Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

If Only – Series 1 Episode 10 (2003)

play Human suffering or death
clip The cry for help education content clip 1

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Roxy describes the situation that landed her in jail. She had been passing dud cheques in order to pay her mortgage. In despair, and with a growing agoraphobia, she defied the jailors and used an old razor to cut herself.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

Roxy says she was considered 'the baddest child in Australia’ and spent most of her young life in institutions. She had a chance to begin life again with a partner and a baby but she couldn’t hold it all together and found herself in jail. Roxy describes the sort of psychological distress that brings so many people to jail who should instead be treated for their psychoses.

She has lived a life of hell and yet she’s clear-sighted enough today to describe the madness she has been through, now that her agoraphobia and panic attacks are under control and she has a counsellor to help her through the hard times. The film captures the madness of her actions as well as the lack of understanding she received from the authorities.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows, through an interview and re-creation of events, Roxy’s story of her crime and arrest and some incidents that occurred during her imprisonment. During much of the clip she is shown telling her story to camera. Parts of the narration are re-created, sometimes using a split screen. Footage of a prison cell, a cell door closing and a hand with a razor blade illustrates Roxy’s account of incarceration and self-harming episodes. Camera movement suggests her disturbed mental state. Percussive sound and piano music underscore events in the story.

Educational value points

  • The clip provides a glimpse of one woman’s experience of imprisonment. In 2003 only 7 per cent of the total prison population in Australia were women even though since 1998 their numbers had been increasing at a greater rate than that of males. The 84 per cent increase in female prisoners between 1998 and 2003, almost three times the increase for men, reflects a range of causes including fraud, drug use and more women being jailed for violent crimes.
  • Circumstances that contribute to female prisoners’ vulnerability in prisons, such as physical and mental health problems, are suggested in the clip. The Women and Poverty Report, which the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) commissioned in 2001, found that 65 per cent of women in Vic prisons had lived in institutions as children. Their levels of secure housing, education and employment are generally lower than those of the female population as a whole.
  • Self-mutilation as described in the clip occurs more frequently among female prisoners than their male counterparts. Women who self-injure say that feelings of helplessness and isolation, commonly experienced in prison, make them want to do so. Roxy says self-mutilation helped her feel she had a degree of control over her life. Self-harm among female prisoners has been linked to low self-esteem and feelings of powerlessness, despair and trauma.
  • The clip is an example of documentary filmmaking that incorporates stylised interpretation of events to support and dramatise the narrative. In this case the razor blade is used as a dramatic motif for freedom. As Roxy describes the secreted razor blade as her only hope for escape a hand-held camera swings from the floor of a cell up to a small rectangular window that reflects the shiny shape of the razor, linking physical escape with the emotional escape of self-harm.
  • The clip raises a question about the appropriateness of incarceration as a punishment for women. According to the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services more than 70 per cent of women in NSW prisons report having experienced sexual abuse or physical violence as an adult, are drug addicted or have had a mental illness. Alternative punishments such as periodic detention, community service and rehabilitation programs are sometimes ordered.
  • The clip presents Roxy’s story without other points of view about her case, and film techniques are used to convey and support her version of events. Roxy is filmed with shadows behind her that appear to be bars, as if anticipating what is to come. The camera zooms in on her lying on the bed as percussive sound effects suggest the threat of arrest. Shots of a cell door closing and being locked emphasise her sense of entrapment and camera movements depict her panic.