Ophir (2020)
DOCUMENTARY | INDIGENOUS | ENVIRONMENT
TUESDAY 27 APRIL | 6:15PM
ACMI CINEMA 1
FEATURING A POST-FILM PANEL DISCUSSION
Australian Premiere
Director: Olivier Pollet, Alexandre Berman
Country: France, UK
Year: 2020
Duration: 97 minutes
Language: English, Tok Pidgin, Nasioi with English subtitles
Genre: Documentary
Awards: Winner, Grand Prix, FIFO 2020
Screening Location: ACMI Cinema 1, Federation Square, Melbourne | Plan your visit to ACMI **Please enter through the Fed Square entrance
SYNOPSIS
“The story of Bougainville and its people who are hoping for peace, working for freedom and protecting their Indigenous culture.” - ABC Radio Australia
One billion tons of rock extracted and 0.6% was used. These are the staggering figures regarding the Panguna mine in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.
Ophir describes the attempts of an Australian-owned mining company to manipulate the residents of Bougainville into accepting a mine in their fledgling country. It tells the story of an extraordinary Indigenous revolution for life, land and culture, leading up to the potential creation of the world's newest nation.
An ode to the indelible thirst of a peoples for freedom, culture, and sovereignty; the film sheds light on the Pacific's biggest conflict since WWII, revealing the visible and invisible chains of colonisation and its enduring cycles of physical and psychological warfare.
Unclassified 15+
Festival Selection
PANEL DISCUSSION
Albertha Sukaliana
Albertha Sukaliana is originally from Bougainville, Buka to be precise and was a little girl when the Bougainville crisis started. She has worked as an accountant but recently changed careers and is now working with the Health Care Sector here in Australia. Outside of her work she has been volunteering for the previous three years with the PNG Association of Victoria as a Treasurer and is also a current active member of the PNG Women’s Association in Melbourne.
Wayne Coles-Janess
Wayne Coles-Janess is an Award-Winning Writer, Director and Producer of Drama and Documentary programs. His previous films include international award-winning "On the Border of Hopetown", "In the Shadow of the Palms", and "Life at the End of the Rainbow". Screening at over 35 international film festivals, his film focusing on Bougainville - "Our Island, Our Fight" has won numerous International Awards including; Best Documentary, Best Video Production and Audience Awards. Running the border with the Solomon Island it was the first film that showed life behind the blockade and the ordinary peoples struggle to exist within this vicious hidden war.
Wayne has worked as a Producer, Director, DOP and Editor for some of the highest rating programs on Australian television including 60 Minutes, Foreign Correspondent, and in a 13 part series for SBS. Often working in War, his photos and reports have been published in Time Magazine, The Age, The ABC, The Sydney Morning Herald, National Geographic Magazine and numerous international Media Outlets.
He holds three Post Graduate Awards in Media Studies (Hons), Visual and Performing Arts (Hons) and Education. Studying Engineering at an Undergraduate Level, Wayne changed direction and Graduated from the Film School at the Queensland College of Art.
Clarence Sukaliana
Clarence Sukaliana is originally from Bougainville, Buka (PNG) and was just a little boy when the crisis started. He came to Australia with his wife and two boys when his wife came to study in Melbourne. Prior to coming over to Australia, Clarence worked as an apprentice with Tanubada Dairy Products Ltd then Laga Industries Ltd. In 2006 Clarence joined a landowner company for Gasfield Mining Oil and Gas working closely with Oil Search.
Stephanie McLennan (Moderator)
Stephanie McLennan is the Asia Initiatives Manager at Human Rights Watch. In this role, she covers Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, she worked as a corporate lawyer at a national Australian law firm, Maddocks, as well as acting as legal counsel at Nintendo. Stephanie has also worked with Her Honour Judge Davis in the County Court of Victoria predominantly in civil and criminal law, and has volunteered with Refugee Legal as a migration agent. She holds a bachelor of arts from Monash University, and a law degree from La Trobe University.
Keren Adams
Keren Adams is a Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, where she leads the Centre’s work on business and human rights. Since 2019, she has been working directly with communities in Bougainville to document the human rights and environmental impacts of Rio Tinto’s legacy in Panguna, and in 2020 filed a human rights complaint with the Australian Government on behalf of 156 residents from communities living around the mine. Keren has over 15 years’ experience as human rights lawyer and advocate in Australia and internationally, most recently as a partner at UK human rights firm Leigh Day in London.
COMMUNITY IMPACT PARTNER
The Jubilee Australia Research Centre engages in research and advocacy to promote economic justice for communities in the Asia-Pacific region and accountability for Australian corporations and government agencies operating there.