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.
