Film “Utopia” to be shown in Australia on 26 January
..You have been documenting this struggle for decades. What change would you most like to see next?
One word: treaty. That’s the beginning.
John Pilger, Utopia 5 November, 2013 | By Andreas Wiseman Veteran journalist and BAFTA-winning filmmaker John Pilger returns to the screen with new documentary Utopia, about the plight of indigenous Australians. Pilger, who has reported discrimination against Australia’s first people since the 1970s, describes his new film as “a journey into a secret country” describing “not only the uniqueness of the first Australians, but their trail of tears and betrayal and resistance – from one utopia to another.”
Interviewees include Aboriginal leaders, human-rights campaigners, academics and politicians, among them former prime minister John Howard.
Never one to shy away from controversy, the film will be released in Australia on Australia Day (or ‘invasion day’, as Pilger also calls it) and will play at indigenous festivals including Sydney’s Yabun Festival.
Executive producer Christopher Hird of Dartmouth Films, also producer of Pilger’s last documentary The War You Don’t See, praised the role of UK distributor Network Releasing in getting the film made: “Utopia would not have been possible without the very, very substantial support of Network,” which releases theatrically from November 15.
ITV has UK TV rights and will release in December while SBS will broadcast in Australia……..
…..the right to share the natural riches and opportunities in a country like Australia. The first British settlers in Australia declared the country an empty land. They simply eradicated the very reality before their eyes. And that was built into the Australian legal system. It was only in the 1990s that that notion was overturned and there have been limited land rights for Australia’s first people.
In the Northern Territory it was almost an accident that indigenous people were given land rights. Successive governments have tried to call those rights back because of the mining opportunities in the area. It has enormous deposits of uranium and is considered a very materially valuable part of Australia.
Governments don’t want to negotiate with the indigenous people, who quite rightly want a part of the spoils, yes, but more than that they want to live in the way they want to, to expresss their difference. And it’s that difference that is not acceptable.
The film lays bare how Aborigines’ belief-system made them easy prey for the colonists…
…..You have been documenting this struggle for decades. What change would you most like to see next?
One word: treaty. That’s the beginning. Offered by the government…
Yes, but it also has to be accepted. It has to be constitutional; it has to be built into the very fabric of Australia’s laws and it has to be achieved through genuine negotiation and consultation. At the moment Aborigines have no power within the framework of modern Australia. It’s patronage, co-option and hand-outs. Nothing really will change until there’s a treaty….
Network will release Utopia in selected UK cinemas on November 15. http://www.screendaily.com/features/john-pilger-utopia/5063248.article?blocktitle=INTERVIEW&contentID=41125
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