Capturing the feel of a new movement

March 21, 2001
Issue 

S11 Doco
Written, produced and directed by Charlie Hill-Smith, Cindy Elliot & Pat Stirling
$8
Order a copy by email at <charlie@cobweb.com.au>

Struggle
Kinetic
Distributed by MGM Records

BY SEAN HEALY

I've spent most of the last six months writing and talking about the September 11-13 protests against the World Economic Forum in Melbourne. In the process, my memory of it has dissolved from sights, sounds, smells and emotions into mere words.

If my experience sounds familiar to you, then do what I did last night: watch this video, listen to this single, and have it all come flooding back. If you didn't go, then get them because, emotionally if not intellectually, this is the closest you'll get to the lived experience.

You really know you're in the midst of a genuine social movement when people step forward, seemingly out of the woodwork, and produce works this wonderful and creative that sum up the movement's aims and feel.

S11 Doco, made in Adelaide by Charlie Hill-Smith, Cindy Elliot and Pat Stirling, is deceptively simple. Shot with a Sony digital video, it's a collection of scenes from the blockade of the World Economic Forum, in a straightforward chronological order, interspersed with many different demonstrators' answers to the journalistic cliche, "Why are you here today?", then overlaid with a soundtrack of familiar favourites (Powderfinger, Midnight Oil) and the occasional caption.

Very simple, but also very subtle. Chronologically, the documentary doesn't capture everything — it misses the union rights rally on September 12 and the "victory march" on September 13 and the shots of the decisive police assaults are from out of position. Look elsewhere if you want a definitive history.

But, mood-wise, everything's here: the downcast stoicism of that first, cold, rain-soaked morning; the growing elation as we realised our numbers and how powerful we were; the carnival atmosphere created by drums, dancing and doof; and the terror of those moments of police assault.

It even captures perfectly the uncomfortable waiting that was so much a part of the S11 experience, the times when you knew the police would eventually come at you but didn't know if it would be in the next five minutes or in two hours. You could do nothing but cling to the person next to you and stew. S11 Doco even captures the mood swings of the police: bored and playing rugby; then turning malicious and biting someone's fingers.

While understated, the grabs from individuals are enough to give the documentary political content and flavour also — and manage to capture the wide spread of views from the more moderate (Trades Hall's Leigh Hubbard) to the more radical (the International Socialists' David Glanz and a young, unnamed anarchist with her newborn baby).

Kinetic's techno single Struggle is very different; it's a tune, not a visual record of a particular demonstration. But it too manages to capture the mood of the anti-capitalist movement.

Such was the band's intention. The cover and the video clip that come with the single are collections of shots from S11 and similar protests. The lyrics are explicitly political ("The struggle must continue and the resistance will survive" runs the chorus).

Since it first came together three years ago, Kinetic has sought to give its music political intent and edge.

"It's what all of us are particularly passionate about", band member Caroline Wilson told me. "We're not in it for the fame and the fortune. We're in it to get across a certain message: that the world needs some kind of change that can open people's eyes. Music is a way to do that."

But it's not just the political content which captures the mood of the movement: it's the form as well. Electronica is very much this movement's musical style and, from this single at least, you can see why. The style is modern, technological and embraces the futuristic, free of the cliches and the fluff of the capitalist music industry. It is also joyful and funky, a music worthy of the slogan, "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution".

Kinetic is currently working on an album, which they hope to have out by year's end. Ask your local record store to order you a copy of Struggle in the meantime.

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