When you’ve got the likes of Harold Pinter and Noah Chomsky waxing lyrical over your film-making, then make time to watch this trailer for John Pilger’s new documentary. This time, he’s revealing the shocking history of Australia and their treatment of the aboriginals that reside in an area known as ‘UTOPIA’ in Northern Australia.
This trailer gives us snippets of the investigation that looks into the reality of the oldest human presence on the Earth and how they’ve been thrown aside, quite horrifically.
The documentary begins in Sydney, where Pilger grew up, and in Canberra, the nation’s capital, where the national parliament rises in an affluent suburb called Barton, recently awarded the title of Australia’s most advantaged community. Barton is named after Edmund Barton, the first prime minister of Australia, who in 1901 introduced the White Australia Policy:
‘The doctrine of the equality of man,’ said Barton, ‘was never intended to apply to those who weren’t British and white-skinned.’
He made no mention of the original inhabitants who were deemed barely human, unworthy of recognition in the first suburban utopia. The questions raised here include such ones as ‘How could this happen in the 21st century?‘ and ‘What role has the media played, if any?‘ Watch the trailer below, now:
UTOPIA is released in UK cinemas on 15th November. It’s due to be broadcast on ITV in December and released on DVD on 16th December. It will be released in Australia on 26th January. www.johnpilger.com
