830/original/file-20221129-14-5dw5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497830/original/file-20221129-14-5dw5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497830/original/file-20221129-14-5dw5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The film uses archival footage and contemporary interviews.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maslow Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The songs are central to Kickin’ Down the Door, but rock ‘n’ roll has always been about theatre, and front man Doc Neeson’s lead in creating an unsettling intensity at live shows lifted The Angels beyond the meat and potatoes of standard Oz rock.</p>
<p>In one scene, the lighting guy talks about how Doc used silence and darkness as a tool of intensity – the antithesis of rock show bombast. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gibson-guitars-sound-of-rock-that-will-never-go-out-of-fashion-96036">Gibson guitars: sound of rock that will never go out of fashion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A complex portrait</h2>
<p>Like The Angels did with rock ‘n’ roll, Kickin’ Down the Door offers a key change in the way it positions the people behind the scenes. Director Madeleine Parry has brought together a complex web of relationships pivoting on creative jubilation, obligation, devotion and estrangement.</p>
<p>At an early gig, the Brewsters’ mother is recalled as dancing on a table in a “sea of blokes”. These were her boys, who could do no wrong.</p>
<p>Mothers, girlfriends, wives and children are elevated close to the story’s centre, anchored within the nostalgic rhythm of white suburban Australian life to contrast with the band’s sprint – then marathon – to rock ‘n’ roll stardom. Beyond the band bubble, everyone’s sacrifice is apparent. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497832/original/file-20221129-22-cgfigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The band in a dressing room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497832/original/file-20221129-22-cgfigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497832/original/file-20221129-22-cgfigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497832/original/file-20221129-22-cgfigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497832/original/file-20221129-22-cgfigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497832/original/file-20221129-22-cgfigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497832/original/file-20221129-22-cgfigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497832/original/file-20221129-22-cgfigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s not just about the band – it’s also about the people around the band.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maslow Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“We all supplied the stability while they chased the dream,” says Neeson’s then partner. </p>
<p>In bringing women to the front, Parry frames the main players as multi-dimensional, emotional and expressive. The intensity of volume, riffage and flamboyance sits in dialogue with each band members’ reflections to present the way that “performance” seamlessly slides across gender and genre.</p>
<p>This deep thoughtfulness shines through the dizzying foray of complex legal and financial arrangements bands can be thrown into, setting them up with lifelong debt. </p>
<p>This is the persistent myth of “luck” in rock ‘n’ roll. This myth grinds against the power imbalance inherent in an incredibly competitive, brutal and sometimes hedonistic global business culture. For decades, rock ‘n’ roll has relied on the exploitation of artists who sacrifice family, health, economic security and friendships to have sustainable careers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497834/original/file-20221129-18-q7dynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The band today" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497834/original/file-20221129-18-q7dynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497834/original/file-20221129-18-q7dynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497834/original/file-20221129-18-q7dynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497834/original/file-20221129-18-q7dynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497834/original/file-20221129-18-q7dynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497834/original/file-20221129-18-q7dynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497834/original/file-20221129-18-q7dynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The film skilfully looks at the dark side of rock ‘n’ roll.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maslow Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This documentary skilfully weaves the devastation that comes when these pressures evaporate years of work for bands and their teams. </p>
<p>It isn’t so much a story about the big bad music industry swallowing up another Australian wanna be. Rather, it is a well-crafted assemblage of the pervasive way rock ‘n’ roll’s mystique works behind the scenes, prioritising profits over health and wellbeing, and the sustainability of artists and their families. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-artistic-differences-in-a-band-can-be-a-good-thing-110711">Why artistic differences in a band can be a good thing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The sonic legacy</h2>
<p>Undoubtedly the biggest names now in Australian guitar driven music – Amyl and the Sniffers, Courtney Barnett, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Tame Impala – are part of the sonic legacy of bands like The Angels. </p>
<p>But they also show a marked shift in how they do business when courting international markets, maintaining elements of independence and control that The Angels had no blueprint for.</p>
<p>This current crop of bands also show we are on the road to far better gender representation of what contemporary rock music looks and sounds like. And in other genres, artists like Baker Boy, Genesis Owusu, Barkaa and Jaguar Jonze continue to contest and take ownership of “the sound” of Australian music. </p>
<p>Incidentally, I never went on to play basketball. I picked up an electric guitar instead. </p>
<p><em>The Angels: Kickin’ Down the Door is in Australian cinemas from today.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janelle K Johnstone receives funding from the Australia Council and Creative Victoria. </span></em></p>
The documentary Kickin’ Down the Door offers something far more nuanced than the well-thumbed tale of these national music icons.
Janelle K Johnstone, PhD Candidate, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189101
2022-09-11T12:36:27Z
2022-09-11T12:36:27Z
Tantura: New documentary sparks debate about Israel and the Palestinian Nakba
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482161/original/file-20220831-14-npr8wf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C142%2C1362%2C642&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deportation of Tantura's women and children, from Fureidis to Tulkarm, three weeks after the Israeli takeover. The documentary, Tantura, aims to shed light on the destruction of the Palestinian village in 1948. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Israel State Archive, Benno Rothenberg collection)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new documentary, released earlier this year, is shining light on a violent and controversial episode in Israeli and Palestinian history. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16378034/"><em>Tantura</em></a> tells the story of the Palestinian village and the immediate events following its capturing in 1948. It has reopened the wound of the Palestinian <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080030/israel-palestine-nakba">Nakba</a> (Catastrophe) while sparking debate surrounding Israel’s role in the ongoing collective trauma of Palestinians.</p>
<p>The film begins with the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/tantura-director-israelis-have-been-lied-to-for-years-about-alleged-1948-massacre/">story of Israeli researcher Teddy Katz</a>. In 1998, Katz submitted his master’s thesis at Haifa University. It focused on an alleged massacre that soldiers of the Israeli Alexandroni Brigade carried out at the <a href="https://www.zochrot.org/villages/village_details/55025/en">Palestinian seaside village of Tantura</a> during the 1948 war. </p>
<p>Relying mostly on oral history, Katz interviewed dozens of soldiers who had participated in the operation, as well as Palestinian survivors. Based on his findings, Katz concluded that in capturing Tantura, Israeli soldiers committed war crimes, such as the killing of unarmed individuals, rape and looting. The thesis received high praise from Israeli critical scholars such as <a href="https://arabislamicstudies.exeter.ac.uk/staff/pappe/">Ilan Pappe</a>. Two years later, the thesis was picked up by an Israeli newspaper that published a story on Katz and the massacre. </p>
<p>But Katz’s thesis was not universally acclaimed or accepted. Following its publication, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2002-09-02/ty-article/pa-paid-legal-defense-fees-of-1948-tantura-affair-historian/0000017f-db70-d856-a37f-fff03c3a0000">Alexandroni veterans sued Katz for libel</a>. Moreover, Haifa University formed a special committee to re-examine Katz’s work. The committee found methodological errors that raised questions concerning the thesis. At the end of a swift trial, the sides agreed to compromise. Katz would recant and, in return, the charges would be dropped. Katz wrote a letter of apology and his work was disqualified and taken off Israeli library shelves. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QINFmqD4JUk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Tantura by filmmaker Alon Schwarz.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Revisiting Tantura</h2>
<p>Twenty two years later, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8130611/">director Alon Schwarz</a> visited Katz, who by then had experienced several strokes, to hear his story. Katz offered Schwarz full access to his recordings, which are used as the point of departure for the second narrative of the film: the investigation of the events that took place in Tantura on May 23, 1948. </p>
<p>In addition to the recordings, Schwarz interviewed several veterans and Palestinian inhabitants who are now in their 90s. Schwarz confronts his interviewees with the recordings and documents their reactions and stories. Most of them do not agree to talk about the events or contest Katz’s thesis. However, perhaps because of their age or the passage of time, several veterans broke their silence. Some confessed to the killings while others describe the atrocities they witnessed. </p>
<p>In doing so, they undermined one of Israel’s widespread collective myths about the superior moral standards of the Israeli military and society.</p>
<p>Like many documentaries that touch on difficult histories, Tantura is made from a melange of professional history, public debate and memories that are weaved together by cinematographic tools. </p>
<p>As such, it cannot give a concrete answer to what happened in Tantura. However, what is perhaps more important than the film itself is the debate it has sparked. Since its release, Tantura has garnered many public responses from <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-01-20/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/theres-a-mass-palestinian-grave-at-a-popular-israeli-beach-veterans-confess/0000017f-f230-d223-a97f-fffdbd5b0000">historians</a> and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2022-01-24/ty-article-opinion/investigate-the-tantura-affair/0000017f-dc76-df62-a9ff-dcf797740000">non-historians</a> alike.</p>
<p>It has also led to discussions in academic circles about what happened in Tantura and the role of historians as figures of authority concerning the past.</p>
<p>The Tantura dispute has raised questions about the influence of ideological orientation on the production of historical knowledge. For example, the renowned 1948 war historian <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/birth-of-the-palestinian-refugee-problem-revisited/8AE72A6813CEA7DDDE8F9386313F0D97">Benny Morris</a>, who investigates the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem, rejects the idea that a massacre took place in Tantura given the absence of a reliable textual source that can directly point to such an event. Morris, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2012-nov-09-la-fg-israel-historian-qa-20121109-story.html">who in recent years shifted his worldview while gravitating towards right-wing politics</a>, dismisses oral history as a reliable historical source while sanctifying the archive.</p>
<p>On the other hand, left-leaning historians like <a href="https://www.akevot.org.il/en/news-item/kafr-qasim-massacre-case-military-court-decision-granted-and-subjected-to-gag-order/">Adam Raz</a>, who also appears in the film, treat oral testimonies as a legitimate historical source. This clash goes beyond the Tantura debate and raises questions concerning the role of ideology and politics in interpreting the past. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482159/original/file-20220831-6808-q5ral0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C104%2C674%2C309&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a group of women walk down a road carrying their belongings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482159/original/file-20220831-6808-q5ral0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C104%2C674%2C309&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482159/original/file-20220831-6808-q5ral0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482159/original/file-20220831-6808-q5ral0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482159/original/file-20220831-6808-q5ral0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482159/original/file-20220831-6808-q5ral0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482159/original/file-20220831-6808-q5ral0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482159/original/file-20220831-6808-q5ral0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinian women leave the village of Tantura after its capture by Israeli forces in 1948.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Israel State Archives, The National Library of Israel)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The relevancy of Tantura today</h2>
<p>Debates surrounding Tantura also raise questions around the role of non-historians in shaping historical narratives and memories of the past. These include journalists and state officials, as well as <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-08-12/ty-article-magazine/how-to-cover-up-a-massacre/00000182-9271-d9bc-affb-f3ff387f0000">documentarians</a>. Their interventions have a great effect on public opinion and how collective memory is formed.</p>
<p>The participation of historians and other cultural agents in this public debate transgresses the Israeli taboo surrounding the Palestinian Nakba. A taboo that is in fact embedded in Israeli law. Legislation like the <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7181">Nakba Law</a> reduces state funds from institutions that commemorate the Nakba. This same taboo is also responsible for Israel’s <a href="https://www.akevot.org.il/en/news-item/1-29-state-access-israeli-government-archives/">refusal to release archival material</a> that might describe atrocities committed by Israel during the 1948 war. This is done by using a legislative loophole that bypasses the state’s legal obligation to release these materials. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the Israeli Nakba taboo exists because of the moral implications this history would have for the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict; particularly Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip. </p>
<p>For Israel and Israelis, dealing with the Nakba means acknowledging the country’s violent regime and policy toward the Palestinians. It means recognizing the devastating results of trying to control a people using military rule. As difficult as it is, Israel will eventually have to reconcile with its dark past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rudy Kisler receives funding from Fond de Recherche du Québec Société et Culture. </span></em></p>
The documentary, Tantura, has raised difficult questions about the foundation of Israel and the Palestinian Nakba.
