Obituary: Jason Cornelius

Jason Cornelius

Australian film-maker Jason Cornelius, 29, died suddenly on February 12 in Sydney. Jason, originally from Brisbane, had worked in many of the world's most dangerous places, such as West Papua, the Sudan, Burma and of course behind the blockade in Bougainville. He had never worried there about his personal safety.

In March-May 1994 Jason led a small team of cineastes and journalists into south and central Bougainville, passing through the blockade from the Solomon Islands.

At the time an Australian parliamentary delegation was expected in Bougainville, and many people greeted Jason and his team with hope: "Are you the parliament people?"

The parliamentary delegates — led by ALP Senator Stephen Loosely unfortunately only briefly visited PNG-controlled areas. They never entered south/central Bougainville; for them it was "too dangerous".

In Bougainville Jason and his colleagues filmed a survivor of a massacre at the pumping station and covered many other aspects of the little known war.

His "extraordinary footage" (Lateline producer Mark Corcoran) was shown on ABC Lateline shortly after his return through the blockade.

Jason also took extraordinary risks to reach and film camps of the West Papua guerillas, the OPM. Extracts of Jason Cornelius's latest work, shot in West Papua, ran on ABC Foreign Correspondent on February 9.

We will greatly miss you !

Max watts

From GLW issue 350