Duck and Cover focuses on Australia’s particularly toxic past with immigration. The film uses found footage coupled with appropriated Australian political speeches to ultimately highlight Australia’s disturbing racist history but also illustrates how these issues are still very relevant today.
No Borders is a film which focuses on Melbourne and the individuals who have migrated here. This very aesthetic film highlights the uniqueness and diversity of Melbourne which perfectly melds with the personal anecdotes of individuals who have migrated here. The video manages to capture the varying aspects to migration: the location, the people and the inevitable sacrifices.
Films by Alaine Thompson, BingBing Sun, & Samantha Antolini
Click below for a Q&A with the filmmakers.
WHAT WAS YOUR TOPIC FOR EACH FILM?
Australia is a culturally diverse country with migrants, or those born to migrants. Working within the theme of ‘no borders ’, our group aimed to create two short documentaries addressing the discordance between multiculturalism and “livability” to create meaningful connections with one another.
Specifically for the shot footage documentary, Samantha thought it would be great to have the voices of people who had migrated here themselves, so we decided to interview some migrants who came from different background such as refugees sharing their experiences of living in Australia to discover the true side of multiculturalism – opportunity comes with sacrifice.
With our found footage documentary, Alaine raised a good point of “Go Back To Where You Came From” by looking at recent waves of immigration and how each group was treated upon arrival in Australia, as well as the reasons for their initial fleeing, demonstrating the toxic relationship Australia has always had with immigration. This then turned into a documentary about immigration fueled racism and Australia’s long history of such bigotry
ANY DIFFICULTIES FACED DURING PRODUCTION IN YOUR APPLICATION OF ‘EXPERIMENTATION’ / POETICS ?
We wanted to make a video which expressed Melbourne in an unconventional way. Visually we tried to do as much filming in various places around Melbourne as possible but occasionally ran into the dilemma as to whether we were actually allowed to film in various places or if there were considered private property.
Poetically, we aimed to get a real insight into the minds of our interviewees and we had a bit of a problem with one as she got upset and we had to stop the interview half way through, nevertheless the audio we got from the start was enough anyway. Additionally, the experimental aspect of the film was mostly achieved through our abstract interviews and visual effects. We wanted to interviews to explore unconventional aspects of Melbourne and really give an insight into the interviewees lives. The way we achieved this was by asking unconventional questions and really encouraging the interviewees to expand on their answers.
With Duck and Cover it was originally a very complex concept with a very strict timeline, and, through the research I did, I found that there would most likely be chunks missing as the details were inaccessible. Through workshopping the concept with the class and Liam we came to the idea that it could effectively just be a 3 minute history of racism in Australia.
This documentary was always going to be very hard-hitting and political, using images of Australia’s own racist tendencies to critique those same tendencies. When I was researching the Vietnam war for images to use I even contemplated using images taken of the war itself, but I’m glad I didn’t. They would’ve too impactful and taken away from the overall intent of the film.
The poetic nature of the film really comes through in its soundtrack as the images and audio clearly don’t match up, but it isn’t just that. The layered combination of a nuclear war ‘Duck and Cover’ PSA mixed with sounds of the ocean, a ship at sea and speeches from Australian politicians preaching anti-immigration legislation, creates a poetic satire, driving home the message that such bigoted policies as the White Australia Policy, aren’t entirely eradicated from the Australian consciousness
HOW DID THIS PROJECT CHANGE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICAL AND POETIC DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING?
A: Making these films changed my perspective entirely of what a documentary can be and paved the way for my final project – I Don’t Exactly Hate Women, another found footage film just as hard-hitting as Duck and Cover. Through these films I’ve found that pretty much anything can be a documentary.
No Borders, to some, would look like a music video, but still carries with it a true and powerful message about immigration and multiculturalism. Duck and Cover is effectively a satire, which I honestly thought a documentary never could be. I know the power of comedy to send a message all too well, some of my favourite comedians have incredibly political sets, but I thought that the information in a documentary was always too heavy to be handled with comedy, too heavy for people to laugh at. Duck and Cover proved this idea wrong, proved that a documentary can be anything, do anything, fit any tone any theme, and ask the tough questions at the same time.
B: For our shot footage documentary No Borders, the voice over worked really well with the visual shots and background music. This project changed my understanding of film poetics and political documentary. Before we did the short film, I thought poetics means something that has strong emotional value and can’t be used in a documentary without keeping its objectivity. In addition, I was thinking the political documentary needs to be straightforward to deliver a powerful information. However, we created a three minute short film in a soft and warming way.
Specifically, by including voiceovers from different migrants who have experienced Immigration to Australia we were able to critically present how their life influenced their thinking, which reflected the other side of Australian multiculturalism. Also, by going out to shoot some wide shots and close-ups of Melbourne city, (which included both positive and negative views) we were able to bring an emotional aspect to the film’s viewers.