Rudy Kisler, PhD candidate, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183741
2022-06-05T07:20:17Z
2022-06-05T07:20:17Z
The award-winning African documentary project that goes inside the lives of migrants
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465471/original/file-20220526-23-9tw5pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Last Shelter plays out at a migrant shelter on the southern edge of the Sahara desert.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy Generation Africa/STEPS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For far too long the west has been telling stories about and talking on behalf of Africa. However, a new slate of 25 documentary films by African filmmakers called <a href="https://www.generationafrica.co.za">Generation Africa</a> is currently making waves at international film festivals and is set to shift perspectives about migration in and from the continent. </p>
<p>It’s the latest initiative by a Cape Town-based organisation called <a href="https://steps.co.za">STEPS</a>. For 20 years the NGO has been an innovator in using film as a tool for social change and in developing talent from the continent. They produce ambitious theme-based collections of films that engage with pressing issues, in this case migration. The 25 new documentaries present diverse and nuanced insider perspectives of people moving both between African countries and from Africa.</p>
<p>Filmmakers from around Africa were invited to submit proposals for films specifically to address the missing perspective of Africans on this contentious global issue. Several of the films have been completed, among them ones that have been gathering media <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/generation-africa-the-young-face-of-african-cinema/a-60723861">attention</a> for high profile film festival selections and awards. The Last Shelter (Mali) had its world premiere at <a href="https://cphdox.dk/">CPH:DOX</a> in Denmark in 2021, where it also won the Dox:Award, the top prize at this festival. No U-Turn (Nigeria) received a <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.news24.com/channel/movies/news/generation-africa-film-no-u-turn-recognised-at-berlinale-20220222&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1653387231615205&usg=AOvVaw3SW0uRikbmtwkjS0MODJpp">Special Mention</a> from the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in February. No Simple Way Home (South Sudan) has recently won the DOK.horizonte <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dokfest-muenchen.de/Awards?lang%3Den&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1653387231639829&usg=AOvVaw1_ujDh21-ZXLQ_c516xD4j">prize</a> at DOK.fest Munchen. </p>
<p>Premiering at one of these A-list festivals would be a crowning achievement for a documentary from anywhere in the world. But festival success is merely the beginning of the plans for these films. From the start, STEPS wanted compelling stories that would offer images of Africans as active change-makers shaping their own destinies, whether they chose to move within the continent or out of it, whether to stay abroad or return.</p>
<h2>Social change</h2>
<p><a href="https://steps.co.za">STEPS</a> stands for Social Transformation and Empowerment Projects. The organisation laid the groundwork in South Africa for what was then called outreach by many and is now referred to as <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2022/03/countering-the-narrrative">impact producing</a>, the design and implementation of a social change strategy with a film at its centre.</p>
<p>Its first programme in 2001, <a href="https://steps.co.za/projects/steps-for-the-future/">STEPS for the Future</a>, focused on Southern African stories about people living with HIV/AIDS and pioneered the use of mobile cinemas to get films to hard-to-reach rural and semi-urban audiences. Though it often makes shorter films collaboratively with communities, STEPS also boasts a long history of high profile international successes, like co-producing the 2008 <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/sa-produced-doccie-wins-oscar-20080225">Oscar-winning</a> documentary <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0854678/">Taxi to the Dark Side</a> as part of its <a href="https://steps.co.za/projects/why-democracy/">Why Democracy</a> slate of 27 films.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-film-is-fighting-the-erasure-of-south-african-activist-dulcie-september-165895">How a film is fighting the erasure of South African activist Dulcie September</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>STEPS intends that each of the Generation Africa documentaries has an impact campaign designed to effect targeted social change centred on the issues raised in the film. Socio-political, economic and climate change crises drive many Africans to move to new countries as migrants, refugees or asylum-seekers. Many of the Generation Africa films have the potential to help lobby for policy change, raise money or secure material support for affected communities. </p>
<p>The STEPS method relies on creating meaningful conversations through holding audience engagements after a screening. These sometimes include filmmakers and participants from the films and are aimed at influencing social change at individual, community and policy level. </p>
<h2>Three of the new films</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14574478/">The Last Shelter</a> centres on several characters at the House of Migrants on the edge of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Sahara-desert-Africa">Sahara</a> desert in the city of Gao in Mali. Some are about to undertake a perilous attempt to cross the desert, others seek shelter after failing to. It’s clear that Malian filmmaker <a href="https://www.idfa.nl/en/article/154845/how-ousmane-samassekou-turned-a-personal-story-into-the-award-winning-film-the-last-shelter">Ousmane Sammassekou</a> had privileged access to the people of the shelter. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465458/original/file-20220526-14-ngmvmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowded bus in transit, people staring ahead, out the windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465458/original/file-20220526-14-ngmvmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465458/original/file-20220526-14-ngmvmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465458/original/file-20220526-14-ngmvmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465458/original/file-20220526-14-ngmvmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465458/original/file-20220526-14-ngmvmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465458/original/file-20220526-14-ngmvmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465458/original/file-20220526-14-ngmvmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No U Turn (Nigeria).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Generation Africa/STEPS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17079294/">No U-Turn</a>, directed by <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-nollywood-to-new-nollywood-the-story-of-nigerias-runaway-success-47959">Nollywood</a> producer <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/berlin-film-festival-ike-nnaebue/?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1">Ike Nnaebue</a>, is structured around the migration journey he himself took as a young man travelling from Nigeria to Morocco, dreaming of Europe.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17079296/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">No Simple Way Home</a> by <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/berlinale-akuol-de-mabior/">Akuol de Mabior</a> reflects on her parents, who are past and present political leaders in South Sudan. She explores her own complicated relationship to the country.</p>
<p>Through attention to structure and storytelling, the Generation Africa films provide new insights by revealing the personal stories, circumstances, challenges and achievements of some of the individuals behind the anonymous statistics on migration. The films are able to move audiences in such a way that there is the potential to effect change. But impact strategy relies on much more than simply screening a film. </p>
<h2>Impact strategies</h2>
<p>To kickstart their impact strategy design, STEPS hosted an “impact lab” with the Generation Africa filmmakers. Best practice was explored on topics like facilitating audience conversations, working with partner organisations, creating impact goals for activist filmmakers, engaging with policy makers. </p>
<p>The Last Shelter’s impact producer, Giulia Boccato-Borne, has already commenced an impact campaign. The film provides a meaningful way to initiate conversations with potential migrants before they leave their home country. And also with communities who put pressure on young people to migrate in order to support their extended families financially. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465470/original/file-20220526-13-lkanmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women in the foreground standing with a small group of women, all looking back at something." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465470/original/file-20220526-13-lkanmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465470/original/file-20220526-13-lkanmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465470/original/file-20220526-13-lkanmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465470/original/file-20220526-13-lkanmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465470/original/file-20220526-13-lkanmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465470/original/file-20220526-13-lkanmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465470/original/file-20220526-13-lkanmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No Simple Way Home (South Sudan).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Generation Africa/STEPS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A specific goal at an individual level is to help Esther, a 16-year-old girl in the film running from a home situation so bad she chose to rather risk walking across the desert. She crossed to Algeria successfully after the film was shot but then fell into the hands of human traffickers. Khadidja Benouataf, one of the impact team, used her Algerian connections to find the girl and place her in foster care. They are working on securing asylum for her.</p>
<p>No U-Turn, which is still in the initial stages of impact strategy design, plays particularly well to a European audience as it reveals the dreams and goals that drive individuals to migrate. After watching the film it is much harder to see migration from Africa as a systemic problem that has to be ‘fixed’. One is, instead, invited to dream with each of the characters during the road trip vignettes that make up the film. The director reflects towards the end: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The countries of our birth do not allow us enough opportunities to dream. So we cross to the next border, hoping there will be space for our dreams there.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No Simple Way Home’s impact campaign has been supported by influential organisations like DocuBox Kenya, DocSociety, The Good Pitch and The Wickers. Their community screenings in South Sudan will kick off in July, led by impact producer Jacob Bul. Impact goals include opening intergenerational conversations around South Sudan’s future and solidifying women’s roles in leadership in Africa. </p>
<p>By contributing to conversations in Africa and globally about identity and home and the experience of being physically detached from your country of origin, the Generation Africa films play a role in shifting the contemporary narrative about migration and the people who move from country to country, and continent to continent, dreaming of a better future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liani Maasdorp is affiliated with the Documentary Filmmakers' Association (DFA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Cain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Lifting awards at film festivals is just the start of the journey for documentaries like The Last Shelter (Mali), No U-Turn (Nigeria) and No Simple Way Home (South Sudan).
Liani Maasdorp, Senior lecturer in Screen Production and Film and Television Studies, University of Cape Town
Julia Cain, Lecturer in Screen Production and Film Theory & Practice, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165011
2021-07-27T19:54:57Z
2021-07-27T19:54:57Z
Yes, Naomi Osaka is Japanese. And American. And Haitian
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413031/original/file-20210726-19-w13c33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3834%2C2017&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Friday, Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony. This honour sent an important message to the world: Osaka represents a diversifying Japan.</p>
<p>Yet, some <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/olympics/burning-issue-how-japanese-is-naomi-osaka/news-story/0795aa70964e46c1ea8a7b23a79f3c58">still question</a> whether she <em>really</em> is Japanese.
The question we should be asking instead is: who is Naomi Osaka, really?</p>
<p>Netflix’s new three-part documentary series attempts to answer this question. Director Garrett Bradley followed the tennis player over two years from her first grand slam win in 2018 to her third in 2020. </p>
<p>The documentary touches on her tennis career, her mental health and her call to <a href="https://time.com/6077128/naomi-osaka-essay-tokyo-olympics/">change the format</a> of post-match press conferences.</p>
<p>But it also gives viewers a closer look at Osaka finding her voice in the world as a young, mixed-race Japanese Haitian woman.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yZRls7B7uzY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The difference between nationality and race</h2>
<p>In the documentary, Osaka speaks about her decision to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/10/10/tennis-star-naomi-osaka-gives-up-her-us-citizenship-play-japan-tokyo-olympics/">renounce her American nationality</a> in 2019. Reflecting on the public’s response to her decision, she felt “people really don’t know the difference between nationality and race”. </p>
<p>She is right when she says there is a difference. </p>
<p>Nationality is a form of legal identification specifying our membership to a nation. Race refers to physical appearances, and is often described as a <a href="https://othersociologist.com/sociology-of-race/">social construct</a>: not determined by scientific fact, but rather by the social meaning collectively attributed to biological traits. To <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2018.1410200">avoid uncomfortable conversations</a>, some choose to use the word “ethnicity” instead of race, a term used to define groups based on invisible factors like language or customs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413217/original/file-20210726-25-j9mqxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Osaka holding a tennis racquet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413217/original/file-20210726-25-j9mqxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413217/original/file-20210726-25-j9mqxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413217/original/file-20210726-25-j9mqxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413217/original/file-20210726-25-j9mqxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413217/original/file-20210726-25-j9mqxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413217/original/file-20210726-25-j9mqxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413217/original/file-20210726-25-j9mqxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The documentary follows Osaka as she plays tennis, but also as she finds her way as a young woman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the difference in their meanings, race, nationality and ethnicity are deeply interconnected in the ways we discuss identity. </p>
<p>Osaka was born in Japan in 1997 to her Japanese mother and Haitian father. She moved to the United States when she was three and grew up there as a Japanese-American dual national. </p>
<p>During the two years when the documentary was in production, Osaka celebrated her 22nd birthday. According to Japanese Nationality Law, dual Japanese nationals are required to <a href="http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tnl-01.html">renounce</a> one of their nationalities before they turn 22. </p>
<p>For many, the decision to forfeit one nationality is tricky, uncomfortable and, where possible, <a href="https://features.japantimes.co.jp/dualcitizenship/">avoided</a> by dual nationals only showing their Japanese passport at Japanese airports.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jse0MNOi6C8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://newvoices.org.au/volume-12/forfeiting-citizenship-forfeiting-identity-multiethnic-and-multiracial-japanese-youth-in-australia-and-the-japanese-nationality-law/">my research</a> on mixed-race Japanese youth in Australia, participants told me their dual nationality opens up economic and personal opportunities for them to live or work in Japan without the restrictions of a visa.</p>
<p>But perhaps more importantly, the thought of forfeiting their nationality was a great concern for those who saw it as an intrinsic part of their identity.</p>
<p>In the documentary, Osaka says her decision to become a sole Japanese national was an obvious one. “I’ve been playing under the Japanese flag since I was 14”, she says. “It was never even a secret that I was gonna play for Japan for the Olympics.”</p>
<p>But while it was obvious, it wasn’t easy. Some people saw this renouncing of her American citizenship as a decision to forfeit her Black identity:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t choose America and suddenly people are like, “your Black card is revoked”. And it’s like, African American isn’t the only Black, you know?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite choosing to become a sole Japanese national, Osaka is both Japanese and Haitian, and holds deep connections to America, Haiti and Japan. The film follows her as she plays for Japan, wears <a href="https://time.com/5888583/naomi-osaka-masks-black-lives-matter-us-open/">face masks</a> to the US Open in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and travels with her family to the <a href="https://youtu.be/UXUUvyDq8Gs?t=204">Osaka Foundation</a> — a school for Haitian children established by her parents.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CPvIWB-jzIL","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Navigating identity and expectations</h2>
<p>Osaka isn’t the only person facing interrogation into their identity.</p>
<p>Many people of mixed-race heritage often have a sense of “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-55909105">racial impostor syndrome</a>”: the sense of doubt they feel when others question the authenticity of their mixed-race background. </p>
<p>It is common for young persons of Japanese background living outside of Japan to only be <a href="https://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en/news/articles/2020/20200831-48610.html">beginner to intermediate</a> speakers of Japanese. Speaking about her self-confessed “broken” Japanese skills, Osaka worries she is “doing something wrong by not representing the half Black, half-Japanese kids well.” </p>
<p>But Osaka’s openness about these difficulties is exactly how the half Black, half Japanese kids need to be represented.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-naomi-osaka-talks-we-should-listen-athletes-are-not-commodities-nor-are-they-super-human-161893">When Naomi Osaka talks, we should listen. Athletes are not commodities, nor are they super human</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is important for us to challenge static ideas of race, ethnicity and nationality by sharing the voices of people of mixed backgrounds like Osaka. </p>
<p>Our identities are complex, and they change over time. There is more to being Japanese than fluently speaking the Japanese language, looking Japanese or holding a Japanese passport. </p>
<p>We shouldn’t forget who Naomi Osaka is. A strong tennis player, a passionate activist, and a mixed-race woman who represents contemporary Japan.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aoife Wilkinson receives PhD scholarship funding through University of Queensland and Department of Education (RTP).</span></em></p>
A new Netflix documentary gives an intimate look into Naomi Osaka finding her voice in the world.
