Australian
Screen

an NFSA website



Dirty War (2005)

Synopsis

The US has been invited by the Australian Government to use Shoalwater Bay near Rockhampton, Queensland as a training base. The film describes the pollution left by the US in the Philippines and asks if Australia will suffer from the same fate. Interviews from defence force experts, environmentalists and Filipino victims of the pollution are intercut with archival footage and footage shot by the filmmakers.

Curator’s notes

'What if’ documentaries are difficult to produce because they are not presenting facts but suppositions. The difficulty for the filmmakers is to decide which conclusions you should rightly leave with the audience.