BEYOND OUR KEN
Australia, 2008, 88 minutes, Colour.
Ken Dyers, Jan Hamilton.
Directed by Melissa Maclean, Luke Walker.
This documentary was significant in its today. In later decades, it is well worth seeing, a look at the place of psychological and religious cults in Australian society. This time it is a focus on Kenja (the title coming from the first letters of Ken Dyers’ name along with that of his partner, Jan Hamilton). Audiences may be thinking of The Family and its influence on the children that it gathered together (and is part of the background of Julian Assange. Several films have been made about Julian Assange and documentaries about The Family.
An important feature that makes this documentary different is that the directors were invited in by Ken Dyers for interviews, presence at his home, interviews with those who had been part of Kenja.
The background is given, Dyers and his meeting up with former actress Hamilton, the influence of such movements as Scientology, the emphasis on psychology and his qualifications, issues of energy, control and transfer of energy, letting go of bad energy. The Dir is bringing together quite a number of people and their talking head interviews, giving information, talking about their own experience, regrets. There are also many who are disillusioned, denouncing the behaviour of Dyers and the experience, the control by Dyers.
There are a number of sequences with Dyers and individuals but also some strong sequences of Jan Hamilton and her persuasive presentation to groups. She is supportive of Dyers even as he continually interrupts her during the interviews.
While there are, in most societies, suspicions of this kind of group and its methods, in-house, touches of secrecy, the word cult begins to be used.
What brought this to a head at the end of the 1990s were accusations of sexual misconduct against Dyers. This led to several court cases, proceedings, delays because of Dyers mental health, returns to court, more serious allegations by 2007 – and Dyers shooting himself.
Footage is included of television interviews with Dyers by such oh says Mike Willessee, reports of the court cases, headline articles about the situation.
This documentary was released soon after Dyers’ death. It is an opportunity to look at and listen to Dyers, a dominating personality, strident. This is particularly the case and the sequences still worth watching, a man desperately defending himself, shouting, in motion, in and out of the room, returning, repeating his denials, the denunciation of those who are against him… Even these sequences are enough for quite a strong case study.
Wikipedia has interesting entries on Dyers himself as well is on Kenja. The information in Wikipedia gives quite a slant on Dyers himself, his making up stories about his early years in the Northern Territory, his military service, his being on remand, absenting himself, his joining up with Scientology for a time after the war… None of this material is in the film which relies on the interviews with Dyers himself, his words, his body language, to make his case or to make audiences wary and suspicious of him.