Aoife Wilkinson, PhD candidate, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/163800
2021-07-13T20:10:32Z
2021-07-13T20:10:32Z
Tokyo Olympiad, Kon Ichikawa’s documentary of the 1964 Games, is still a masterpiece
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410712/original/file-20210712-70712-nbjw3p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2148%2C900&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tokyo Olympiad/IMDB</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of the countless documentaries about the Olympic Games, two have long held their place on the podium.</p>
<p>The first is <a href="https://youtu.be/H3LOPhRq3Es">Olympia</a> (1938), Leni Riefenstahl’s landmark two-part film about the controversial 1936 Berlin Games. Funded by the Nazi regime and made with the backing of the International Olympic Committee, it is both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/14/shameful-legacy-olympics-1936-berlin">a monumental propaganda piece</a> and a majestic celebration of athletic strength and beauty. </p>
<p>The second is Kon Ichikawa’s far lesser known, but no less audacious, <a href="https://olympics.com/en/video/tokyo-1964-official-film">Tokyo Olympiad</a> (1965).</p>
<p>Ichikawa was a <a href="https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/where-begin-kon-ichikawa">prolific and renown director</a>, best known for The Burmese Harp (1956) and Fires on the Plain (1959) — a pair of bleak, but humanistic, anti-war films — and the stylistically daring An Actor’s Revenge (1963). </p>
<p>Tokyo Olympiad was his first documentary. He held little interest in sport, let alone the Olympics, when he scored the gig.</p>
<p>For his homework, he studied Riefenstahl’s film exhaustively.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y66QNmeSiWs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Like Riefenstahl, Ichikawa employed a vast array of techniques to showcase athletic feats with an abstract grandeur. And, like his predecessor, he was granted a wealth of access and resources: he had at his disposal more than 100 cameras, cutting-edge equipment and a small army of technicians.</p>
<p>Besides the historical and political context, there remains a crucial difference between the two documentaries. Fascism infused the Berlin Games and Riefenstahl’s film elevated the Olympics to mythic proportions, portraying athletes as something bordering on supernatural. </p>
<p>In Tokyo Olympiad, the athletes — like the spectators and officials given almost equal attention — come across as human. No more, and no less.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/leni-riefenstahl-both-feminist-icon-and-fascist-film-maker-95542">Leni Riefenstahl: both feminist icon and fascist film-maker</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Moments big and small</h2>
<p>Other than an occasional caption or narration, there is minimal effort to inform the viewer who won what at the 1964 Tokyo Games. While some key events receive their due coverage — Ethiopian Abebe Bikila’s <a href="https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/news/abebe-bikila-wins-marathon-gold-40-days-after-appendicitis-surgery">marathon victory</a> is given an epic treatment — others don’t get so much as a mention. </p>
<p>Tokyo Olympiad isn’t a film of facts and statistics. Ichikawa depicted events not necessarily as they happened, but as he saw them to be.</p>
<p>The wrestling is a claustrophobic tangling of limbs. The walking race a comical dance of bobbing heads and swaying butts. The rifle competition is reduced to a series of Sergio Leone-esque close-ups of eyes deep in concentration. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410715/original/file-20210712-27-1az3f8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410715/original/file-20210712-27-1az3f8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410715/original/file-20210712-27-1az3f8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410715/original/file-20210712-27-1az3f8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410715/original/file-20210712-27-1az3f8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410715/original/file-20210712-27-1az3f8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410715/original/file-20210712-27-1az3f8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410715/original/file-20210712-27-1az3f8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The wrestling is a claustrophobic tangling of limbs.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tokyo Olympiad/IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the massive scope and scale of the production, Tokyo Olympiad is as committed to highlighting minutiae as to presenting spectacle.</p>
<p>There’s the fascinating, twitchy ritual of Soviet shot-putter Adolf Varanauskas before he makes the throw. The curious sight of Japanese hurdler Ikuko Yoda placing a lemon on the starting block. And the blistered and bleeding soles of marathon runners who collapse after they limp to the finish line. </p>
<p>When English runner Ann Packer wins the 800 metre final, Ichikawa replays the end of the race in slow motion with the soundtrack stripped almost bare, capturing the moment she smiles at her fiancé watching from the sidelines.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410718/original/file-20210712-27-1y3mpgj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young boy waves the Japanese flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410718/original/file-20210712-27-1y3mpgj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410718/original/file-20210712-27-1y3mpgj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410718/original/file-20210712-27-1y3mpgj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410718/original/file-20210712-27-1y3mpgj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410718/original/file-20210712-27-1y3mpgj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410718/original/file-20210712-27-1y3mpgj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410718/original/file-20210712-27-1y3mpgj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Ichikawa dedicates as many close-ups to spectators as he does to competitors.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tokyo Olympiad/IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ichikawa dedicates as many close-ups to spectators as he does to competitors. He delights in watching officials scrambling to ensure events run smoothly. He crafts impressionistic interludes: a frenzied montage of typewriters in the press room; a melancholic passage showing the rain beginning to fall. </p>
<h2>Winners and losers</h2>
<p>The 1964 Tokyo Olympics embodied the optimism of Japan’s triumphant economic and social transformation in the two decades after the second world war. But there’s little flag-waving in Ichikawa’s film. The city is hardly shown. The Japanese team’s 16 gold medals (behind only the US and USSR) is underplayed.</p>
<p>The Japanese authorities who commissioned the film were expecting a straightforward documentary which faithfully recorded results and promoted the nation’s achievements. They were unimpressed by Ichikawa’s artistry.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ckAmnWeVZXg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Their disapproval did not affect audiences’ enthusiasm. Tokyo Olympiad was watched by 23 million people upon its release in Japan, holding the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_in_Japan#Box_office_admissions">box-office attendance record</a> until Hiyao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away in 2001.</p>
<p>Ichikawa’s refusal to bow to patriotic impulses wasn’t a simple act of defiance (ironically, Japanese leftists also criticised the film for being too nationalistic). His stance was consistent: he celebrated the underdogs and the losers as much as the winners; he privileged individuals over the nations they represented.</p>
<p>American Billy Mills won the 10,000 metre race, but in Tokyo Olympiad images of lesser athletes linger just as strongly. A runner’s surprise at getting lapped is captured in a freeze frame; a dejected participant is shown unable to finish. A competitor from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) comes dead last, but receives a rousing ovation as he runs the final lap alone. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410912/original/file-20210712-24-sv9q6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gymnast mid-flip." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410912/original/file-20210712-24-sv9q6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410912/original/file-20210712-24-sv9q6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410912/original/file-20210712-24-sv9q6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410912/original/file-20210712-24-sv9q6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410912/original/file-20210712-24-sv9q6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410912/original/file-20210712-24-sv9q6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410912/original/file-20210712-24-sv9q6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Ichikawa privileged individuals over the nations they represented.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tokyo Olimpiad/IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Elsewhere, Ichikawa devotes a lengthy section to the middle-distance runner Ahmed Issa, one of just two representatives from the newly independent Chad. Issa doesn’t qualify for the final, but Ichikawa is drawn to his quiet dignity and resilience. He follows the athlete as he arrives in Tokyo, wanders the streets, runs his race, and eats alone in the mess hall after bowing out of the competition.</p>
<p>This emphasis on an unknown athlete from a little-known nation, whom history likely would’ve forgotten otherwise, speaks volumes about Ichikawa’s priorities.</p>
<h2>Tokyo Olympiad mark II</h2>
<p>The celebrated Japanese director Naomi Kawase has been <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/naomi-kawase-appointed-to-direct-the-official-film-of-tokyo-2020">commissioned</a> to make the official 2021 documentary. Her assignment may be the toughest yet.</p>
<p>The optimism that surrounded the 1964 Games is in short supply. Most in Japan oppose the Olympics going ahead. Medical experts continue to warn of the dangers of pressing on. If Kawase points her cameras at the stands, they will be empty.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anger-in-tokyo-over-the-summer-olympics-is-just-the-latest-example-of-how-unpopular-hosting-the-games-has-become-161396">Anger in Tokyo over the Summer Olympics is just the latest example of how unpopular hosting the games has become</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Kawase has huge shoes to fill. She’ll be following in the footsteps of a fellow Japanese director who made one of the great sporting documentaries — if not simply one of the great documentaries. </p>
<p>But she will, no doubt, make the 2021 Games her own.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The restored Tokyo Olympiad <a href="https://olympics.com/en/video/tokyo-1964-official-film">can be streamed</a> on the International Olympic Committee website.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163800/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenta McGrath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Kon Ichikawa’s documentary of the 1964 games is one of the great sporting documentaries – if not simply one of the great documentaries.
Kenta McGrath, Sessional Academic in Screen Arts, Curtin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156491
2021-03-11T02:13:52Z
2021-03-11T02:13:52Z
Max Richter’s Sleep, a filmed antidote to modern life with music to dream by
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388935/original/file-20210310-15-1xqgckd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C1484%2C1001&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by MIKE TERRY/Madman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Max Richter’s Sleep, directed by Natalie Johns.</em></p>
<p>Music <em>does</em> things. For German-born, English-raised composer <a href="https://www.maxrichtermusic.com/">Max Richter</a>, music is a “vehicle for travelling through the world, for getting through life”. So he says in the film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10400418/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Max Richter’s Sleep</a>, written and directed by Natalie Johns, which hits Australian screens today. </p>
<p>The film focuses on a composition by Richter which spans more than 200 movements and lasts over eight hours. During performances of this work, audience members (probably not the right term in this case) spend almost the whole concert resting or asleep in hundreds of cots and camping beds lined up where you would normally find seats. </p>
<p>Richter, a prodigious contemporary composer, has made music for solo albums, ballets, concert hall performances, theatre and film and television series (including The Crown, The Leftovers and Peaky Blinders). His Sleep performance-events were conceived with his collaborator and partner Yulia Mahr, a BAFTA-winning filmmaker. The film focuses primarily on an open-air concert in downtown Los Angeles, although it weaves in performance footage from other locations around the world including Berlin, the <a href="https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/backstage/2018/08/max-richter-sleep.html">Sydney Opera House</a> and Paris. </p>
<p>Audience members arrive at the concert in the evening, before being lulled into a dream-state by Richter (on the piano) and his band of musicians. They wake the next morning to find them still softly playing. The technical achievement of the composer, performers and organisers is undeniable. But as a musicologist with strong sociological leanings, my own interest lies in Richter’s treatment of audience expectations and listening behaviours, as well as his interesting perspective on the kinds of things music can do.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LRlH60JX2Hs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘It’s not [music] necessarily to be listened to … but to be experienced.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/review-david-byrnes-american-utopia-is-a-film-honouring-the-love-of-the-live-performance-149977">Review: David Byrne’s American Utopia is a film honouring the love of the live performance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Listen up and settle down</h2>
<p>People listen to music in different ways for different reasons. We might use music to keep pace during a gym workout or while jogging. This is partly because our bodily rhythms (heart rate and breathing) can synchronise with externally heard rhythms — something psychologists call <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654888.001.0001/acprof-9780199654888-chapter-16">rhythmic entrainment</a>. </p>
<p>We often use music to regulate our emotions and moods, to mark occasions such as weddings and birthdays, and to celebrate sporting victories from club to Olympic level, where the music acts not as decoration but as a kind of social glue. </p>
<p>Music listening habits also change over time. In the 18th century, opera-goers were notoriously lively, more likely facing each other than the stage, but since the 19th century these audiences have become rather more reverent. Classical music audiences still typically display “serious” listening behaviours, although companies such as <a href="https://www.playonmusic.com.au/">Play On</a> are upending these conventions. By inviting audiences to sleep through an entire concert, Richter and Mahr are doing the same, with interesting results.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388939/original/file-20210311-21-1oz6qdc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Concert for sleeping audience" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388939/original/file-20210311-21-1oz6qdc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388939/original/file-20210311-21-1oz6qdc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388939/original/file-20210311-21-1oz6qdc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388939/original/file-20210311-21-1oz6qdc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388939/original/file-20210311-21-1oz6qdc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388939/original/file-20210311-21-1oz6qdc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388939/original/file-20210311-21-1oz6qdc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During the performance, musicians including Richter leave the stage to eat or take a toilet break.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Richter describes the composition as an “eight-hour lullaby”. It is a soothing musical remedy for the increasingly hectic pace of modern life, in which sleep is often considered an inconvenience or even a weakness. </p>
<p>Music is widely used nowadays as a <a href="https://www.austmta.org.au/">therapeutic tool</a>. In fact the practice of “prescribing” music for soothing, energising or mood-regulating purposes dates back at least as far as ancient Greece. Pythagoras, for example, is said to have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781119275510.ch25">sung and played the lyre</a> for his disciples to induce a calm mood prior to sleep, and to shake off numbness and tiredness upon waking. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/having-trouble-sleeping-heres-the-science-on-3-traditional-bedtime-remedies-150360">Having trouble sleeping? Here's the science on 3 traditional bedtime remedies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Perchance to dream</h2>
<p>For centuries, sleep was regarded as a suspension of activity — a passive state of unconsciousness. However during the 18th and 19th centuries <a href="https://www.veryshortintroductions.com/view/10.1093/actrade/9780199587858.001.0001/actrade-9780199587858">new theories</a> of the origin of sleep emerged, linking sleep to the build up of toxins during the day, blood flow and the paralysis of nerve cells. Many of these ideas are still being explored in current sleep science, which now highlights the active nature and generative power of sleep, as well as the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2009.04982.x">potential benefits</a> of music listening for sleep quality. Musical activities, like other creative activites, can have a positive impact on our wellbeing, as <a href="https://research.unimelb.edu.au/research-at-melbourne/multidisciplinary-research/hallmark-research-initiatives/creativity-and-wellbeing">research at the University of Melbourne</a> is showing.</p>
<p>Richter observes in the film that the hectic pace of modern life suits corporations more so than humans. His Sleep opus offers a “quiet protest”, a moment to withdraw and reflect, treating the sleeping mind as a valuable complement to our waking life. The film mirrors what I imagine attendance at a live performance of the work to be like. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388940/original/file-20210311-23-e1sxnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Busy japan intersection" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388940/original/file-20210311-23-e1sxnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388940/original/file-20210311-23-e1sxnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388940/original/file-20210311-23-e1sxnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388940/original/file-20210311-23-e1sxnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388940/original/file-20210311-23-e1sxnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388940/original/file-20210311-23-e1sxnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388940/original/file-20210311-23-e1sxnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sleep score hopes to counter the frenetic pace of modern life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1573456373835-579c408de263?ixid=MXwxMjA3fDB8MHxzZWFyY2h8Nzl8fGJ1c3klMjBjaXR5fGVufDB8fDB8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=800&q=60">Denys Nevozhai/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-portal-review-can-meditation-change-the-world-123513">The Portal review: can meditation change the world?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As viewers, we, along with audience members in the film, settle into our own journey. Long passages of deeply resonant music exert their visceral emotional pull, in slow rhythms and very low frequencies outside the usual range of acoustic instruments. </p>
<p>As the piece unfolds through the night, the musicians alternately take breaks, perhaps to eat or use the bathroom. Richter moves from the piano around the venue, to see “what the piece is doing”, before returning to the stage to continue playing. </p>
<p>Darkness shades much of the film visually, and commentary is provided by various audience members who are never quite introduced, as if in a dream. There are scholarly musings too, on the science of sleep and the relationship between music and mathematics. </p>
<p>Richter and Mahr also recount the origins of the piece and the risks, gambles and unknowns they faced as artists. As audience members rouse themselves at the conclusion of the film, their reflections reveal they were not really audience members at all, but participants in a musical study of sleep. This explored music’s capacity to soothe deeply, and, in being soothed, allowed participants to become vulnerable and open to connection with one another. </p>
<p>Can the film successfully replicate the live experience? Of course not. Do I now wish I could attend (and sleep through) a live performance of this piece? Absolutely.</p>
<p><em>Max Richter’s Sleep is in Australian cinemas from today.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frederic Kiernan has previously received funding from the former Australian Government Department of Education and Training as well as the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions CE1101011</span></em></p>
Sleeping through a live performance would usually indicate it wasn’t engaging. But as a film about Max Richter’s Sleep concerts explains, this is exactly the response the composer was hoping for.
