Shaming Australia: Cinematic responses to the “Pacific Solution”

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorHemelryk Donald, Stephanie
dc.contributor.editorHemelryk Donald, Stephanieen
dc.contributor.editorDavies Hayon, Kayaen
dc.contributor.editorSorbera, Luciaen
dc.date.accessioned2019-12-10T13:48:32Z
dc.date.available2019-12-10T13:48:32Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractThis article analyses Australian audiovisual treatments of contemporary refugee experiences of the Australian government’s “Pacific Solution”, which was introduced after the Tampa affair in 2001. I call into question the conventional premise of much documentary filmmaking, that the moving photographic image can reveal the reality of that experience (indexicality). That approach is exemplified, I argue, by Eva Orner’s award-winning film, Chasing Asylum (2014), which aspired to reveal the truth about conditions in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru and thereby to shock Australian audiences into demanding a change in government policy. The problem with the film is that its reliance on the norms of documentary has the unintended consequence of silencing the detainees and reducing them to the status of vulnerable and victimised objects. The article concludes by comparing Chasing Asylum with an installation by Dennis Del Favero, Tampa 2001 (2015), which exemplifies a nonrepresentational, affect-based aesthetic that says less in order to achieve more in evoking complex refugee stories of dispossession or disappearance.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationHemelryk Donald, S. (2019) 'Shaming Australia: Cinematic responses to the “Pacific Solution”', Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 18, pp. 70-90. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.18.06en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.18.06
dc.identifier.endpage90
dc.identifier.issn2009-4078
dc.identifier.issued18
dc.identifier.journalabbrevAlphaville
dc.identifier.journaltitleAlphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Mediaen
dc.identifier.startpage70
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/9409
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherFilm and Screen Media, University College Corken
dc.relation.urihttp://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue18/ArticleDonald.pdf
dc.rights© 2019, the Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectRefugee filmen
dc.subjectVulnerability, indexicalityen
dc.subjectOffshore detentionen
dc.subjectAustralian documentaryen
dc.titleShaming Australia: Cinematic responses to the “Pacific Solution”en
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
ArticleDonald.pdf
Size:
606.98 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published Version
Download
Collections
Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media. Issue 18: Refugee Filmmaking