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Letters to Ali (2004)

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clip Memories education content clip 1

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Filmmaker Clara Law has given Trish and Ali some homework – she has asked them to respond to a series of word-prompts including the words ‘ancestors’ and ‘sea’. Against a montage of quiet landscapes and a sparse score, Trish narrates her responses, while Ali’s thoughts appear as text on the screen. They have very different ideas of what these words mean.

Curator’s notes

by Poppy De Souza

Clara Law uses text in Letters to Ali as a reflective prompt for ideas and responses. A simple word such as sea has incredibly divergent associations for Trish and Ali. For Trish, the sea is a soothing and safe place that sparks happy memories of her childhood, playing with her siblings by the ocean where she grew up. For Ali the sea is a more malevolent entity, one which he associates with death, darkness and fear. His experience as a fifteen-year-old asylum seeker drifting in the wild seas is conveyed through the sound-effects of a creaking boat, a storm and rough ocean waves. Ali’s tunnel of light at the end of his long journey is Trish, who he refers to as his ‘mum’ (see clip one)

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