Frederic Kiernan, Research fellow, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151023
2020-12-04T01:05:47Z
2020-12-04T01:05:47Z
Film review: the immoderate adventures of Oliver Sacks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372708/original/file-20201203-17-pno4fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=158%2C112%2C3143%2C3163&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman/Ken Shung</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10887164/">Oliver Sacks: His Own Life</a>, directed by Ric Burns</em></p>
<p>Apropos of nothing but a bowl of jello placed before him, a stifled laugh escapes from Oliver Sacks, the famed neurologist, writer and public intellectual.</p>
<p>“What are you thinking about?” asks a voice offscreen.</p>
<p>Sacks demurs at first — or perhaps feigns reluctance — then relents. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Until a few years ago, I would wake up at night with an erection. Nothing to do with sexual excitement … But it was at times irritatingly persistent. So, I would sometimes cool my turgid penis in orange jello.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such vignettes from Oliver Sacks: His Own Life reveal the usually shy, but often cheeky and sometimes shockingly honest character of the late Sacks.</p>
<p>Shortly after receiving a fatal diagnosis in January, 2015, Sacks invited documentarian Ric Burns and crew for a series of interviews in his New York City apartment. Sacks’ second memoir, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24972194-on-the-move">On the Move</a>, would be published in April. He passed away just a few months later.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-want-to-stare-death-in-the-eye-why-dying-inspires-so-many-writers-and-artists-128061">'I want to stare death in the eye': why dying inspires so many writers and artists</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Immoderate in all directions’</h2>
<p>The film is structured around Sacks reading brief passages from his memoir, accompanied by archival footage of the avuncular physician in action. Also interspersed are pithy recollections from fellow neurologists, writers, editors, patients, family and friends.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/47ooNWugxRE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Oliver Sacks reminded us to ‘treat the person and not the disease’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than retreading <a href="https://theconversation.com/celebrating-oliver-sacks-romantic-science-and-a-life-now-ending-42242">previous thoughts</a> on Sacks’ style of “romantic science”, it’s worth considering what the documentary offers that existing memoirs, biographies and other accounts do not.</p>
<p>Firstly, for those unfamiliar with Sacks, the film provides the most efficient but palatable — jello anecdotes aside — summary of his life, work and character.</p>
<p>Moreover, it reconciles how Sacks’ seemingly wild contradictions would (eventually) become complements. A recurring theme is that Sacks was “immoderate in all directions”, living a life that whiplashed between extremes of hedonism and self-discipline.</p>
<p>Sacks possessed a curious mix of extraordinary erudition, voracious appetite and self-destructive tendencies. This was leavened by seemingly boundless empathy for the neurologically marginalised, for whom he so poetically advocated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-oliver-sacks-brought-readers-into-his-patients-inner-worlds-46918">How Oliver Sacks brought readers into his patients' inner worlds</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Sex, drugs and shyness</h2>
<p>By all accounts, including those <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Insomniac-City-New-York-Oliver/dp/1620404931">of his partner Bill Hayes</a>, Sacks could be painfully shy, yet effusively gregarious when taken by “sudden, ebullient outbursts of boyish enthusiasm”.</p>
<p>As a young man wracked with anguish regarding his sexuality and unrequited affections, Sacks once resolved never to live with anyone again. So began 35 years of celibacy, when Sacks took on an almost monastic dedication to his work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372710/original/file-20201203-15-1tkhvt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young man with motorbike in retro black and white photo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372710/original/file-20201203-15-1tkhvt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372710/original/file-20201203-15-1tkhvt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372710/original/file-20201203-15-1tkhvt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372710/original/file-20201203-15-1tkhvt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372710/original/file-20201203-15-1tkhvt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372710/original/file-20201203-15-1tkhvt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372710/original/file-20201203-15-1tkhvt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A need for speed. A handsome young Sacks with his beloved motorbike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, Sacks first turned to drugs “as a sort of compensation”, acquiring a fierce amphetamine habit that proved inspiring and corrosive.</p>
<p>Yet Sacks also sought mastery over his body, becoming an exceptional weightlifter.</p>
<p>Oscillating between roles as “Dr Squat” the athlete, “Wolf” the speedfreak biker, and “Ollie” the kindly but unconventional neurologist, Sacks often remained ill at ease. </p>
<p>Perhaps only in his very late years, through his relationship with Hayes — including a very late discovery of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/insomniac-city-review-bill-hayes-memoir-of-life-and-love-with-oliver-sacks-20170510-gw1fzs.html">French kissing on his 76th birthday</a> — did Sacks find comfort.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/oliver-sacks-the-brain-and-god-47030">Oliver Sacks, the brain and God</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A difficult childhood</h2>
<p>Born into a “typical, Orthodox Jewish, middle-class family” during the 1930s, Sacks’ father, Sam, was an affable GP, while his mother, Elsie, was a highly regarded gynaecologist, and among the first women surgeons in England.</p>
<p>Sacks reports an “an uneasy closeness” with his mother. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think she wanted me to be like her. Sometimes, especially when I was very young … she would bring a fetus home, and suggest I dissect it. That was not so easy for a child of ten or eleven.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Later, upon discovering Oliver was gay, his mother declared him an “abomination”. Though they remained close, Sacks lamented that “her words haunted me for much of my life”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372696/original/file-20201203-17-1202y9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and white photo of young boy, who would become neurologist Oliver Sacks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372696/original/file-20201203-17-1202y9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372696/original/file-20201203-17-1202y9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372696/original/file-20201203-17-1202y9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372696/original/file-20201203-17-1202y9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372696/original/file-20201203-17-1202y9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372696/original/file-20201203-17-1202y9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372696/original/file-20201203-17-1202y9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When she found out he was gay, Sacks’ mother called him ‘an abomination’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sacks and his brother Michael were sent to boarding school during the Battle of Britain. Soon after this harrowing experience Michael was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Sacks became both “terrified of him, terrified for him” and retreated into a fondness for chemistry.</p>
<h2>Neurologist as naturalist</h2>
<p>Only after many years could Sacks work his way back towards contemplating the minds of others.</p>
<p>Famously clumsy, Sacks initially aspired to be a lab scientist, but after numerous calamities was instructed to “Get out, see patients, you’ll do less harm”. </p>
<p>His vocational approach as a neurologist often more resembled a naturalist than a clinician. For Sacks, observation and play trumped diagnosis and prescription.</p>
<p>Indeed, in a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Are-You-Dr-Sacks/dp/0374236410">biography by Lawrence Weschler</a>, Sacks notes his “main neurological tool is the ball … You can learn much from how patients play”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HbaazbdIR_g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘I’m very interested in how people adapt to extremes.’ Oliver Sacks in 1996.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/celebrating-oliver-sacks-romantic-science-and-a-life-now-ending-42242">Celebrating Oliver Sacks' romantic science and a life now ending</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To compress any life — let alone one as Forrest Gumpian as Sacks’ — into a two hour film is something of a fool’s errand.</p>
<p>Hence, narrative compromises were always likely. Sacks’ travels in Canada, where he briefly tried joining the Royal Canadian Air Force, are skipped entirely.</p>
<p>Similarly, perhaps in deference to a subject granting privileged access during his last days, the documentary veers ever so slightly into hagiography, framing Sacks as a unifying figure between the clinical and experimental neurosciences.</p>
<p>Still, Sacks’ influence is undeniably staggering, and His Own Life provides a compelling account of the empathetic labours needed for otherwise lost souls to be “storied into the world”.</p>
<p><em>Oliver Sacks: His Own Life is in cinemas now.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151023/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Wade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Though Oliver Sacks wrote two memoirs before his death in 2015, a new film brings his joys, hardships and excesses into affectionate focus.
Matthew Wade, Lecturer in Social Inquiry, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/147459
2020-10-29T02:56:19Z
2020-10-29T02:56:19Z
Living with the train wreck: how research can harness the power of visual storytelling
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363853/original/file-20201016-15-1dlgddm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image: Daniel Ray</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mesmerised by the cats of YouTube? Tumbled down the rabbit holes that are Insta Stories? Horrified by the US presidential debate, but kept watching regardless? </p>
<p>You are not alone. </p>
<p>Visual narratives have a powerful hold over us and, like the metaphoric train wreck, we are finding it increasingly difficult to look away. We often tend to bring a level of healthy scepticism and questioning to the stories we read or hear. But if we “see” the story, we are far less critical and more likely to be drawn to jump on board and go along for the ride.</p>
<p>As the train continues to run away, we need to pay significantly more attention. We need to <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-election-2019-after-fake-keir-starmer-clip-how-much-of-a-problem-are-doctored-videos-126897">question the value and quality of the visuals</a> that constantly filter through our feeds and devices. </p>
<h2>Reclaiming documentary from the dark side</h2>
<p>The genre of documentary has a particularly important role to play. Thanks especially to the prolific work of David Attenborough and the like, we are now hardwired to connect with real-life stories as a form of indisputable truth. </p>
<p>In contradiction, we need to acknowledge the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-era-of-fake-news-honest-documentary-makers-have-never-mattered-more-80595">darker side of documentary</a> and its ability to misinform. To have any hope of preventing conspiracies derailing the train, we need to sharpen the focus on quality documentary processes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-election-2019-after-fake-keir-starmer-clip-how-much-of-a-problem-are-doctored-videos-126897">UK election 2019: after fake Keir Starmer clip, how much of a problem are doctored videos?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We first used documentary filmmaking as a process to inform an educational research project in 2018. We supported five graduate teachers to record their lived experiences by creating video journals as they embarked on their first year in the profession. The journals were curated as a <a href="https://vimeo.com/300092767">documentary film</a>, Mapping the Messiness, and provide compelling insights into their individual journeys.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young woman talking" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366300/original/file-20201028-21-e6e98u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366300/original/file-20201028-21-e6e98u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366300/original/file-20201028-21-e6e98u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366300/original/file-20201028-21-e6e98u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366300/original/file-20201028-21-e6e98u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366300/original/file-20201028-21-e6e98u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366300/original/file-20201028-21-e6e98u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Applying quality criteria in the making of Mapping the Messiness ensured the documentary presents five graduate teachers’ stories with integrity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://vimeo.com/300092767">Screenshot from Mapping the Messiness (Magnolia Lowe/Vimeo)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Predictably, the visual product that evolved draws the viewer in and strongly connects them with the experiences of the graduates. It is difficult to avoid being deeply moved by their stories. Yet beneath this compelling surface lies a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1609406920957462?icid=int.sj-abstract.citing-articles.1">rigorous application of quality criteria</a> that guided our interactions with the graduates. </p>
<p>Our learnings from this experience highlighted that the key factors informing a quality visual story are two-fold. It is about, firstly, supporting the storytellers to voluntarily share their own stories and, secondly, ensuring their input is clearly valued and conveyed in the final product. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-era-of-fake-news-honest-documentary-makers-have-never-mattered-more-80595">In era of fake news, honest documentary makers have never mattered more</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The ethics of visual storytelling</h2>
<p>We have entered an era where it is vital to apply ethical standards in the capture and curation of visual stories. By applying quality criteria, we introduce a framework that invites peer review, which strengthens the ethical basis of the approach. The opinions and feedback of others provide a way to ensure the credibility and authenticity of the documentary. </p>
<p>Awareness of the need for such an approach is increasing. Changes to <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/about-stuff/300106664/stuff-editorial-code-of-practice-and-ethics">ethical codes and practices to counter fake news</a> in our visual streams are being seen in countries like, for example, New Zealand. Collectively, these are steps to avert the consequences of the runaway train. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/crown-opposes-baby-uplift-video-being-official">legal case in New Zealand</a> dismissed an attempt to block the use of a documentary film, developed by an independent current affairs organisation, as evidence. This legal precedent confirms visual storytelling is a legitimate means of delivering evidence and should be considered as a credible source. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vi7N5jknS8c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This documentary was accepted as evidence at a New Zealand inquiry into the removal of Māori children from their families.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/where-are-the-in-depth-documentaries-calling-to-account-the-institutions-that-are-failing-us-111075">Where are the in-depth documentaries calling to account the institutions that are failing us?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We will continue to be faced with train wrecks in our visual world and will continue to find it hard to draw our eyes away. That is OK. It is part of human nature. But, if we are to have any hope of minimising the wreckage, we need to be reassured that visual stories can be credible and honest. To achieve this, we need to continually question and challenge the quality of the visual content we consume. </p>
<p>All aboard.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In the age of fake news and deep fake videos, how can documentary making be used for research and other purposes that demand authenticity and credibility?
