Clip description
News footage of the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa carrying over 400 rescued asylum seekers off the coast of Australia is accompanied in a split-screen by barrister Julian Burnside QC who outlines the international laws protecting asylum seekers. The events of September 11 two months later in New York are shown. Rita Lasar, whose brother died that day, relates events as she remembers them. In voice-over, filmmaker Helen Newman says that overnight the asylum seekers in Australia were labelled as 'terrorists’ in the media. Legislation is passed which sees the asylum seekers detained on the island of Nauru. Lawyer Eric Vadarlis is shown in dismay at the court’s decision. Newman’s voice-over questions the meaning of democracy.
Curator’s notes
The filmmakers do not attempt to be dispassionate observers in Anthem and clearly place themselves within the narrative as they struggle to come to terms with recent events. Cambis and Newman have been ambitious in their scope with the making of Anthem and this clip is a strong example of their attempt to draw many complex events together in order to understand how they are related. In this clip, the Tampa crisis in Australia leading up to the 2001 Federal election is set against events in New York on September 11. Newman argues that the two events were conflated in the Australian public’s minds, resulting in what she calls a ‘race election’ and the implementation of the so-called ‘Pacific Solution’ which allowed asylum seekers to be held in offshore detention centres while their claims for asylum were being processed. It is a bow that has been drawn by many commentators since who have written about the current ‘climate of fear’. Newman’s and Cambis’s attempts to try and understand the source of this fear are a core part of this film.