'We Will Be Remembered For This'

Hi Everyone,

Just thought I would post a blurb here that I wrote a few days ago on the 'We Will Be Remembered For This' website- www.myspace.com/wewillberemembered - just some thoughts about the film, the motivation behind it, and its enduring importance as a tool of creating awareness amongst Australians. If you have not yet seen the trailer, you can do so at the website mentioned above. Cheers.

Some Words for You to Read...

Hi there, friends of 'we will be remembered'. today i just had a couple of observations to make...

my name is Jessie, and I'm one of the producers of this film. firstly, i want to thank you all - on behalf of all of us involved - for your interest and support and encouragement, even before it has been released! it's been great, and the public airings the film has had have gone down a treat.

the work that has gone into it so far, the inspired shooting by adam and dave, the incredible interviews with people who shared their stories with extraordinary openness, the hours and HOURS of editing, the music, the thoughts, the reflection, the conversations, all of it is really inspiring and i'm so excited to be involved with this project. so thanks for your support and we promise to give you a rip snorter of a film! it's due early in the new year.

the second thing is... this past week i have spent a lot of time on the phone with people housed in detention in various places across Australia. there are lots and lots of people who have been locked up now for YEARS, and it's just getting to be too much... the people behind the razor wire of Baxter, Maribyrnong, Villawood (and don't even TALK to me about Nauru) are wasting away into nothing. their mental health is just crumbling, they are physically unwell, confused, disoriented and - perhaps worst of all - many of them have given up hope.

when i was living in Australia, it was easy enough to respond, albeit modestly. i could get in my car each sunday and go visit Maribyrnong, I could easily get on the phone to find them a lawyer or hassle the detention centre to get them an appointment with a doctor, or whatever was necessary. historically, these things are almost always met with some degree of frustration, but now that I'm overseas, studying in Dublin, there is an added 20,000kms of frustration. i have had messages and calls from guys this week asking me to do something for them, to write a letter to immigration for them, to find out whether they can get a lawyer to help with the next step of their case, and all i can think of is how far away I am, how disempowered I am to respond, and how denigrating it is for them even to have to ask for my help.

the very objective of 'we will be remembered' is to get rid of the conditions and circumstances which lead to this kind of problem. we do not have any kind of political axe to grind, but we feel deeply saddened by the stripping away of dignity, the deprivation of freedom, and the employment of racial fear in the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia. we are also deeply concerned about the future of human rights in Australia.

this film is for you, your grandparents, your teachers, your friends, the fruit and veg shop guy, your plumber and that girl at the bus stop. it's for politicians, prisoners, and primary school kids. this film is for *everyone*, because we believe that *everyone* should see it. the message we want to communicate is that regardless of politics and policy and international pressure, the human suffering which is going on in the name of border protection in Australia is unacceptable, and we believe that until Australian people say NO MORE, it will keep happening.

i have seen the long-term consequences of this policy with my own eyes, over a period of 4 years. please believe me that if you knew what was really happening, you would want to change the way things are done. regardless of your politics.

thanks a lot for reading.

jessie