Ange Fitzgerald, Associate Professor of Science Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of Southern Queensland
Magnolia Lowe, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Education, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144222
2020-08-11T10:12:41Z
2020-08-11T10:12:41Z
Anelka: Netflix documentary on ‘misunderstood’ French footballer fails to persuade
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352196/original/file-20200811-18-nu22pq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix © Franck Nataf</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years, Netflix has produced several major sports documentaries. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/04/icarus-review-netflix-doping-wada-russia">Icarus</a> is an example of a film that seeks to uncover the troubling – and often hidden – realities of doping in sport. Others, such as the recent series about Michael Jordan, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/may/09/the-last-dance-michael-jordan-netflix">The Last Dance</a>, are essentially works that enable a star to promote themselves.</p>
<p>Netflix has promoted its new documentary <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/aug/05/anelka-misunderstood-review-subtle-portrait-of-an-enigmatic-talent">Anelka: Misunderstood</a> as providing a detailed and balanced portrait of the now retired French footballer Nicolas Anelka. Many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/aug/05/anelka-misunderstood-review-subtle-portrait-of-an-enigmatic-talent">reviewers agree</a>. I’m not so sure. To me, it feels instead like a film where the presence of the protagonist has been predicated on providing largely flattering coverage without asking searching questions. </p>
<p>As a player, the now retired Anelka was frequently involved in controversy. Indeed, one of the final acts of his top-level career was to celebrate a goal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523367.2017.1359161">using a gesture</a> associated with a French comedian who has frequently been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dieudonnes-quenelle-gesture-poses-challenges-for-britain-and-france-22731">accused of antisemitism</a>. A <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1932748-nicolas-anelka-is-his-own-worst-enemy">reputation</a> for being moody, arrogant and somewhat self-absorbed has dogged Anelka ever since his spell with Arsenal in his late teens.</p>
<p>Most of the interviewees in the new documentary seek to correct what they see as unfair criticism of Anelka. Few discuss his failings.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lnPxHu6Sx5s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>A tale of redemption?</h2>
<p>Anelka is portrayed as humble and reflective. At the film’s conclusion, he laments: “As I’ve said, it’s not the best path and I don’t recommend it to anyone, but it’s my path.”</p>
<p>What the film omits is sometimes as significant as what it includes. Anelka’s beginnings at the French Football Federation’s national training centre at Clairefontaine and his time as a youth player at Paris Saint-Germain are covered at length, as is his time at Arsenal. He discusses his transfer to Real Madrid, and unhappy time in the Spanish capital. This was a time when he struggled to get along with is team mates and cope with the intense focus of the Spanish media. </p>
<p>Although Anelka discusses some of his sporting failures, viewers gain no insight into his high-profile return to Paris Saint-Germain in summer 2000 other than via a brief caption. This obscures the fact that Anelka’s troubled spell in Madrid was followed by another failure to consistently fulfil the potential he displayed at Arsenal. Instead, we see image of a post-Madrid Anelka rediscovering his form in a much more detailed segment about his six-month loan spell at Liverpool in 2001-2002.</p>
<p>There are several moments where Anelka discusses failures or disappointments. These include Chelsea’s 2008 Champions League final loss to Manchester United after his penalty was saved in a shoot-out. His international career with France also appears a source of frustration. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352194/original/file-20200811-17-1psfjsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352194/original/file-20200811-17-1psfjsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352194/original/file-20200811-17-1psfjsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352194/original/file-20200811-17-1psfjsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352194/original/file-20200811-17-1psfjsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352194/original/file-20200811-17-1psfjsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352194/original/file-20200811-17-1psfjsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicolas Anelka.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix © Franck Nataf</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Anelka’s disappointment about not being included in France’s 1998 World Cup squad is unsurprising. But it’s notable that his part in their victorious European Championship squad of 2000 means little to him. He states that “if I could remove this title from my list of honours, I would”. As he didn’t play a decisive role in France’s key matches in the tournament, it seems he is unable to share in the collective sense of achievement. </p>
<h2>Treatment of controversy</h2>
<p>The film treats the two most controversial moments of Anelka’s career very differently. There is detailed discussion of his expulsion from France’s 2010 World Cup squad in South Africa after he allegedly insulted coach Raymond Domenech. News clips show how politicians sought to exploit the incident in order to engage in wide-ranging criticism of French footballers.</p>
<p>But the focus on his controversial “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dieudonnes-quenelle-gesture-poses-challenges-for-britain-and-france-22731">quenelle</a>” goal celebration while playing for West Bromwich Albion in 2013 is relatively brief and more partial. The gesture is associated with French comedian Dieudonné, who was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26159048">convicted of inciting hatred</a> following comments he has made about Jews.</p>
<p>At the time, Anelka dedicated his quenelle to Dieudonné, who he described as “a friend who has become a brother”. But in the documentary, Anelka doesn’t mention the comedian. Instead, he says his gesture was an “up yours” to the recently sacked West Brom manager Steve Clarke who had substituted or left out Anelka on several occasions. Perhaps he has belatedly realised that any association with Dieudonné isn’t going to help his image.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z8PZQpKZZNU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The documentary contextualises the quenelle and its association with Dieudonné via brief news clips. But the two interviews in this part of the film are quite one-sided. We see Roger Cukierman – representative of an umbrella group for French Jewish groups – play down the potentially antisemitic nature of Anelka’s gesture. It is not mentioned that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/23/nicolas-anelka-jewish-quenelle">Cukierman rapidly backtracked</a> and criticised Anelka’s behaviour.</p>
<p>In the film, Times journalist Henry Winter appears to suggest that Anelka’s punishment from the Football Association (FA) – a five game ban and £80,000 fine – stemmed from the FA’s need to be seen as tackling racism at a time when several incidents had occurred in Premier League matches. Winter and Cukierman’s comments certainly serve Anelka’s narrative that his punishment was harsh or unfair.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fa-fines-nicolas-anelka-but-says-quenelle-isnt-anti-semitic-thats-not-a-clear-message-23790">FA fines Nicolas Anelka but says quenelle isn't anti-Semitic – that's not a clear message
</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An incomplete portrait</h2>
<p>The quenelle incident brought an inauspicious end to Anelka’s top-level playing career: he was sacked by West Brom for gross misconduct. After this incident, he went on to play 13 times for India side Mumbai City FC before taking on several advisory or coaching roles with a variety of clubs. </p>
<p>The documentary certainly alludes to the controversy caused by Anelka’s quenelle. But the fact that this incident, which effectively ended his playing career, is mentioned near the middle of the film allows it to conclude on a more upbeat note. The film suggests that Anelka has become more reflective and grown as a person despite the controversy that has dogged him. </p>
<p>Ultimately, Anelka: Misunderstood will leave many football fans thinking about what might have been when it comes to Anelka’s career. But one may also wonder what Netflix’s documentary might have been if it had provided a more probing look at its protagonist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Ervine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Most of the interviewees in the new documentary seek to correct what they see as unfair criticism of Anelka. Few discuss his failings.
Jonathan Ervine, Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies, Bangor University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144053
2020-08-10T03:16:21Z
2020-08-10T03:16:21Z
Deepfake technology unlocks real stories of LGBTQ persecution in Welcome to Chechnya
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351861/original/file-20200810-14-rzl6ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C22%2C1876%2C1040&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Welcome to Chechnya</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">MIFF</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Welcome to Chechnya, screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival</em></p>
<p>Welcome to Chechnya, screening online as part of MIFF 68½, is a bracing documentary. This film is part of a queer trilogy of sorts for filmmaker and investigative reporter <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0289800/?ref_=tt_ov_dr">David France</a>, who also directed 2012’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2124803/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk1">How to Survive a Plague</a> (for which he received an Oscar nomination) and 2017’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5233558/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk3">The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson</a>. </p>
<p>This third film is a distressing look at the torture and murder of LGBTQ people in Chechnya and the inspiring work of activists who fight to help them escape.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46871801">gay purge</a>” of Chechnya is a political extermination, with Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, laughing in one interview as he describes LGBTQ people as subhuman:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We don’t have any gays … to purify our blood; if they are here, take them.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/suicide-of-egyptian-activist-sarah-hegazi-exposes-the-freedom-and-violence-of-lgbtq-muslims-in-exile-141268">Suicide of Egyptian activist Sarah Hegazi exposes the 'freedom and violence' of LGBTQ Muslims in exile</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Different paths, the same fate</h2>
<p>The torture of men and women is very different in Chechnya. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351860/original/file-20200810-24-1i4oqio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Movie poster: Young man's face on red background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351860/original/file-20200810-24-1i4oqio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351860/original/file-20200810-24-1i4oqio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351860/original/file-20200810-24-1i4oqio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351860/original/file-20200810-24-1i4oqio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351860/original/file-20200810-24-1i4oqio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351860/original/file-20200810-24-1i4oqio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351860/original/file-20200810-24-1i4oqio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGMxODYwOGEtNmNkMi00MmM1LWI2ZTItOTFhNDdkZWE1M2E5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjYzNTk1NTE@._V1_SX675_CR0,0,675,999_AL_.jpg">IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For men, they are rounded up and sent to concentration camps where they are abused and murdered. One scene features “Grisha” slowly telling his boyfriend “Bogdan” of how he was abused. </p>
<p>For Chechen women, they are returned to their families, where their abuse and murder is more silent. The plight of “Anya”, whose father is an influential figure in the Chechen government, is included here. Her uncle has discovered that she is a lesbian and is threatening to tell her father if she doesn’t sleep with him. If her father discovers Anya’s secret, the result would most certainly be murder. </p>
<p>In one particularly intense moment, the hidden cameras film the activists going undercover in two teams to Grozny to sneak her out across the Russian border. We see Anya get quizzed by border officials and pace up and down in her new shelter while she awaits news of her asylum application.</p>
<p>The film depicts just how tenuous this political situation is. When a fugitive attempts suicide, the group are unable to call an ambulance as they need to keep their shelter hidden from authorities. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GlKkj_aHMXk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘We don’t have such people here,’ says Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in the film.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fake identities</h2>
<p>Rather than using traditional filmmaking techniques, such as pixilation or darkness, to keep those escaping anonymous, France employs <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/13/what-are-deepfakes-and-how-can-you-spot-them">deepfake technology</a> to digitally transplant the faces of New York-based queer activists onto the Chechen fugitives. </p>
<p>The result lends a smoothness to the faces that reminds me of the age-defying work done in Scorsese’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1302006/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Irishman</a>. Yet, it is made clear when the technology is being employed and when it is not during Welcome to Chechnya.</p>
<p>The edges of the “replaced” faces are blurry, which allows the viewer to identify which participants, like coordinators David Isteev and Olga Baranova, are sharing their real faces. The very presence of France’s camera puts many of these activists at risk. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351865/original/file-20200810-20-1mk6i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men embrace at airport" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351865/original/file-20200810-20-1mk6i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351865/original/file-20200810-20-1mk6i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351865/original/file-20200810-20-1mk6i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351865/original/file-20200810-20-1mk6i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351865/original/file-20200810-20-1mk6i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351865/original/file-20200810-20-1mk6i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351865/original/file-20200810-20-1mk6i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deepfake technology is used in the film to facilitate real stories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MIFF</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtq-caravan-migrants-may-have-to-prove-their-gender-or-sexual-identity-at-us-border-107868">LGBTQ caravan migrants may have to 'prove' their gender or sexual identity at US border</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This digital technology adds an interesting element to the documentary’s aesthetic – flipping between slick and rough elements. Both the deepfake faces and the shaky cell phone footage are a reminder of the constant peril these people face. </p>
<p>While deepfake technology is intrinsically associated with a lack of authenticity, here it allows imperilled fugitives to participate to tell their story. As Grisha reveals his torture, Bogdan’s emotional response is evocative as he tenderly strokes his partner’s hands. The digitally transplanted face does not change or take away from this moment.</p>
<p>There are a number of videos interspersed throughout the documentary that were uncovered by LGBTQ activists in the region. These grainy images, often handheld and, in one instance CCTV footage, feature the abuse, murder and rape of queer Chechens. </p>
<p>It’s a confronting reminder of just how violent the homophobic and misogynistic values of the Chechen government and its operatives are. Some will find the more violent imagery upsetting. But it adds context and justification to the palpable rage that drives this film.</p>
<p>Like all great political documentaries, Welcome to Chechnya is a call to action. It’s a call for justice for the tortured and murdered in Chechnya, and a stark reminder of the realities many queer asylum seekers are facing. </p>
<p>As activist David Isteev states, if there is no punishment for those that treat LGBTQ people as subhuman, “anyone can find themselves in the shoes of gay Chechens”.</p>
<p><em>MIFF is <a href="https://miff.com.au/">online</a> until 23 August 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Documentary film Welcome to Chechnya looks at the government-sanctioned torture and murder of LGBTQ people in Chechnya – and the activists trying to help them escape.
