Why
Armidale Rural Australians for Refugees and Progressive Cinema present
CHAUKA, PLEASE TELL US THE TIME
directed by
BEHROUZ BOOCHANI and ARASH KAMALI SARVESTANI
Kurdish-Iranian journalist, Behrouz Boochani, has been detained on Manus Island since August 2013. Anxious to make a film involving refugees and the sea, Amsterdam based Iranian filmmaker and editor, Arash Kamali Sarvestani, located Boochani online. They worked together across a vast distance, to create a poetic, hypnotic film, which is both a work of great artistry, and a damning indictment of a brutal policy.
The central thread of the film is the chauka, a native bird sacred in the local indigenous culture whose singing allows locals to tell the time. But “Chauka” was also the name given to the prison’s solitary confinement unit.
On 22nd May, 2018, Boochani reported the seventh death of a refugee on Manus Island writing "The refugees on Manus are deeply saddened and horrified by the news of another friend’s death. All of us knew him closely and we were aware of his illness the whole time. He clearly needed urgent medical treatment. But the Australian immigration again chose to ignore his condition.
"Peter Dutton is responsible for his death. It was Australia that exiled him by force to Manus. It was Australia that put him in a prison for years and completely ignored his illness. It’s time for an independent investigation on all the deaths on Manus, Nauru and Christmas Island. This needs to stop, urgently."
The screening will be followed by dinner and discussion.
Entry and dinner free, donations welcome.