RAC – Filef Australia

TALL TREES TALLER FENCES

(Password: Ftc3456)

This ‘film as resistance’ goes behind the scenes of Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time, the film shot by refugee Behrouz Boochani inside the Manus detention centre.

Tall Trees Taller Fences is a documentary film produced by Arash Kamali Sarvestani which follows the lives of the two strangers as they communicate via WhatsApp voice messages from half a world away and try to put the film together. Extra footage shot on Behrouz’s phone gives another insight into what the refugees endured while imprisoned in the detention centre.

Representatives of Filef, RAC and VDSA will briefly introduce the film. Link to introduction here

RAC (Refugee Action Coalition) is a grassroots group campaigning for refugee rights in Australia since 1999. Their strategy is based on the idea that progressive change comes from below. They work towards shifting public opinion so that politicians have no choice but to abandon Australia’s harsh stance on refugees.

VDSA (Valerio Daniel De Simoni Association) honours the life of Valerio Daniel De Simoni. It is a benevolent, non-profit institution, independent of any religious ethnic or political group, organized for the direct support of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia as well as indigenous youth.

Link to film here

Password: Ftc3456

Hosted by Refugee Action Coalition Sydney RAC

This July marks five years on Manus and Nauru for refugees dumped there by the Australian government.

The situation remains urgent. On 15 June, Fariborz became the 12th person to die as a result of offshore detention. He had warned repeatedly of his declining mental health, but never received the help he needed.

There are 1600 refugees and asylum seekers still stranded on the islands. Around half of all those on Manus and Nauru are blocked from the US by Trump’s travel ban. Iranian, Somali, Sudanese and Iraqi refugees are all being refused resettlement.

The more the election approaches, the more Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull are trying to beat up fear about refugees in the hope of winning votes. Yet they still trail badly in the polls.

The outrage in the US over Donald Trump’s separation of immigrant and refugee families at the border shows that racist policies can be fought. Trump has been forced to back down and promise to keep families together.

Australia also separates refugee families between Australia, and Nauru and Manus Island. And there are still children in detention on Nauru.

There is now majority support for bringing the refugees off the two offshore prison islands. Yet Labor’s Bill Shorten also refuses to adopt the only solution that could get them to safety—to #BringThemHere.

Until all the refugees and asylum seekers are brought to Australia, we have to keep fighting to close Manus Island and Nauru.

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