Stuart Richards, Lecturer in Screen Studies, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144054
2020-08-07T03:42:55Z
2020-08-07T03:42:55Z
In The Meddler, we join a creeping nightcrawler as he chronicles death
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351700/original/file-20200807-14-85q7y8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C8%2C1888%2C1051&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">MIFF</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: The Meddler, screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival</em></p>
<p>For movie scholars and enthusiasts, one of the worst things about the COVID-19 pandemic has been the shutting down of cinemas. It’s a fundamentally different experience watching a film on a small screen with friends and family – or by yourself – from watching a movie on a massive screen in a dark room surrounded by strangers. This is why people have historically continued to go to the movies, despite the challenges posed first by the introduction of television, then by home video, and now by streaming services. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351699/original/file-20200807-22-71n6ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="El Metido title with camera on red background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351699/original/file-20200807-22-71n6ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351699/original/file-20200807-22-71n6ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351699/original/file-20200807-22-71n6ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351699/original/file-20200807-22-71n6ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351699/original/file-20200807-22-71n6ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351699/original/file-20200807-22-71n6ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351699/original/file-20200807-22-71n6ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8995262/mediaviewer/rm3843275265">IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Festivals like the <a href="https://www.sff.org.au/">Sydney Film Festival</a> have attempted to adjust to the emergency context by operating as reduced online-only festivals. But watching a premiere in a packed State Theatre is not the same as watching the same film hunched over your laptop. </p>
<p>At the same time, it’s nice to have access to good films beyond the limited offerings from online services. </p>
<p>The Meddler (or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8995262/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>El Metido</em></a>), the recent documentary from Australian filmmakers Daniel Leclair and Alex Roberts now playing online as part of the <a href="https://miff.com.au/">Melbourne International Film Festival</a>, is, indeed, a good film. </p>
<h2>An addiction</h2>
<p>It’s also quietly but profoundly unsettling. The documentarians follow German Cabrera, an unassuming mechanic in Guatemala City. Night after night he prowls the streets with a camera, trying to capture footage of crimes, accidents, and, mainly, dead bodies.</p>
<p>Occasionally we cut to Cabrera’s footage, but mostly the camera observes him. Through the filmmakers apparent refusal to intervene in the world, a careful irony slowly develops: a split between Cabrera’s self-perception and what we are watching as viewers. </p>
<p>Cabrera believes he does this because he’s a truth and justice warrior – and he does provide the footage for free to local news networks – but the film suggests there is more to it. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JI8F1dvf9Rw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">They call me ‘The Meddler’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We see a man obsessed, in his own words “addicted”, to capturing these gruesome images. This leads, through the course of the film, to the disintegration of his marriage. </p>
<p>The reasons for his obsession remain enigmatic, and the film avoids the kind of psychologising that a bigger budget documentary may have been compelled to offer. This benefits the film; it is much eerier because of its lack of exposition. </p>
<p>At times it plays like a less strident (and less funny) <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001348/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm">Werner Herzog</a> character study. </p>
<p>Like Herzog’s Timothy Treadwell from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Grizzly Man</a> – a self-proclaimed naturalist and environmental warrior who ends up being killed by a bear – Cabrera is a self-appointed investigative journalist-come-superhero. As with Herzog’s film, we gradually realise that Cabrera, with his mute, reactionary stance on what he perceives to be limitless crime is, simply, a really weird guy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/neverending-stories-why-we-still-love-unsolved-mysteries-141046">Neverending stories – why we still love Unsolved Mysteries</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Nightcrawlers all</h2>
<p>Known as “the night watcher” on local news, Cabrera is a kind of real life version of Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), the stringer from Dan Gilroy’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Nightcrawler</a>. It is, perhaps, more disturbing that this is a kind of hobby for Cabrera, rather than work as it is for Lou. </p>
<p>This is starkly realised in a moment midway through the film when Cabrera captures a bereaved teenager screaming, “I want my dad!” The film cuts from Cabrera’s footage to him watching the teenager through his camera, totally unmoved by what he is filming.</p>
<p>This moment is subtle, and flips back on us too. As the viewers of the documentary we are also drawn to these horrific images. We are suckers for sensation and the stimulation of the extreme. Are we, too, meddlers as we watch, for example, injured and bloody people in the back of an ambulance? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351701/original/file-20200807-18-1rvwexy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man photographs dead body at nighttime." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351701/original/file-20200807-18-1rvwexy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351701/original/file-20200807-18-1rvwexy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351701/original/file-20200807-18-1rvwexy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351701/original/file-20200807-18-1rvwexy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351701/original/file-20200807-18-1rvwexy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351701/original/file-20200807-18-1rvwexy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351701/original/file-20200807-18-1rvwexy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Documentary subject German Cabrera is close to a real life Lou Bloom from Nightcrawler.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MIFF</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In another scene, we are confronted with disturbing footage of a dead boy, his mother crying over him in the street. He has died during the day because of a medical condition. Cabrera’s narration tells us he was driving down the street and saw the boy and mum in the street so he stopped and filmed them. </p>
<p>As we wade with him through the blood and guts filled streets, we begin to realise how awful the whole thing is, and how profoundly deluded Cabrera is about the value of what he is doing. </p>
<p>We don’t buy his justification. Often he simply films, in an incredibly invasive fashion, people who have nothing to do with organised crime or gangs – people suffering mental illness, drug addicts, drunks. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/true-crime-its-time-to-start-questioning-the-ethics-of-tuning-in-125324">True crime: it's time to start questioning the ethics of tuning in</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Memorable, creepy</h2>
<p>And yet the film cryptically oscillates between contrasting responses to Cabrera, at times legitimising his urban vigilante-survivalist viewpoint. At the end of the film, the music becomes triumphant as we listen to Cabrera (sounding like televsion hero <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2193021/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Arrow</a>) talking about people needing to fight to save the city from criminals. </p>
<p>The Meddler is a minor but memorable film, beautifully shot, capturing its subject in a clinical, creepy fashion. Its one notable technical problem concerns the sound, which seems thin and poorly mixed in places, and the music, which is underdone and cliched. </p>
<p>For a low budget documentary, though, this is a minor criticism. We may not be able to watch it in cinemas – and this is one film whose impact would be amplified in that collective context – but at least we can watch it. </p>
<p><em>MIFF is <a href="https://miff.com.au/">online</a> until 23 August 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ari Mattes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In The Meddler, Australian documentarians follow an unassuming mechanic in Guatemala City as he prowls the streets with a camera trying to capture footage of crimes and dead bodies.
Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140624
2020-07-01T20:10:49Z
2020-07-01T20:10:49Z
In My Blood It Runs challenges the ‘inevitability’ of Indigenous youth incarceration
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342877/original/file-20200619-41221-1mr5mx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5760%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">In My Blood It Runs/ABC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains references to deceased people.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In 2019, Dujuan Hoosan travelled from Garrwa country in the Northern Territory, to Geneva where he addressed the <a href="https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2019/9/11/the-speech-12-year-old-dujuan-delivered-at-the-un-human-rights-council">United Nations Human Rights Council</a>. </p>
<p>As he sat by his father’s side, he stated the purpose of his visit: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I come here to speak with you because the Australian government is not listening. Adults never listen to kids like me, but we have important things to say.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dujuan, in identifying himself as a “kid like me”, signalled to the world his disempowerment as an Aboriginal child by the Australian state. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/358942768" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>As one of the youngest people ever to address the UN, as a powerful child healer in his own community and as the subject of the documentary film <a href="https://inmyblooditruns.com/">In My Blood It Runs</a>, Dujuan is exceptional. </p>
<p>But as an Aboriginal child much loved by his family, alienated by the education system, and under the purview of child welfare and Northern Territory youth justice, Dujuan’s story is all too common.</p>
<h2>The education system</h2>
<p>At one point in the film, Dujuan’s teacher reads Eve Pownall’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30171752-the-australia-book">The Australia Book</a>, published in 1952. The cover features illustrations of imperial soldiers and a naked Aboriginal man and child. The teacher reads: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now this one isn’t a story. It’s information, or non-fiction. It’s fact. The Australia Book. It’s about the history of our country. At Botany Bay, Cook landed for the first time in the new country […] On an island in Cape York he raised the English flag and he claimed for the English country the whole of this new land.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Throughout the film we witness the disjuncture between Dujuan’s sense of self as a strong Aboriginal child against his mounting disillusion with school. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/captain-cook-discovered-australia-and-other-myths-from-old-school-text-books-128926">Captain Cook 'discovered' Australia, and other myths from old school text books</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>He is increasingly forced to disengage rather than comply with an education system he experiences as inherently problematic. Like many Aboriginal children and young people – and by extension their families – Dujuan is disciplined for his non-compliance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dujuan becomes disengaged by a curriculum which he experiences as exclusionary of his worldview as an Aboriginal child.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maya Newell/In My Blood It Runs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Families are disciplined through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/cashless-welfare-card-38351">suspension of welfare payments</a> and threatened with the <a href="https://nit.com.au/systemic-racism-in-australian-child-protection-systems-must-be-addressed/">removal of children</a>. </p>
<p>Families are told if their kids don’t go to school, it is inevitable their children will end up in prison.</p>
<h2>The criminal justice system</h2>
<p>In this moment where <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/02/australia-still-turns-a-blind-eye-to-aboriginal-people-dying-in-police-custody">Black Lives Matter</a> gains global traction, it is vital we remember Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people make up a <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/indigenous-deaths-custody-chapter-9-juveniles">significant proportion</a> of people who are detained and die in prison and police custody. </p>
<p>The 1991 <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/indigenous-deaths-custody-report-summary">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a> signified a watershed moment in the national sensibility around the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the criminal justice system. The Commission investigated 99 deaths; 27 were <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol1/30.html">under the age of 24</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-indigenous-kids-in-detention-in-the-nt-in-the-first-place-63257">Why are so many Indigenous kids in detention in the NT in the first place?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 2018, on any given night in Australia, Aboriginal young people made up nearly <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/juv/128/youth-detention-population-in-australia-2018/contents/summary">3 in 5</a> young people in detention, despite constituting only 5% of the population under the age of 25. </p>
<p>In May 2019, all children and young people in detention in the Northern Territory <a href="https://territoryfamilies.nt.gov.au/youth-justice/youth-detention-census">were First Peoples</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In My Blood It Runs captures Indigenous children’s awareness of a racialised divide between rich and poor in the town of Alice Springs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maya Newell/In My Blood it Runs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1440783318794295">my research</a>, I have found the incarceration and deaths in custody of Aboriginal young people is overwhelmingly framed in policy and the media as “inevitable”. </p>
<p>This “inevitability” is directly tied to whether a young person is compliant with the demands of the school system – a system often experienced as violent and exclusionary. </p>
<p>In 2018, two Noongar teens aged 16 and 17 drowned in the Swan River <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/12/drownings-of-boys-in-perth-being-treated-as-death-in-police-presence">attempting to escape police</a>. The two young men were <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/swan-river-deaths-a-tragic-tale-of-two-truants-trying-to-reform/news-story/4bbaf3886ed78a8880adff4576f9a8a8">labelled truants</a>, their failure to attend school implied as an underlying reason for their death.</p>
<h2>Questioning narratives</h2>
<p>Directed by Maya Newell, in collaboration with the Arrernte and Garrwa families it represents, In My Blood It Runs challenges the way Aboriginal young people’s educational disadvantage and engagement with the criminal justice system is understood as inevitable. </p>
<p>The film represents Dujuan’s life as full, complex and dignified. It counters the dehumanising way Indigenous young people are often depicted as statistics; as criminal and almost (if not already) as at-risk; as educationally deficient.</p>
<p>The film reveals the violence of the education and criminal justice systems. But it also shows how families navigate through, negotiate with, and refuse to comply with these systems.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Family is central to this story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maya Newell/In My Blood It Runs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The punitive and assimilatory state intervention into the lives of Aboriginal young people is the problem – not Aboriginal young people themselves. The focus needs to shift from <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/final_report_133_amended1.pdf">locking up our kids</a> to supporting <a href="https://childrensground.org.au/">on-the-ground initiatives</a>, keeping young people safe and families together. </p>
<p>In knowing the importance of a future where Aboriginal children and young people are free of state violence, Dujuan closed his address to the UN:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My film is for all Aboriginal kids. It is about our dreams, our hopes and our rights.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>In My Blood It Runs is currently in <a href="https://inmyblooditruns.com/screenings/">select cinemas</a>, and airs on Sunday, July 5 at 9.30pm on ABC and iView.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lilly Brown belongs to the Gumbaynggirr people of the mid-north coast of New South Wales.</span></em></p>
This new Australian documentary follows 12-year-old Dujuan Hoosan from Garrwa country to Geneva.
Lilly Brown, PhD Candidate, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139835
2020-06-08T12:26:43Z
2020-06-08T12:26:43Z
Unicorn Riot’s protest coverage recalls long history of grassroots video production
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339618/original/file-20200603-130917-1ijsvcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=139%2C116%2C5027%2C3455&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Unicorn Riot videographer films an interview on the streets of Minneapolis on May 29, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/two-men-are-interviewed-by-unicorn-riot-near-the-fifth-news-photo/1216238951?adppopup=true">Stephen Maturen/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On-the-ground views of the protests sweeping the country are vital for understanding who is protesting and why. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/01/rage-and-anguish-how-the-us-papers-have-covered-the-george-floyd-protests">Mainstream news media</a> coverage and individuals’ social media posts only go so far – and can <a href="https://theconversation.com/riot-or-resistance-how-media-frames-unrest-in-minneapolis-will-shape-publics-view-of-protest-139713">focus on violence and disruption</a>.</p>
<p>There’s a grassroots media tradition in the U.S., too, which I’ve studied in my work on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qKWYg20AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">media and social movements</a>. The <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/05/05/unicorn-riot-media-protest-movement">livestreamed, unfiltered video coverage</a> provided by the small staff of the nonprofit media collective <a href="https://unicornriot.ninja/">Unicorn Riot</a> is the modern heir to a history of on-the-street grassroots video documentary filming of protests and social movements that started in the late 1960s, including unstructured interviews with protesters.</p>
<p>Those groups wanted to include diverse voices, stories and perspectives that mainstream media typically don’t cover. But they likely didn’t imagine that their successors, like Unicorn Riot, would have the tools to instantly broadcast their videos to the general public to help shape how they learn about social issues.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1267880653485297664"}"></div></p>
<h2>Early video collectives</h2>
<p>Long before mobile phones and YouTube turned amateurs into video producers, documentary video production was expensive and time-consuming and required lots of heavy equipment. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/03/22/394276081/decades-before-youtube-video-pioneers-captured-turbulent-era">In 1967</a>, Sony introduced the <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/revolution-televised-camera-portapak-sony-video">Portapak</a>. The Portapak was a video camera with the first battery-operated, portable videotape recorder.</p>
<p>The Portapak made it easier for community members to produce videos. It was <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/617767/summary">lightweight, easy to use</a> and <a href="https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/SonyHistory/2-01.html">relatively inexpensive</a>.</p>
