HERE I AM

Australia, 2010, 90 minutes, Colour.
Shai Pittman, Marcia Langton, Bruce Carter, Quinaiha Scott, Betty Sumner, Vanessa Worrall.
Directed by Beck Cole.

The I of the title is Karen Burden. She is a young aboriginal woman from Adelaide, has a history of drug dependence, has been in prison and has a daughter that she has not seen for three years. The film opens with her leaving prison and traces what she does and what happens to her in the month of her parole supervision.

With the release of Mad Bastards, Australian audiences have had the opportunity to respond to a story about an aboriginal man who has deserted his wife and son, spent time in prison, who decides to travel north from Perth and find his son. The boy is being cared for by his wife’s father, the local policeman. We are invited to share the life of a man who has experienced hard times, much of it his own fault. We are asked to share his re-awakening concern for his son and his being a father.

Here I Am has many parallels with Mad Bastards: parent, separation, fault and responsibility, the grandparent brining up the child, the desire for a new start and to see the child again. But, this film offers a woman’s point of view.

In fact, most of the principal film-makers are woman. The writer-director, making her first feature, is Beck Cole. Karen is played by Shai Pittman. Much of the success of the film is due to Pittman’s strong screen presence, a woman who has the potential to be liked despite her flaws. She is in every scene. We are apprehensive that she is going to fail again. We watch her make more mistakes. But we cannot doubt her great desire to see her little daughter. The scene where they do meet under kind supervision but with the hostility of the grandmother and an accident requiring time in hospital has its moving moments.

Another strength of the film is the presence of well-known and admired activist Marcia Langton as Karen’s mother. She is a reformed alcoholic who has become the sternest of women, seemingly unforgiving and rearing the little girl.

Karen has a room in a women’s shelter in Port Adelaide. The characters who live there are well drawn, move beyond the stereotypes of women in trouble, even though they share many characteristics of the stereotype. We come to know their stories better.

Men seem to be mostly absent from the film. There is a white man who picks up Karen at a pub. There are two sympathetic aboriginal men, one of whom befriends Karen, speaks honestly to her and could be around when she finds her feet.

There is depth of feeling underlying this film. The naturalistic photography becomes poetic at times with the Port Adelaide skylines, with Warwick Thornton (Beck Cole’s husband and director of Samson and Delilah) as director of photography. We feel we have walked the streets with Karen at the opening of the film. We have lived at the shelter. We get to know the neighbourhood, the cemetery, and feel that we begin to understand these characters well – although some of the performances are awkward and some delivery sounds amateurish but most of us would be prepared to make allowances and respond to the meaning and challenges of the film.

1. An Aboriginal story? The city? Difficulties and problems? Facing the problems, coping, failures, resolution? A women’s story?

2. The title, the focus on Karen, her life, the fact that she was still here? Her assertiveness?

3. The director, first film, the cast, experience and lack of experience? Non-professional cast?

4. The opening, Adelaide city, the prison, the centre of Adelaide in the night, the streets? Port Adelaide, the hotels, motels, the refuge, the interiors and its detail, workplaces and offices? A sense of place? Drab yet hope?

5. Karen and her history, her drugs, family, relationship with her mother, leaving home, the baby, the absent father? Her mother looking after the baby? Prison, getting out, wandering the city, the pub and the pickup, going to the motel, her mother working for room service and rebuking her? Going to the refuge, Red and her help, welcoming her in, the room, the rules, her immediately smoking? The TV room, the other women and their various stories? The cook, meals, Red and her management of the place?

6. Karen on parole, her parole officer, discussions about seeing her daughter, the interview with the authorities, her hopes?

7. Karen at the shops, the reaction of the shopkeeper, Jeff and his not having enough money for the bread, her paying, their discussion later? Going with Skinny to meet her boyfriend, Jeff present? A kindly man? The bond between the two? Staying the night? His understanding, his offer of final support?

8. The various women in the refuge, the various stages of rehabilitation? Young and defiant, the old lady and talking about having changed, the fat girl and her boyfriend, meeting with Red, the official meetings? The group, the girl taken away and Karen’s reaction, the effect?

9. Karen and the possibility of jobs, her plans, meals and talking, the interview about her daughter, the encounter with her mother, going to visit her mother and the clash? The visit of her daughter, the supervisor present, her mother warning her about the allergy? Her eating the cake? Going to hospital?

10. Karen and her anger with the police, the arrest of the young girl, the subsequent meeting, her drinking? Her prayers at night – and devout asking for God’s help?

11. Going to her mother, the confrontation, her mother and her past drinking, the change? The presence of the child? Karen thinking her mother was calling the police, rather calling the taxi and paying for it?

12. The month up, Karen having to get over her past, the meetings and help, her prospects?

13. Audience response to Karen, identifying with her, observing her? The other Aboriginal women? The Aboriginal tradition, white treatment of Aborigines? Especially women in the city?