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A sensational documentary film is planned about the murder of the Balibo Five in East Timor during the Indonesian invasion. Darwin agronomist Rob Wesley-Smith , deeply involved in the East Timor struggle from 1975 , who in an earlier reenctment played the part of journalist Roger East being shot and thrown into the sea at Dili , received the following message which explains the aim of the dramatic film:
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Dili Film Works and
FairTrade Films have started a crowd sourcing campaign to fund a new documentary, The Age of Living Dangerously. Many of you helped make history by
generously supporting Beatriz’s War, Timor-Leste’s first feature film.
The Age
of Living Dangerously is a film that profoundly touches both Australia and
Timor-Leste. In 1964 President Sukarno gave a speech declaring that the
following year would be ‘the year of living dangerously.’ In 1965 he was
overthrown, up to a million Indonesians killed, and Suharto started his three
decade long rule.
The Australian Government celebrated Suharto’s victory and
his pro-West ‘New Order’. It was the start of a new era in Australian and
Indonesian foreign relations, not a year, but an age of living dangerously; an
age which saw genocides in Indonesia and East Timor, and during which six
Australian based journalists, the Balibó Five and Roger East, were
murdered.
The Age of Living
Dangerously is the true story of the Balibó Five, told through a woman’s
search for the truth about her husband’s murder and the reasons why her country
has covered up the crime for over forty years. This powerful cold case
investigation unearths new and politically explosive facts as it follows Shirley
Shackleton to Balibó, Timor-Leste, to visit the border town where her husband
was murdered.
Greg Shackleton was one of five Australian based journalists
killed in Portuguese Timor whilst reporting on Indonesian military incursions
into the small colony in 1975. Shirley has lived for decades not knowing for
certain how her husband died or who killed him. She wants the doubts and
nightmares to end so that she can live the rest of her life in peace, a life
marked by a fierce determination to discover the truth about the deaths, and why
Australia did not protest over the killings.
Shirley believes that the
Australian Government covered up the murders because it had colluded in the
invasion of Portuguese Timor to protect its trade interests with Indonesia and
to get hold of Timor’s oil. This collusion is a deep betrayal of a people who
helped Australia during its darkest hour. In 1942 three hundred Australian
soldiers fought a brutal guerilla war that kept the Imperial Japanese Army
pinned down. Everywhere else, the Axis powers were advancing except in Timor.
Timorese boys as young as eight became the diggers’ eyes and ears, carrying
weapons, and at times sacrificing their lives for the Australians.
In 1975
Australia betrayed Timor by giving Indonesia the green light to invade the small
colony. The Australian Government could have stopped the invasion by formally
protesting about the journalists’ deaths. Instead it colluded in a cover-up and
ignored the immense historical debt owed to Timor, a betrayal that led to the
highest genocide per-capita in modern history.
The film is
reminiscent of Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence.
However, The Age of Living Dangerously, unlike Oppenheimer’s films is about the
murder of Australian citizens, and, in the case of East Timor, about genocide
right on our doorstep. Until the truth is told about who murdered the
Balibó Five, why Timor was sacrificed, and why our government officials were
complicit in these crimes, our very identity as a decent, fair nation, our very
sense of who we are as a people is damaged.
Your support in making
this groundbreaking film would be greatly valued. Please have a look at the
following links to see the rewards you receive if you become a fan club member
or sponsor the film. For more information about the film or to make a
contribution please visit:
http://www.dilifilmworks.com
Dili Film Works is
considered Timor-Leste’s leading film & television producer. It made the
country’s first feature film, Beatriz’s War.