<p>People could initially record up to 20 minutes on a <a href="https://www.smecc.org/sony_cv_series_video.htm">half-inch reel-to-reel videotape</a>. They could interview community members or document events on the street and play back recordings instantly on other <a href="https://www.smecc.org/sony_cv_series_video.htm">Sony videotape recorders</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339639/original/file-20200603-130955-144jh30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339639/original/file-20200603-130955-144jh30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339639/original/file-20200603-130955-144jh30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339639/original/file-20200603-130955-144jh30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339639/original/file-20200603-130955-144jh30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339639/original/file-20200603-130955-144jh30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339639/original/file-20200603-130955-144jh30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339639/original/file-20200603-130955-144jh30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A late 1960s Sony Portapak made it easier to produce grassroots videos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mwf95/CC BY-SA 4.0</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Grassroots video, by stressing the participation of community members in making their own electronic information, was less concerned with ‘polished’ products than with animating the ‘process’ of social change,” writes historian Deirdre Boyle in the book “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/subject-to-change-9780195043341?cc=us&lang=en&">Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited</a>.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://videofreex.com/">Videofreex</a> and other <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/subject-to-change-9780195043341?cc=us&lang=en&">underground media collectives</a> quickly emerged across the U.S. New York became a hub for the underground video scene. The scene mainly attracted left-wing activists, filmmakers and artists who were interested in using media as a tool for social change.</p>
<p>These collectives made videos about their involvement in the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/03/22/394276081/decades-before-youtube-video-pioneers-captured-turbulent-era">counterculture movement</a>. They documented antiwar demonstrations, campus rallies and the hippie lifestyle. They exhibited their recordings at <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/subject-to-change-9780195043341?cc=us&lang=en&">underground theaters, art galleries</a> and university campuses in <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/groove-tube">TV-equipped vans</a>.</p>
<p>At the time, CBS, NBC and ABC <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520239326/the-whole-world-is-watching">dominated mainstream TV</a>. Their media coverage generally consisted of highly structured interviews and documented prearranged events, such as conventions and inaugurations. The networks weren’t showing stories from the perspectives of the youth who were at the center of the vibrant counterculture movement.</p>
<p>In 1969, CBS turned to the underground video scene. The network wanted to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/subject-to-change-9780195043341?cc=us&lang=en&">counter mainstream media’s conventional focus and detached storytelling approach</a>. CBS also wanted to be relevant to a younger, liberal audience. </p>
<p>CBS hired the Videofreex and spent thousands of dollars on the TV pilot for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2020.471005">“Subject to Change</a>,” a weekly magazine-style series. A CBS employee had met the Videofreex with their video cameras in hand at the <a href="https://www.woodstock.com/">Woodstock music festival</a> earlier that year. “Subject to Change” was supposed to replace <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1225168">“The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour</a>,” a series popular with youth.</p>
<p>The Videofreex traveled around the country as part of “Subject to Change” to show Americans an insider’s view of youth counterculture. CBS sent the Videofreex to Chicago in October 1969 to <a href="https://youtu.be/nAd32jCGn0c">interview youth activist Abbie Hoffman</a>. Hoffman was one of the “<a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-chicago-seven-go-on-trial">Chicago 7</a>” who was accused of conspiring to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nAd32jCGn0c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Videofreex interview left-wing activist Abbie Hoffman, 1969.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Videofreex also recorded an <a href="https://youtu.be/wIbeTS8G5co">interview with Fred Hampton</a>, the deputy chairperson of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, on Oct. 19, 1969. They interviewed Hampton six weeks before the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/12/04/police-raid-that-left-two-black-panthers-dead-shook-chicago-changed-nation/">police killed him in a raid that left another Black Panther member dead, too</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wIbeTS8G5co?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Videofreex’s Parry Teasdale interviews Black Panther Party Chairperson Fred Hampton, 1969.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>CBS taped the 90-minute “Subject to Change” TV pilot with a live studio audience and network executives on <a href="https://videofreex.com/about/">Dec. 17, 1969</a>. The pilot consisted of clips from Videofreex tapes that were interspersed with live rock music performed for the studio audience.</p>
<p>In the end, however, network executives didn’t release the program to the general public because they <a href="https://videofreex.com/about">thought it was too radical</a> and ahead of its time. As a result, the Videofreex and CBS parted ways.</p>
<p>In 1972, the Videofreex started <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/videofreex-americas-first-pirate-tv-station-the-catskills-collective-that-turned-it-on/oclc/41223993">Lanesville TV</a>, the first TV station in the country to operate without a <a href="https://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbs_ef.htm">license from the Federal Communications Commission</a>.</p>
<p>Based just north of New York City, the station broadcast local community reports, live studio interviews, sketch comedy and experimental video art. The Videofreex ran Lanesville TV until the collective disbanded in 1978. The station was the model for the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/media/television/low-power-television-lptv">Low Power Television</a> system, which the FCC established in 1982 to provide an inexpensive and flexible way to produce local TV programming in small communities.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/45468984" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Lanesville TV included content by and for a small community of about 200 people.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Videofreex influenced similar video collectives and producers across the country. One producer was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/03/22/394276081/decades-before-youtube-video-pioneers-captured-turbulent-era">Dee Dee Halleck</a>, who co-founded <a href="http://papertiger.org/about-us/history/">Paper Tiger Television</a> in 1981 to analyze and critique the communications industry, presenting <a href="https://papertiger.org/image-archive/">marginalized voices and views</a> that were largely absent in mainstream media. The show became the first nationally distributed public access television program.</p>
<p>Later, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070911181307/http://www.indymedia.org/en/static/about.shtml">Independent Media Center (Indymedia)</a> became a pioneer in online grassroots media. Established in 1999, Indymedia was a collective of independent media organizations on the internet.</p>
<p>Indymedia initially covered the <a href="https://content.lib.washington.edu/wtoweb/index.html">World Trade Organization protests in Seattle</a> as events happened. The volunteer journalists contributed on-the-ground, unmediated audio and video footage across the Indymedia network. Indymedia published online reports, a newspaper and five documentary films.</p>
<p>The work of these grassroots groups <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/subject-to-change-9780195043341?cc=us&lang=en&">influenced the practice and style of mainstream TV coverage</a>, inspiring the big networks to adopt small, lightweight electronic news-gathering equipment starting in the mid-1970s. This approach let them switch from film to video production and let them spontaneously cover live events and instantly broadcast eyewitness reports.</p>
<h2>Grassroots media collective records video, streams over social media</h2>
<p>Grassroots media collectives have more communication tools to use in 2020 than in previous years.</p>
<p>Founded in 2015, the nonprofit Unicorn Riot has used video and <a href="https://unicornriot.ninja/social-feed/">social media</a> to <a href="https://unicornriot.ninja/live-channel/">livestream</a> coverage for several hours at a time on a nearly daily basis since <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/01/rage-and-anguish-how-the-us-papers-have-covered-the-george-floyd-protests">George Floyd’s death</a> on May 25, 2020. Unicorn Riot can verify and document evidence easily, such as the police role in instigating violence, because its videographers are at events as they unfold.</p>
<p>Unicorn Riot’s viewers get eyewitness accounts of events. Begun in Minneapolis, the organization is supported with private fundraising and has <a href="https://unicornriot.ninja/donate/">correspondents in Denver, Philadelphia and Boston</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/424632854" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">State troopers aggressively confront a black business owner who’s protecting his business in Minneapolis.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unicorn Riot’s style of reporting aligns well with social media. As my research <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=qKWYg20AAAAJ&hl=en">demonstrates</a>, social media has created more opportunities to call attention to social issues, letting people voice <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Developments-in-Digital-Journalism-Studies-1st/Eldridge-II-Franklin/p/book/9781138283053">collectively shared struggles</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/march-for-our-lives-awakens-the-spirit-of-student-and-media-activism-of-the-1960s-93713">build social movements</a>.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article was updated June 10, 2020, to delete the reference to the Videofreex covering Chicago’s May Day 1969.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Errol Salamon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Livestreamed video coverage of protests across the country is the modern heir to decades of grassroots documentary filmmaking.
Errol Salamon, Postdoctoral Teaching Associate in Journalism, University of Minnesota
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109601
2020-05-29T12:27:49Z
2020-05-29T12:27:49Z
Reflecting on the case of Cyntoia Brown – talking with the director of ‘Murder to Mercy’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338258/original/file-20200528-51467-15biroi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C1908%2C1069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cyntoia Brown was sentenced to 51 years in prison when just 16 years old.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://vandam.netflix.com/shares/1bdd943a73324c09be0cb3b9487a8406?assets=22389511">Courtesy of Netflix</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Cyntoia Brown <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/us/cyntoia-brown-release.html">walked out of prison in August 2019</a> after serving 15 years of a life sentence for a murder she committed when she was 16. Her story is the focus of “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81074065">Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story,”</a> a Netflix feature documentary.</em></p>
<p><em>Dan Birman directed this documentary and another on Cyntoia’s life that aired on PBS in 2011. He is a <a href="https://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/journalism/dan-birman">professor of professional practice</a> and teaches documentary at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.</em></p>
<h2>What does Cyntoia’s case tell us about the US justice system?</h2>
<p>Cyntoia Brown’s case follows a complex social and legal path, but her story is common to thousands of young people in the justice system. As of 2017, there were <a href="https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/corrections/qa08201.asp?qaDate=2017">nearly 44,000 juveniles locked up in America</a>, and more than <a href="https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/corrections/qa08205.asp?qaDate=2017">two-thirds were black or Latino</a>. Many are serving <a href="https://jjie.org/2017/08/02/life-and-long-sentences-imposed-on-youth-need-a-second-look/">life sentences with and without parole</a>. Like Cyntoia, they all have stories of their own – stories that the law may not be sensitive to.</p>
<h2>How did you come to work with Cyntoia?</h2>
<p>In January 2004, I gained access to the juvenile justice system in Nashville because I was interested in telling a story about juveniles who commit serious crimes. When Cyntoia was arrested eight months later, I was invited to meet her. At the time, few television networks were interested in such dark subjects, so I went on this journey without a distributor or the resources to produce the project.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eb2Ce6mj-iI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The first documentary, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/me-facing-life/">“Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story,”</a> helped stir debate about how young people are treated in the American criminal justice system and helped bring about some reform. In Tennessee, where Cyntoia was sentenced, juveniles can no longer be <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/12/01/cyntoia-brown-and-our-twisted-system">charged with prostitution</a>. And state legislators are trying to address <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/01/15/prison-reform-juvenile-sentencing-laws-tennessee-cyntoia-brown/2546723002/">the state’s harsh sentencing laws</a>. Many other states are developing more progressive laws too.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/improving-the-juvenile-justice-system.aspx">More needs to be done</a>. Thousands of children each year are arrested for <a href="https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/qa05101.asp">violent crimes</a>. The need for an ongoing thoughtful analysis of America’s juvenile justice system is great.</p>
<h2>How are the two films different?</h2>
<p>They are different in one key way – depth. The first, while completed in 2011, stopped when it seemed the story was over. Cyntoia was incarcerated, she lost her first appeal and that was the end. But then a legal team came together after seeing the documentary and decided to continue fighting for Cyntoia. This meant that there was still more to play out. The possibility existed that new appeals might be successful, but it was also entirely possible that nothing would happen. Either outcome would be significant. I decided to continue documenting the case. I wanted to complete the full story. The new film was a complete redo, with about 80% of the footage not having been seen before.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-put-juveniles-away-for-life-meet-cyntoia-brown-the-teen-who-sparked-a-debate-77290">Should we put juveniles away for life? Meet Cyntoia Brown, the teen who sparked a debate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ultimately, “Murder to Mercy” presents the broader social and legal issues with greater clarity due to the expansive timeline in the film. And it provides more insight to the legal process that led to the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/us/tennessee-cyntoia-brown-granted-clemency/index.html">clemency granted</a> to Cyntoia by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam as he was leaving office.</p>
<p>Still, Cyntoia’s clemency left some legal questions unanswered. While Cyntoia was incarcerated, her attorneys filed an appeal with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds that <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca6/16-6738/16-6738-2018-08-02.html">her sentence was unconstitutional</a>. Had they succeeded, it might have had implications for states with harsh sentencing laws. Arguments were heard, but the court’s verdict was never provided – it was moot due to the governor’s decision. </p>
<p>This means that Cyntoia’s clemency was a personal victory but that no legal precedent was established about Tennessee’s sentencing laws. The new documentary reveals the general legal arguments for her appeal and shows the simultaneous application to the governor for early parole consideration. </p>
<p>What makes this story different is our recording of events and their impact on Cyntoia and her family over 16 years. The audience can see what happened at major milestones in Cyntoia’s case, which gives the documentary unusual depth. It is also a story that centers on journalistic inquiry.</p>
<h2>Are you suggesting that journalists have a unique approach to documentary filmmaking?</h2>
<p>Yes, definitely. A journalistic approach to documentary depends on balancing a story by vetting facts through research – as opposed to depending solely on a director’s point of view.</p>
<p>To be fair, most documentaries center on facts. But it is possible through cinematic approaches to treat facts in many different ways, from straight verite recording – in other words, using a camera to purely observe – to the inclusion of dramatic recreations using actors and representative locations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338264/original/file-20200528-51456-1j7gkq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338264/original/file-20200528-51456-1j7gkq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338264/original/file-20200528-51456-1j7gkq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338264/original/file-20200528-51456-1j7gkq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338264/original/file-20200528-51456-1j7gkq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338264/original/file-20200528-51456-1j7gkq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338264/original/file-20200528-51456-1j7gkq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338264/original/file-20200528-51456-1j7gkq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cyntoia Brown spent 14 years behind bars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://vandam.netflix.com/shares/1bdd943a73324c09be0cb3b9487a8406?assets=22389508">Murder to Mercy/Netflix</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also, whom we choose to interview and what we choose to show on screen can change, or even limit, the story viewers see. The point is that viewers, while treated to great content, might not be aware of the story balance. </p>
<p>Regardless of approach, truth is important to me. We cannot avoid some bias just by the choices we make. And it is impossible to see or present every point of view, but I believe that what emerges needs to be as close to the truth as possible. As a professor of journalism, I am constantly worried about ethical challenges when creating documentaries and the standards by which we do <a href="http://cmsimpact.org/resource/honest-truths-documentary-filmmakers-on-ethical-challenges-in-their-work/">our craft</a>. This is especially true now that documentaries are more popular.</p>
<p>Cyntoia’s story has been a teaching tool for most of my time at USC. I teach students that what we do is not a right, but a privilege. I learned a lot more from Cyntoia, her family, and the lawyers than would have been possible with short interviews. My experience walks straight into the classroom as an urgent message that it is incumbent upon us to employ best practices when presenting facts.</p>
<p>The tools available to documentary filmmakers when shooting and editing a story are about the same. Budgets tend to dictate picture quality, how much we can do stylistically and how much crew we can afford to help pull it off. But budgets don’t prescribe story ethics. This is up to the filmmaker.</p>
<p>Cyntoia’s case became a lens into large social problems both at home and in the system. It brings inequality in the juvenile justice system squarely into view. Sadly, thousands of juveniles won’t enjoy the attention that Cyntoia gained because we happened to turn the camera toward her. And while we can see change happening nationally, racial and financial disparity remain daunting problems. </p>
<p>Hopefully the biggest takeaway for viewers is that children matter and the laws that judge children at their worst need to be reconsidered. Their circumstances need to be factored in, and not just the violent acts that land them in the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Birman is the founder and president of Daniel H. Birman Productions, Inc., a film company that produced Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story</span></em></p>
Dan Birman, director of the new Netflix feature documentary ‘Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story,’ discusses his filmmaking process and the importance of the case.
