Australians will have to wait three months before they are allowed to watch it. By the time Utopia is released here next Australia Day, it will have already screened on free-to-air British TV.
Is is hardly unreasonable to expect a film that asks such enormous questions of Australia to open on our shores at the same time it does in Britain. Pilger and his producers seem essentially to be saying: “Australia, we've got something awfully important to tell you. But you’re not allowed to join the conversation just yet.”
More than the head-scratching release strategy, is London really the best place to start a debate about Indigenous equality in Australia? Utopia’s cinematic premiere, held in a place far removed from its eponymous region, seems – well – rude.
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/nov/12/john-pilgers-utopia
Australia Day - late Jan is when most of Australia is at the beach or watching the tennis all hours on tv…
so we shall see how Pilger fares here...
On 22/12/2013, at 5:27 AM, Patrick McManus wrote:
> Hi all esp Oz folk has there been reaction in the poetry community to John
> Pilger's 'Utopia' a film dealing with the continued treatment of the first
> nation- there must be poetry around the situation
>
> Or is poetry in an ivory tower?
>
> Patrick
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