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This Is Our Country Too

5 June 2008 - Australian Times UK - From the makers of With or Without Fidel, Blood Diamonds and Bang Bang In Da Manor comes a brave new documentary that delves beyond Australia’s reputation of sun, surf and sand to reveal a racial divide and contested history.

This is our country too

Taking the controversial 2007 Northern Territory Intervention as its starting point, This is Our Country Too is a hard-hitting investigation into Australia’s treatment of its indigenous peoples, and a rare depiction of their unrelenting struggle for justice, equality and self-determination.

From the makers of With or Without Fidel, Blood Diamonds and Bang Bang In Da Manor comes a brave new documentary that delves beyond Australia’s reputation of sun, surf and sand to reveal a racial divide and contested history.

In June 2007, the Australian government took the unprecedented step of suspending its race relations act to introduce the Intervention - a series of draconian, federal-backed laws designed to control the flow of alcohol and pornography into ‘prescribed communities’ in the Northern Territory. It was a reactionary response to endemic alcoholism and supposedly endemic child abuse in these communities, though there is little data to support the latter accusation.

Featuring interviews with prominent Aboriginal leaders, Pat Turner, niece of ‘Australia’s Mandela’; Charlie Perkins, Pat Dodson, spearhead of the reconciliation movement, actor/artist David Gulpilil and Jenny Macklin, Minister of Indigenous Affairs. This is Our Country Too puts the world’s focus on Australia’s Indigenous people’s forgotten plight and advances the question: How will Australia reconcile with its indigenous people?

Founded in 1999, riceNpeas is an independent film production company that specialises in social documentaries, guerilla journalism and thought-provoking film. Their photojournalists and filmmakers aim to question, challenge and educate.

This is Our Country Too receives its UK premiere at the Tricycle Cinema, 269 Kilburn High Road, Kilburn, NW6 7JR, 020 7328 1000 on Thursday 19th June at 7pm. Tickets £5.

There will also be screenings at: The Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, Paddington, W2 1QJ, 020 7479 8950 on Sunday 22nd June at 4.30pm. Tickets £5. Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith, W6 9RL, 020 8237 1111 on Tuesday 24th June 7.15pm. Tickets £7.50

A Q&A will take place after each screening, attended by several special guests including Aboriginal rights campaigner Walter Shaw.

For more information please contact ricenpeas on 020 7243 9191 or info@ricenpeas.com

or visit their website

Source: Australian Times UK

Further information: social justice and NT intervention issues page - includes news index and external links

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