Dan Birman, Professor of Professional Practice, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134907
2020-04-05T20:04:26Z
2020-04-05T20:04:26Z
Great time to try: 5½ ways to make movie masterpieces at home
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324822/original/file-20200402-23143-1civhql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1400%2C990&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rear Window (1954)</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Being in isolation might be a great time to try something new. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/great-time-to-try-84901">this series</a>, we get the basics on hobbies and activities to start while you’re spending more time at home.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>Isolation is a common theme in cinema: stranded on an island (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162222/">Cast Away</a>), in space (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Gravity</a> or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Martian</a>), on a boat (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454876/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Life of Pi</a>), stuck in the desert (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1542344/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">127 hours</a>), or simply confined to an apartment (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Rear Window</a>). But what about when the filmmakers themselves are stranded?</p>
<p>Luckily, most of us are carrying sophisticated cameras in our pockets and have easy access to online film libraries and creative collaborators.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791286/obo-9780199791286-0052.xml">psychoanalytic approaches to filmmaking</a> reveal, our screens have a unique ability to see beyond reality. Our screens reach into the deepest depths of our desires, fantasies, and emotional landscapes. </p>
<p>Here are five approaches to filmmaking that can challenge our perception of the world, from the (dis)comfort of your own home:</p>
<h2>1. Video diary</h2>
<p>I’m not referring to the kind of YouTube vlogging that made <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/fashion/jenna-marbles.html">Jenna Marbles</a> a millionaire, nor the diary room confessional of Big Brother, but a visual rendition of expressive journal keeping. </p>
<p>Avant-garde filmmaker <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/my-debt-to-jonas-mekas">Jonas Mekas</a> pioneered the film diary in the 1960s by experimenting with the camera’s limits – incorrect exposure, disorderly movement, re-arranging time, and injecting a poetic voice. The challenge here is to portray your inner experience and not let the recording device simply “capture” it.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kzkzQExJ9rc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jonas Mekas – Always Beginning | TateShots.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If diaristic wanderings prove difficult, Gillian Leahy’s <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/mylifewithoutsteve/179709856">My Life Without Steve</a> is a beautiful example of what can be achieved in a single apartment. The reflective narration from protagonist Liz guides us through emotional turmoil, memory, and theories of lost love. </p>
<p>Additionally, the meticulous still-life compositions by cinematographer Erika Addis, entirely restricted to the apartment space, offer an intimacy and familiarity beyond words: streetlights dancing on the water, a steaming kettle, floral wallpaper …</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324428/original/file-20200331-65495-zo0i7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324428/original/file-20200331-65495-zo0i7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324428/original/file-20200331-65495-zo0i7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324428/original/file-20200331-65495-zo0i7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324428/original/file-20200331-65495-zo0i7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324428/original/file-20200331-65495-zo0i7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324428/original/file-20200331-65495-zo0i7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324428/original/file-20200331-65495-zo0i7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Still image from My Life Without Steve (1986) directed by Gillian Leahy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ronin Films</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Location home</h2>
<p>Sometimes the location can be more significant than the person. This is certainly the case in films documenting imprisonment such as Berhouz Boochani’s experience of Manus Island detention centre in <a href="https://vimeo.com/230860000">Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time</a>, or Jafar Panahi’s discrete autobiography <a href="https://youtu.be/ajOgE_BPLVU">This Is Not A Film</a> recorded under house arrest in Iran. In 2015, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2415458/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Wolfpack</a> told the unusual tale of seven brothers confined to a New York apartment with Hollywood movies as their window onto the world. </p>
<p>Isolation offers an opportunity to interrogate the politics of home. The 1970s feminist movement gave rise to scathing critiques of gender-based domestic roles. Martha Rosler’s video art performance <a href="https://www.moma.org/collection/works/88937">Semiotics of the Kitchen</a> has inspired generations of classroom appropriations. The crude infomercial inspired performance undermine both the authority of the camera and the kitchen as a space of domination. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oDUDzSDA8q0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Semiotics in the Kitchen (1975)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chantal Akerman’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073198/">Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles</a>, also released in 1975, offers a less obvious subversion of domesticity. The protagonist is a single mother undertaking sex work as part of her daily routine to provide for her child. Rather than sensationalising prostitution, the camera respectfully captures the subtle gestures and emotions of the working mother.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ih3nBxjkBH8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Online collaboration</h2>
<p>Collaborative media comes in many forms: participatory video, citizen media, user-generated and crowd-sourced content. </p>
<p>Collaborative approaches to filmmaking were pioneered by visual anthropologists attempting to accurately and ethically record foreign cultures. Handing the camera over was seen as a way to access insider knowledge. YouTube and Instagram could be considered large-scale collaborative media projects. More coherent and meaningful projects focus on a particular theme or creative parameter. </p>
<p>User-generated content (UGC) and fan-based creations have since become common to the genre, such as <a href="https://vimeo.com/15416762">The Johnny Cash Project</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/CB5ib4ouxes">Shrek Retold</a>, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/29174093">Man With A Movie Camera: The Global Remake</a>. </p>
<p>Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s <a href="https://hitrecord.org">HitRecord</a> is one of the most innovative UGC platforms with more than 750,000 contributors and the opportunity to get paid if the production makes money. By investing in personal contributions, the audience gains a sense of proprietorship over the project and boost distribution through their social networks.</p>
<p>The best examples of collaborative media are highly curated and elaborately produced. The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Katerina Cizek have produced a series of ambitious multimedia compilations under the <a href="http://highrise.nfb.ca">Highrise projects</a>. Of these projects, <a href="http://outmywindow.nfb.ca/#/outmywindow">Out My Window</a> is perhaps the most relevant to our current experience, featuring 13 participants from around the globe sharing personal stories from their highrise homes. </p>
<p>Collaborative media offers a multitude of voices to common themes and experiences. The trick to maintaining cohesion and continuity is to formulate detailed instructions for how to contribute.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/31376449" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Highrise / One Millionth Tower | National Film Board of Canada.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Found footage</h2>
<p>Found footage documentaries are composed entirely from existing media. The recent surge in this genre such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8760684/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Apollo 11</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5433114/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Maradona</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2870648/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Amy</a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7694570/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Final Quarter</a> about footballer Adam Goodes, all demonstrate that filmmakers need not touch a camera to produce a cinematic masterpiece. </p>
<p>While we may not individually be able to acquire rights to copyrighted material, most of us are unwittingly accumulating extensive media archives of our lives. The popular <a href="https://1se.co/">1 Second Everyday</a> app demonstrates how existing phone footage can be transformed into a revealing and enthralling sequence through rhythm-based montage.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lyx6O_WFJhU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">1 Second Everyday.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Machinima</h2>
<p><a href="https://voices.uchicago.edu/machinima/sample-page/">Machinima</a> (machine-cinema) is an innovative alternative to animation, in which detailed 3D graphics engines of computer games are used as cinematic stages. Most of the productions in this genre mimic mainstream comedy and action movies but there are a few examples of how the artform can interrogate our relationship to virtual worlds. </p>
<p>Nominated for the “Weird” category of the <a href="https://www.webbyawards.com/">Webby Awards</a> for online excellence, the narrator of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tAmAFSc-YS63RrFMwkG0GuPVN70ku_G">Grand Theft Auto Pacifist</a> navigates the ultra-violent game world, understood as an extension of our lived society, in a hilarious experiment to see if he can exist peacefully.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nDRKbYNjRic?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Grand Theft Auto Pacifist.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But be warned, the first person I knew to go down the machinima path disappeared without a trace for two months, lost to the <a href="https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/">World of Warcraft</a>.</p>
<h2>The ½ – since it’s not for everyone</h2>
<p>Lastly, my half recommendation. While not something I can recommend to students, during this difficult period of social distancing those of us fortunate enough to be isolated with loved ones might use the opportunity to master the elusive art of sexual desire … erotica. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324476/original/file-20200401-66125-1puizri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324476/original/file-20200401-66125-1puizri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324476/original/file-20200401-66125-1puizri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324476/original/file-20200401-66125-1puizri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324476/original/file-20200401-66125-1puizri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324476/original/file-20200401-66125-1puizri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324476/original/file-20200401-66125-1puizri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324476/original/file-20200401-66125-1puizri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke in Nine ½ Weeks (1986)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Again, the camera need not be enslaved as a witness but can be recruited to explore the psychological and physical playing field of our desires.</p>
<p>And not all of your filmmaking need be shared around.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Burton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Budding filmmakers needn’t let isolation stand in the way of their cinematic dreams. Here are five and a half ways you can make movie magic at home.
Aaron Burton, Lecturer in Media Arts, University of Wollongong
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126110
2019-11-04T04:55:06Z
2019-11-04T04:55:06Z
Happy Sad Man: a small, gentle, important film that reveals the vulnerability of men
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299774/original/file-20191101-187912-1nxnxtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=70%2C40%2C6629%2C4406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Grant, one of the men interviewed in Happy Sad Man. Each of the five men the film focusses on is extremely articulate in describing his experiences with mental illness. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Shannon Glasson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6993596/">Happy Sad Man</a>, directed by Genevieve Bailey</em></p>
<p>“I am just me. Put that on the big screen. I’ve got a mental illness. So have you.”</p>
<p>The above is a quote from John, one of five men whose lives filmmaker Genevieve Bailey explores in her documentary Happy Sad Man. Bailey’s hand-held camera moves in close on John’s hard-lined face as he makes this statement. His emotions are hard to read. Sad, defiant, amused. In voice-over, Bailey describes John as “the happiest and saddest man I’ve ever met.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299775/original/file-20191101-187907-150szxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299775/original/file-20191101-187907-150szxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299775/original/file-20191101-187907-150szxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299775/original/file-20191101-187907-150szxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299775/original/file-20191101-187907-150szxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299775/original/file-20191101-187907-150szxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299775/original/file-20191101-187907-150szxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299775/original/file-20191101-187907-150szxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John provided inspiration for the film.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Genevieve Bailey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The question of how men “navigate the dance between happiness and sadness” is the film’s core concern. Each of the lives through which Bailey explores that question is impacted by mental illness. </p>
<p>John has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, as has surfer Grant. David, an artist, experiences anxiety. Jake has worked as a photographer and community worker in war zones and has been diagnosed with PTSD. Ivan is a farmer who works with rural men’s health groups, offering an empathetic ear to men who need to talk and explaining, “It’s pretty scary, I reckon, how vulnerable we all are.”</p>
<p>Bailey has friendships with each of the five and has, over several years, recorded extensive conversations with them all, as well as moments with their families and friends. The result is a kind and gentle film with empathy at its heart. Happy Sad Man makes a case for talking, listening and simply “being with” as valuable acts of care.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/294254156" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Happy Sad Man trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In so doing, the film seeks to disrupt a commonly held idea that men do not want to talk about their emotions. Bailey states that, in her experience, “the opposite is true.” </p>
<p>Each of the five men Bailey interviews is extremely articulate in describing their experiences with mental illness. She also meets an older man at a rural <a href="https://mensshed.org/">Men’s Shed</a> whom knows she is making a film about mental illness and want to ask her questions. It’s not that he doesn’t want to talk, it seems, but rather that he has previously lacked the language and the opportunities for doing so.</p>
<h2>Optimism</h2>
<p>The film is intrinsically optimistic, revealing increasing openings for conversation created through acts of empathy, kindness, whimsy and joy. This isn’t to say Bailey downplays the impacts of mental illness. She records John in the midst of a depressive episode so severe he is hospitalised for several weeks. It’s heartbreaking, difficult viewing. Also suggested – if mostly obliquely – are the ways in which John’s illness has harmed his relationships with family and friends through the course of his life.</p>
<p>Bailey makes the argument, however, that old forms of masculinity are being resisted or challenged, producing new opportunities for better treatment. John tells her, “I was brought up in the school that you tough it out son, you tough it out. You’re a wuss.” </p>
<p>Happy, Sad Man reveals strategies deployed by her subjects to resist such limiting and harmful views of masculinity, celebrating these acts of resistance as indicative of important progress.</p>
<p>Grant, for example, has organised a weekly surf event called <a href="https://www.onewaveisallittakes.com/">Fluro Friday</a> where participants dress in fluorescent clothes, creating humorous, cheerfully offbeat spaces in which to discuss mental health. David, who describes masculinity as “quite banal, really”, creates art that is witty and revels in its own eccentricity. These deliberate disruptions celebrate – rather than fear – men’s difference, openness and vulnerability.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299777/original/file-20191101-187942-n3hn4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299777/original/file-20191101-187942-n3hn4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299777/original/file-20191101-187942-n3hn4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299777/original/file-20191101-187942-n3hn4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299777/original/file-20191101-187942-n3hn4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299777/original/file-20191101-187942-n3hn4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299777/original/file-20191101-187942-n3hn4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299777/original/file-20191101-187942-n3hn4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jake, another friend of Bailey’s in the film, battles PTSD.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Ben McNamara</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These acts are worth celebrating, as are improvements in health care. I found the film’s optimism admirable and valuable, while at times wondering if ongoing and harmful patriarchal structures were being overlooked or downplayed.</p>
<h2>Limitations</h2>
<p>There is an intimacy to the film’s scope that is both a limitation and a strength. Issues of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-losing-so-many-indigenous-children-to-suicide-114284">indigeneity</a>, <a href="https://lgbtihealth.org.au/statistics/">sexuality and gender identity</a>, for example, each of which is known to potentially exacerbate the impacts of mental illness, are not explored. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2019-04-01/mental-healthcare-needs-major-re-think-experts-say/10957812">Ongoing</a> questions about the funding of mental healthcare are not addressed.</p>
<p>And amid arguments about men’s ability and desire to discuss their emotions, I was left wondering about <a href="https://theconversation.com/risky-business-how-our-macho-construction-culture-is-killing-tradies-122867">workplace</a> and other environments that continue to <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-study-reveals-the-dangers-of-toxic-masculinity-to-men-and-those-around-them-104694">limit</a> the kinds of shifts away from macho culture the film celebrates.</p>
<p>At a moment, though, in which (justifiable) anger and brutal debate dominate so much of our collective conversations, this small, gentle film feels important. </p>
<p>As viewers, we might feel uncomfortable with Bailey’s camera recording her subjects in moments of despair. But in doing so, both filmmaker and subject resist the shaming that seeks to define these moments as unspeakable or hidden.</p>
<p>Happy Sad Man reveals the vulnerability of men dealing with mental illness and creates a space for radical kindness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126110/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott McKinnon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This new optimistic and empathetic documentary from Genevieve Bailey looks at the mental health of five Australian men.
Scott McKinnon, Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Wollongong
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.