LETTER TO ALI
Australia, 2004, 104 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Clara Law.
Letters to Ali is a documentary made by Clara Law (Autumn Moon, Floating Life, Goddess of 1967) and her husband, cinematographer Eddie Fong.
The film begins with autobiographical material, showing how Clara Law and Eddie Fong migrated to Australia in the mid-90s and the effect of the new country on them, especially living in the suburbs, becoming Australian citizens and voting. The focus of the film, however, is social concern about refugees seeking political asylum in Australia and their being detained in such centres as Baxter and Port Hedland. Clara Law had read a letter by an activist in the Melbourne Age, contacted her, discovered that she was involved with her whole family in communicating with some of those in detention, especially a young boy from Afghanistan called Ali. He had been taken by the Taliban, his family had disappeared. He travelled by plane to Indonesia and then by boat and was picked up and taken to Port Hedland where he was kept in detention, sometimes isolation. Court hearings, especially concerning whether he was a minor or not, found against him, although after a long time he received a temporary permit to move to Adelaide.
The film shows a journey from Melbourne to Port Hedland. It highlights the personalities of each of the members of the family as well as of Clara Law and her husband. The journey is entertaining as a documentary, the group wending its way from Melbourne to Port Augusta, up through the Centre, through the Tanami Desert. It was the first time Clara Law had experienced any kind of camping.
The film also includes some interviews, some documentary footage from films and from the news, especially in protests outside the detention centres. No cameras are allowed inside Baxter or Port Hedland, so there was no footage of what it was like within the centres, merely the group going to the entrance and the security checks. However, the verbal commentary and the phone calls indicate how difficult it is, physically and psychologically, for so many people to experience such detention for so long.
One of the interviewees in the film is former Minister for Immigration, Ian McPhee?, who explains the history of immigration to Australia and the different attitudes, especially in the 70s and early 80s. The end of the film brings an interview with Malcolm Fraser, more a statesman in his later years, speaking about justice and implicitly critical of the decisions of the Howard government and the inhumane treatment of those seeking asylum, whether they were to be permitted to remain in Australia or not.
The film is a contribution to Australian consciousness about its history, about the successive waves of migration, of the attitudes of those who migrate, settle in and are prejudiced against newcomers to the country. It is a plea for a reassessment of the conditions, the nature of security, the inhumane treatment and lack of civil rights of those interned.
1.The situation for migrants in Australia, 2004? The sketch of Australian history, heritage, the development of migration, the 40s and 50s? Asian migration after the Vietnam War? The contemporary camps, the nature of internment for adults and children, the repressive treatment? The political implications? The Australian public?
2.Clara Law and her story, the glimpses of life in Hong Kong, her explanation of life in Hong Kong? Her migration with her husband, the differences, the big house, space, the garden, the silence? Her filling in forms, naturalisation, voting?
3.Her reading the story of Trish, the making contact, the concern about the internment of refugees? The decision to go on the trip?
4.Getting the equipment, the contributions of so many individuals and groups? The quality of the photography and her husband as photographer? The editing of the material, Paul Grabowsky’s score?
5.The portrait of the family, the interviews with Trish, her husband? The focus on the children? Trish, her miscarriage, her social concern, information about the refugees? Her work as a doctor? The four children, their ages, the interviews, her husband and his German-Jewish? background, the effect of the Holocaust on his father and his being disturbed for most of his life? The support for the cause? The children involved?
6.The movements for concern about those in detention, the detention camps, the numbers, conditions, the action of the guards, the emphasis on security, the prison-like conditions?
7.Ali, his Afghan background, age, the tests for his age and their considering him adult, the winning of the appeal, his being a minor? The point about taxpayers and the costs for these court cases and the appeals by the government? His story of home, the coming of the Taliban, the Taliban terrorising the village, beheading a man for example? Ali’s own family and his not having heard news for two years? Flight to Indonesia, the boat to Australia? In Port Hedland, little access? The sense of despair and no future?
8.The family starting to write the letters, their becoming more personalised, the phone calls, his wanting to call Trish “Mum”? Her concern, especially about his mother in Afghanistan? His looking forward to the letters, missing the phone calls? The family going to visit, the second visit? The effect? The effect on them going into the detention camp? His being allowed to go to Adelaide, the family going to see him, the playful scenes, his dream about wanting to go to school? The uncertainty of his future?
9.Clara Law and her perspective, the interview of the witnesses, the footage of the protests, the musician and his explanation of the experience in protest? Ian Mc Phee and his recapitulation of migration history? Malcolm Fraser, the transition from the prime minister to the statesman, his talking about justice? His considerations of the change in Australian attitudes?
10.The sketch of the trip, the enjoyment, the driving, the desert, camping out, passing though the Aboriginal community, the map?
11.The visit to Baxter camp, security and no cameras allowed? Arrival in Port Hedland, fifteen thousand inhabitants, the large port, iron ore, the red dust over the town, the detention centre itself?
12.Clara Law’s list of themes, her own views on suffering, death…? Ali’s responses to these themes?
13.Trish and her talking about the doctor who worked with her, his attitude of fear, refugees not fitting in, the fear of Islam, expectations of violence? The public’s views on these issues?
14.Clara Law and her deciding to tell a story, so many stories, attitudes changed not by policy discussions but rather by experience of people and their stories? Audiences identifying with people and reflecting on what they would do in similar circumstances or if such things happened to them?
