Australian Film Festival at IIC – Film Review

The Tall Man

Written and Directed by Tony Krawitz, ‘The Tall Man’ is a documentary based on a book of the same name by Chloe Hooper. The documentary is a puzzle which takes the audience on a roller coaster ride to determine the truth behind the famous Cameroon Domadgee death in custody case.

An inebriated Cameroon was arrested one morning for swearing at Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, and just an hour later he was found dead in the Palm Island police station. The police claimed that Domadgee died because he fell and slipped when entering the cell. Nobody cared to explain how he got such bad injuries by just falling: four broken ribs, a badly ruptured liver and condition as bad as after a car accident.

The documentary uses court transcripts, interviews with Doomadgee’s family and fellow residents and video footage of Hurley re-enacting his version of that day’s event. It also touches upon Palm Island’s colonial history where racism was widespread. 

The filmmaker plays fair by allotting almost the same time to Hurley’s supporters as he does to Domadgee’s. The local people of Palm Island would refer to Chris Hurley who was 6 ft 7 in. tall and weighed 115 kg as ‘The Tall Man’ (of the title) because of his giant physique. The documentary highlights the difficulty to bring him to trial, and his final acquittal makes us question the Judiciary. Krawitz couldn’t convince Chris Hurley to be in the film. The film ends with the results of the final investigation conducted in 2010, including an audio recording of Hurley’s statement.

Go Back to Where You Came From: Series 2

The documentary film shows us the lives of refugees and the difficulties they face trying to lead a normal life. The filmmaker tried a new genre of documentary film making i.e., a reality TV show format. This fresh approach makes us as an audience more interested, captivated and receptive. Refugees are vulnerable and prone to exploitation and violence. With no protection and no rights, they are completely helpless. This documentary does try and bring out the debate of asylum seekers in the open.

We were shown Episodes 2 and 3 from Season 1 of the documentary. It begins with a mini introduction of all the 6 participants – their names, ages, backgrounds and their opinion on the Australia's asylum seeker debate. Except one of the participants, all the rest shared a common hatred for refugees and this included an absolute racist (Raquel) and a complete Muslim hater (Adam). From being a part of  immigration raids in Malaysia, to living in a refugee camp in Kenya, from visiting slums in Jordan and going to war torn countries like Congo and Iraq – the participants do it all.

The film screening was followed by a discussion with filmmaker Rick McPhee. During which a woman said that the participants take more of our attention and sympathy than the refugees. Though she meant it otherwise, I felt that was the biggest advantage of the film. It worked well because, in order to win the asylum seekers debate in their favor, we need to convince people who are anti-refugees first. And the film does that easily, as it strikes a chord with especially such people and makes them think. They connect with participants who are challenged by the situations they are put in and change completely by the end of their journey. If the participants on the show could have a change of heart, so can other such people. The documentary gives us all a ray of hope.

Mr. Lochan and his suspender pants

A chequered shirt, a freckled face

Yet a smooth overall appearance

Spectacles hanging from his neck

On a strand of thread

His hair black but mostly white

And off course, how could one miss

His ‘suspender pants’:P

The class all quite, all eyes on him

But are they interested, in awe or just scared of him

He modulates his voice,

Changes its texture,

Throws his hands around,

But do my friends really understand what he says,

Cause if they really did, why would they scared?

Sitting in the centre, of the circle we make around him

He says he doesn’t like people sitting at the back,

But if we someone’s at front, someone has to be behind,

And someone who’s been himself a backbencher all his life,

Should I really listen to him?

His suspender pants, just sum him up

It binds him,

So that he dosent go off the track

It controls him, so that he doesn’t lose count

It sizes him up, and off course they hold his pants in place

So that he can jump around in his thoughts.

I wonder how would he be, had it not been for them,

What a crazy person he would be!

Two day NEN workshop!

On 29th and 30th October, a 2-day workshop was conducted by NEN at APIM, Noida. The workshop saw enthusiastic participation from all the E-Leaders of colleges from Delhi-NCR. Two Entretia members also got a chance to attend the workshop.

The main objectives of the workshop were:

• Driving the development of a community

• Importance of staying connected for E-cells and E leaders

• How to: Scaling Up and Tap into the community

The workshops were a gush of fresh air literally, instead of sounding like ‘rocket science’, as entrepreneurship workshops generally turn out to be, they were interesting and had loads of fun activities to keep us on our toes! From sketching random stuff to putting puzzles together, we did it all and I must say people enjoyed it a lot! A lot of the students present put forward the problems they face in running their E-cells and then later solutions were worked out for the same. In all it was a great experience, an event not to be missed for sure! :)

Delhi Goes Green: Ecofest at American Centre

Eco Fest 2010 organized by KRITI Team with the American Centre was a three day event (4-6th June). An Eco competition was held which saw active participation from students in the form of paintings, photographs, small installations and poetry on the given themes:
-The impact of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games on Delhi's environment
-Climate change: Myth or reality?
-My contribution: My Eco-footprint

Winners took home eco-friendly prizes! (I won….yippee after a really long time) :)

Eco Art Workshops where they taught you how to make attractive bags, stationary items, etc by recycling stuff and using your junk was rightly named ‘Waste et al creations’. There were innovative dance and puppet performances too depicting climate change and its effect on environment. ‘Eco Reels’ saw screening of documentaries and children’s films like: Shruti and Kuki, The Jungle Gang meets the Rhino, The Story of Stuff, The Story of Bottled Water and The Groundwater UP Project. Other highlights included the EcoHaat, a collection of useful ecofriendly products made by low income community groups for display and sale that provide us alternative options to consume in a sustainable and ethical way. The EcoCafe with a selected organic food menu and drinks that were healthy and tasty for the palette saw a huge rush. There were EcoBins set up at different places within the venue for people to bring recyclable material like paper, plastic, tetra packs, as well as old clothes to get them recycled.

The festival brought together a combination of educational, entertainment and consumption related activities that can enable us to live and work in an eco-friendly manner. Such gatherings show us the right spirit of celebrating World Environment Day (5th June)....go Delhi....go Green!