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Filmography
Winds of Change (1999)
3 x 1 hour documentary co-production with AlleyKat Productions for BBC, SBS and RTHK
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Australian film-makers have already proved their ability to produce compelling and sensitive stories about some of Australia's neighbouring societies. Winds of Change takes this strong tradition a step further by brokering an even more collaborative way of working between Australian documentary-makers and their peers in the region. This was done by facilitating a process whereby the stories emerge from, and are told by, film-makers from those countries in creative partnership with an Australian team. Out of this has emerged stories with a degree of depth and poignancy which can only come from being on the "inside".
Winds of Change was shot in an observational style by single multi-skilled film-makers working closely with their subjects over a longer period of time to develop an intimate and direct relationship between subject and audience. The stories are personal, focusing on individuals or families as illustrations of the wider themes being explored by the film-maker and often engaging the film-maker in active dialogue with the subjects of their stories. The kind of dialogue which can only take place between people who are familiar with each other, the kind of access normally only granted to an "insider".
A ground breaking collaboration between Australian Documentary Producers and Film-makers in Asia. This documentary series goes beyond the statistics to present a view of life from "inside" the bubble in Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong during a historic period of immense change in the region.
Here is a sample of the nine stories that together, comprise the series...
INDONESIA
Missing Tutti is a very determined woman. She has to be - in present day Indonesia you have to believe that anything is possible. Tutti has to try and believe that her bus driver son Yani is still alive - somewhere.
Yani does not fit the profile of most of the other 40-odd "activists" who went missing during the recent political upheavals. While many of them were dedicated student, union, and human rights activists with relatively high profiles, Yani was simply a bus driver - and supporter of opposition leader Megawati. Yani was also the main breadwinner for his family of wife and two young kids.
Tutti has visited every police and military base in Jakarta for news of her son but to no avail. She will visit them again and again until she gets some answers. Together with the families of other missing activists this grandmother spends much of her time fronting up to fearsome military figures trying to find out the truth about her son.
Meanwhile a military court has been convened to try the Kopassus Special Forces soldiers accused of the abductions. Among those accused is Soeharto's son-in-law General Prabowo. Will this high-profile trial give Tutti the answers she is looking for? Will it lead her to her son? Is Yani still alive? Few think so, but in Indonesia today you have to believe that anything is possible.
Mariman Mariman is in his early 40's and married with 2 children. As an ethnic Chinese businessman his computer store was targeted in the May 1998 riots and burned to the ground. While a number of his friends and colleagues are rebuilding their businesses in other parts of Chinatown Mariman has been too traumatised by the experience to consider such a move. Instead he now runs a stripped-down version of his business from his garage at home in a large walled "mansion" village near the airport. It's inhabitants are all wealthy Chinese, the complex is patrolled by security guards, and this is the perimeter of Mariman's life. He has already sent his oldest son (age 12) to Malaysia for safety and as a transition stopover for a longer exile probably in Australia. His daughter (age 9) doesn't want to leave. As violence continues to erupt across the archipelago and the June 7th General Election draws nearer Mariman, along with many many others in Jakarta, is getting increasingly nervous.
VIETNAM The Cave Men of Lai Chau
In the mountainous province of Lai Chau near the Laos border in north-western Vietnam lives a community of nearly a hundred people consisting of army veterans, ex-farmers, mothers, grandparents, and children. Together they all get regularly smashed on opium - the children as well. They are impervious to government propaganda and have no life beyond foraging for food, living in rags, and getting stoned in their cave homes. This isn't the junkie chic of "Trainspotting" - this is a vision of hell. Together they forage for berries, roots, and the scraps of firewood which they trade for their daily hit.
The Doi Moi "Open Door" policies of the new Vietnam pose no moral or social dilemmas for the cave-dwellers although they do seem to have perfected the art (essential in modern-day Vietnam) of saying one thing and thinking another. Now it is Dr Huong's job as a rehabilitation expert to bring them back into the fold of normal Vietnamese society.
Following the deliberations of the local People's Committee we follow those local officials up the mountain as they meet the addicts "for the first time" and persuade some of them to seek "help". We then follow them back down from the mountain into the rehabilitation camp for a painful dose of Vietnamese-style Cold Turkey and daily lectures on social evil.
The addicts return to the hills one month later with a new set of clothes, a haircut, and a "born-again" fervour heading off into the mountain mist to pursue their new-found anti-drugs crusade. At least until they are out of the sight of the local Party guys.
HONG KONG - No Eternal Friends - No Eternal Enemies
As a result of the new voting system introduced in the first legislative council election since the handover to China, former political allies are forced to compete against each other for the limited directly-elected seats. Heady stuff for people who only in the last four or five years have begun to get to know this strange animal called "democracy" - a parting 'gift' from the British at the end of their 99 year lease.
In the last election in 1995 Leung Yiu Chung and Lee Cheuk Yan, both trade unionists, shared the same goal in striving for a more liberal political environment for the people of Hong Kong before being handed over to the communist regime. As co-founders of "The Frontier" democracy group their co-operation in the 1995 election helped win them both a seat on the council. The new changes to the electoral system, whereby half of the council is appointed and half is elected, leave fewer seats to challenge for. For Leung and Lee that means their old "brotherhood" goes out of the window.
Having failed to reach a compromise with his former friend and co-founder Leung is angry at Lee for stepping into his constituency on the justification that he has a greater chance of winning for "The Frontier". Leung has left the "The Frontier" and is going it alone to directly confront his old mate in the election. As a maths teacher Leung has been crunching his numbers and believes he can do it. His eccentric film director friend and campaign advisor John Sham also thinks Leung can do it if he takes his blunt advice on image and presentation. Either way, the polls say otherwise.
We follow Leung's campaign, weaving in and out of Lee's, to its political climax and beyond as the rivals face-off on election day. Under the new democatic structures, two old friends have quickly "matured" into, at times, ruthless political rivals. But hey, that's politics for you.
Awards:
Nominated, Rockie Award, Information Programs, 2000 Banff Awards.