The Australian filmmaker Robyn Hughan is participating in the 13th edition of the Dhaka International Film Festival with three documentaries showcased at the spiritual section of the festival.
She made these films – Sikhs In Shep, Boom Sheppada, and Mooo-ving Cow and Filipino Brides – while working on her upcoming film named Journey to Nowhere. This is for the third time Robyn is participating in the festival. Her documentary A Nun’s New Habit won the best film award participating in the same section in 10th edition of biannual festival in 2008.
The film that depicts Sister Carmel Wauchope’s efforts to ease the woes of the refugees in Baxter detention centre in Whyalla Town in Australia also won best documentary award in the Religious Film Festival in Italy.
Robyn Hughan said that she was working on her next feature length documentary titled Journey to Nowhere depicting the plights of the Afghan refugees in the ‘resettlement process’ in Australia.
‘These people have spent almost half of their lives in many refugee camps in Iran and then in Malaysia and Indonesia before resettling in developed countries like Australia, USA and Canada. I’ll depict how brutally these homeless people are treated by the Australian government in the detention camps even after knowing the fact that these homeless people have no chance to return to their motherland. Malaysia and Indonesia will also never give asylum as these countries are not signatory of the refugee convention,’ Robyn Hughan told New Age.
‘I’ll feature their present situation in the detention camps in Australia and the camps in Malaysia and Indonesia. In flashbacks, their bitter past in Iran and Afghanistan will be narrated,’ she said.
In fact, rights activist and filmmaker Robyn Hughan has specialised in stories of refugees and human rights for more than a decade including Tales from A Suitcase: The Afghan Experience (seven-part series, SBS), Living in Limbo, following the plight of children in detention, Crimes of the Heart raising awareness of child sexual abuse.
Sharing the challenges of making such documentaries Robyn Hughan said, ‘Collecting fund is always a big problem for an independent filmmaker like me. Say for my next project I’ve been traveling in Malaysia and Indonesia for the past two years. I get only a little fund from the Australian government. And the making process is also very risky. Refugees are robbed, mugged and bashed by the locals. The same people may treat the filmmakers in the same way.’
Though she is critical about the Australian government’s policy regarding the issue, Robyn Hughan claims that she gets positive response from the people. ‘Watching my film A Nun’s New Habit people became more conscious about the issues and came to know the role of some politicians. And the film had a little impact in the last elections in Australia,’ she said.
Robyn Hughan says that she loves to participate in Dhaka International Film Festival since it gives her to meet people from Central and South Asia. ‘I love to meet people from the other side of the world. Since I’ve made documentaries on the people from the Central and South Asia I can get to know about more experiences from the people coming to the festival from those countries.’
-With New Age input
