Originally published here Unsettled: Seeking refuge in America Directed by Tom Shepard Tom Shepard’s internationally award-winning documentary Unsettled: Seeking refuge in America opens with screaming and yelling and it quickly becomes apparent that a crowd are turning violent towards a young gay African male. The sentiment that ‘love is love’ does not ring true in the 70…
For they Know Not What They Do Directed by Daniel G. Karslake Following the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality in 2015 there has been a concerted campaign to curtail LGBTQI+ rights, notably under the guise of religious freedom. Daniel Karslake’s film For They Know Not What They Do is an insight into the way…
The Whale & The Raven Directed by Mirjam Leuze Reviewed by Samaya Borom Hermann Meuter and Janie Wray have interesting jobs. Based in a remote First Nations village in British Columbia Canada, it is their job as whale researchers, to study them in their pristine environment – an environment it appears that is increasingly under threat…
Image by Sharon Ang from Pixabay Seeking Justice in Cambodia: Human Rights Defenders Speak Out Sue Coffey Melbourne University Publishing Cambodia is a country that has experienced immense suffering due to the Khmer Rouge genocide under the leadership of Pol Pot in the late 1970s, Vietnamese invasion and ongoing socio-political and economic suppression. Modern Cambodia…
Image courtesy of HRAFF The Panama Papers Directed by Alex Winter We live in a world of collected information. Data is created, collected and maintained in almost all aspects of our daily lives. This data collection continues with government, multinational organisations and other business relying more and more on the ability to transact across global…
Do Not Resist | Craig Atkinson The opening scenes of Craig Atkinson’s Do Not Resist are confronting in their similarity to scenes of war. Heavy military grade transportation – Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles – roll down streets. Police wearing what appears to be military-issued gear fire tear gas into a crowd of protesters where…
Constance on the Edge | Belinda Mason In 2005 Constance and her family, refugees from war torn South Sudan’s Agoro, settled in Wagga Wagga, regional New South Wales, on a humanitarian visa. Belinda Mason’s Constance on the Edge follows Constance and her family as they settle into life in Wagga. Confronting racism, depression, drug addiction,…
More to the Story: Conversations with Refugees Rosemary Sayer Margaret River Press As the major political parties in Australia shifted into election mode earlier this year, the topic of refugees was almost always one that elicited an emotional response, with questions like ‘who are these people?’, ‘why did they come here?’ and ‘why should we…
Younis Yousefi, My House, 2004, unfired clay handpainted Pictures in my Heart: Seeking Refuge – Afghanistan to Australia Fiona Hamilton Wakefield Press Noted French novelist Marcel Proust once claimed that “only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees”. In Fiona Hamilton’s book Pictures in my Heart, Seeking Refuge –…
Anti-Semitism | Frederic Raphael | Biteback Publishing Anti-Semitism by Frederic Raphael is part of a new series of works called ‘The Provocations Collection’ from Biteback Publishing. This collection is a sequence of short opinion pieces, or polemics, that delves into a controversial topic. At a time when there is a resurgence of extremism and anti-Semitism…
