cheap holiday... - SALA Festival

SALA 2003 mix media installation 2003 June - SA

Interactive video-installation for SALA Festival 2003 Adelaide.

A large screen projection of the harrowing scenes from the Woomera detention prison breakout in 2002 loops to the Australian national anthem, Advance Australia Fair.

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In the foreground a ‘photo-wall’ offers a photo opportunity for the audience and a TV monitor on the lounge chair captures the audience reactions to the event.

Holiday Camp - anti-racist documentary

2min trailer + 50min documentary 2002 July - Woomera SA

A confronting 1-hour documentary about refugee policy in Australia, translated into 8 languages and sold into multiple territories globally since 2002.

The pivotal action of the documentary is the 2002 Woomera refugee prison outbreak – after months of protests, including hunger strikes, 53 refugees escape during the Easter protest, supported by hundreds of outraged Australians.
After witnessing the outbreak the audience is invited to consider the complex issues arising from this border crossing; in particular the diversity of constructions about protest and activism.

Holiday Camp (Adelaide/Hamburg 2002) investigates the current Australian immigration policies, in the context of 200 years of colonization, connecting the issues of indigenous dispossession, genocide, and the incarceration of refugees.

It explores the implications of the mandatory detention system and the construction of national borders. ‘Holiday Camp’ challenges us to consider what risks do we take…

Holiday Camp -  how is your liberation bound up with mine?

The film screened in over 300 festivals and events around the world.
Selected screenings:

• Documentary Film Festival Cairns, Australia, (July 2005)

• SHURIFF (Seoul Human Rights Film Festival), South Korea (21-26 May 2004)

• World Social Forum Film Festival, Mumbai, India (16-21 January 2004)

• DOCOMANIA, New Plymouth, New Zealand, (7+8 November 2003)

• WildSpaces Film Festival, 30 cites around Australia (1-3 August 03)

• Sehsuechte03, International Students Film Festival, Berlin-Potsdam, (4 May 03)

• Transmediale03, Berlin, Germany (4 February 03)

• CounterConference Toronto, Canada (6 April 03)

• 2nd European PGA-conference, Leiden, Netherlands (1-4 September 02),

• Borderpanic Symposium, Sydney, Australia (11 September 02)

• Electro Fringe, Newcastle, Australia (3 October 02)

• Straight out of Brisbane (19 November 02)

• Channel 31 Sydney and Melbourne (November 02)

• European no-border-camp-campaign – convergences in Strasbourg, France (19- 30 July 02)

• Jena, Germany (25-30 June 02)