Published 13 June 2009 · Main Posts Balibo Rjurik Davidson I went to a media screening of the new film Balibo yesterday, which covers the murder of the five Australian journalists in East Timor in 1975, prior to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The film also follows Australian journalist Roger East, who is invited to Timor by Jose Ramos Horta and tries to discover what happened to the journalists. I’m not allowed to say much about it, but I will say that the film is in the tradition of Australian political movies such The Year of Living Dangerously, or perhaps foreign films like The Quiet American. I highly recommend it when it comes out. During the film I couldn’t help thinking: this could not have been made fifteen years ago. At that time, the Australian government was still pretty much supporting the Indonesian Occupation of East Timor. In the East Timorese solidarity movement, the final reports of Greg Shackleton were often played (John Pilger showed them in his various films about East Timor). The remarkable thing about those reports, was their partisanship. Here were journalists for commercial television channels making reports which are clearly pro-Timorese. I couldn’t find the footage on youtube, but there’s a ten minute video on youtube here, which has that footage. (Sorry, it wouldn’t let me embed it). There’s also some shots from the film in the following promotion of a book, which notes again the partisanship of the journalists: Rjurik Davidson Rjurik Davidson is a writer, editor and speaker. Rjurik’s novel, The Stars Askew was released in 2016. Rjurik is a former associate editor of Overland magazine. He can be found at rjurik.com and tweets as @rjurikdavidson. More by Rjurik Davidson › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 8 September 202326 September 2023 · Main Posts Announcing the 2023 Judith Wright Poetry Prize ($9000) Editorial Team Established in 2007 and supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets seeks poetry by writers who have published no more than one collection of poems under their own name (that is writers who’ve had zero collections published, or one solo collection published). It remains one of the richest prizes for emerging poets, and is open to poets anywhere in the world. In 2023, the major prize is $6000, with a second prize of $2000 and a third prize of $1000. All three winners will be published in Overland. First published in Overland Issue 228 8 September 202315 September 2023 · Main Posts Announcing the 2023 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize ($6500) Editorial Team Supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, and named after the late Neilma Gantner, this prize seeks excellent short fiction of up to 3000 words themed around the notion of ‘travel’; imaginative, creative and literary interpretations are strongly encouraged. This competition is open to all writers, nationally and internationally, at any stage of their writing career.
