A group intending to make a film about activists involved in East Timor's long struggle for freedom flew from Darwin to Dili over Easter.
It included Luigi Acqisto , from Melbourne, and Lurdes Pires, Darwin , of Fair Trade Films and the Dili Film Works , who produced Circle of Silence , made from the Walkley Award winning book by the late Shirley Shackleton about her relentless struggle to learn the truth about the deaths of the Balibo Five media teams during the l975 Indonesian invasion , her husband ,Greg , one .
Travelling with them from New South Wales was award winning Australian scriptwriter , author , short story writer , lecturer , Christopher Lee .
Before they flew out on a midday flight from Darwin to Dili, the Timor- Leste capital , they had a conflab with Darwin agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith, longtime campaigner for East Timor , author of fhe E book 117 Days in East Timor , who is supplying Lee with some background info about key players in the struggle , including journalist Roger East ,murdered in Dili and thrown into the harbour ,
Also mentioned was Sam Kruger , who is said to have played a vital part in the shooting down by Americans of the plane in which Admiral Yamamoto , originator of the plan to attack Pearl Harbour , was travelling . Kruger , who lived in what was Portuguese Timor , became a Darwin public servant , is buried in Alice Springs, The clandestine radio link between Darwin and the Fretilin fighters was covered .
As Christopher Lee had once been an Australian Associated Press reporter in Darwin , Wesley-Smith drove him along the Esplanade trying to pinpoint where the office had been , from whence the renowned Melbourne Herald journalist and author , Douglas Lockwood , had operated , there at the at the time of the Japanese bombing, the house later becoming the AAP base .
Lee told Wesley-Smith he had tried to save the building , next to the Travelodge , from being demolished.
It is understood that the film Circle of Silence was to be screened in Dili during this trip . It is to be the subject of a memorial screening in various parts of Australia , including Darwin, on May 3 ,
Wesley-Smith said Catholic priest , Padre Mick Burke, of the Bega Valley Advocates for Timor Leste, who is organising support from another region , is in Darwin intending to fly to Dili .
