Do Nothing and Do It Well: Making Radical Activist Historical Documentaries A project submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Liam Boswell Ward BSc, BA (Hons), MA (Deakin) School of Media and Communication, College of Design and Social Context RMIT University March 2017 The Australian News for Home Readers, 28 March 1867 Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of project is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Liam Boswell Ward 3rd March 2017 ii Acknowledgements My supervisors David Carlin and Cathy Greenfield offered honest critique and intellectual support, and they even made sure this whole project finally found the finish line. Notwithstanding their valuable help, it should go without saying that all opinions, errors and outlandish claims that might pepper these pages are my fault alone. Thanks to Maria Stratford for the provision of useful source material from her own family, and to Peter Kemp for talking me through my early ideas of the film’s form and offering much- appreciated collegial dialogue. Special thanks to all my colleagues in the RMIT Media program, especially Rachel Wilson, Paul Ritchard and Lisa French. Their constant encouragement and curiosity toward my research helped a great deal. I particularly appreciate the contribution of Zarita Leung and Nelson Wu. On top of her regular job organising Chinese workers in Melbourne for the National Union of Workers, Zarita made time to translate the film’s script into Cantonese. Nelson meanwhile managed to work around his broadcasting schedule for SBS Radio and various other commitments to record that Cantonese script into a polished and professional narration. Shu Shu Zheng, thanks for your translating too, but thanks above all for your love and friendship during the years of this project, and for occasionally reminding me that just because I speak of a social totality, doesn’t mean my silly little film has to cover everything in the entire history of the universe. Finally, it must be noted that this project wouldn’t exist without my comrades in Socialist Alternative who foster dissent and resistance in all realms of human activity, and who taught me the necessity of laying down a radical account of history. I completed this project on the lands of the Wurundjeri people and the Bunurong people both of the Kulin nation, who never ceded their sovereignty. The land around the bay, like all land on this continent, is stolen. It always was and always will be Aboriginal land. I pay respect to their elders and freedom fighters, past and present. iii Table of Contents Declaration .............................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... iv Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 2 Research Design ..................................................................................................................... 4 1. The Project: Radical activism, film-making, and race as a central question in Australian society .............................................................................................................................. 9 The Chinese cabinetmakers’ story and its vagaries ............................................................... 12 Countering a prevalent stereotype ........................................................................................ 13 This story’s relevance to Australia today and to my own family ........................................... 16 What this story brings. The challenges. How do I tell this story? ........................................ 17 2. Documentary: The Theoretical Frame ............................................................................ 23 What is documentary and why use it? .................................................................................. 23 Documentary in the wake of post-modernism ..................................................................... 26 Indexicality and photorealism, versus performativity and animation .................................... 28 Animated documentaries ...................................................................................................... 31 Documentary studies for activists ......................................................................................... 35 iv 3. Making the Film: Politics and documentary .................................................................... 39 Activist Documentary ........................................................................................................... 41 Agit-prop in 2017 Australia? ................................................................................................ 43 DO NOTHING AND DO IT WELL: A Radical Activist Film Form? ................................ 48 4. Making the Film: Archives and the act of representing history ........................................ 51 History on film ..................................................................................................................... 54 Archival Film ....................................................................................................................... 58 Radical histories ................................................................................................................... 60 DO NOTHING AND DO IT WELL: Radical history on film ............................................. 62 5. Making the Film: A first-person essay ............................................................................ 69 Essay films and politics ......................................................................................................... 70 Essayistic self-portraits and first-person films ...................................................................... 74 Self-portraits, death, and history .......................................................................................... 77 6. Making the Film: Experimentation and politics .............................................................. 80 On the politics of form ......................................................................................................... 80 On realism and radicalism .................................................................................................... 83 Experimenting in DO NOTHING AND DO IT WELL ...................................................... 87 7. Conclusions: Towards new practices in radical activist historical documentary ................. 90 Filmography ........................................................................................................................... 97 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 98 v Abstract Radical activist documentaries are frequently agitational and ‘present tense’, reflecting their typical aim of shifting audiences into action around a specific contemporary cause or struggle. But a radical activist approach to making films about history poses problems distinct from those confronting film-makers producing a non-radical historical documentary or a ‘present-tense’ radical activist film. By adopting an approach to such film-making that embraces elements of archival film-making and essayistic self-portraits, along with select fictionalising devices, a new form of radical activist historical documentary emerges. This outcome develops our understanding of how radical activist documentary can function and how experimental approaches to documentary form can enrich historical documentary practice. 1 “…it has to do with the collective experience of watching film and the idea of the screening being a community meeting in a way… If you're in a room with people, you can immediately turn and say "what can we do about it" and that's the question.… Okay, so what now? What do we do? And the people who might actually answer that are around you. I think that is what is really unique about documentary.” Naomi Klein (interviewed by Ezra Winton 2008, p.xviii) “History is not inevitably useful. It can bind us or free us… It can oppress any resolve to act… [or it can] untie our minds, our bodies, our disposition to move to engage life rather than contemplating it as an outsider.” Howard Zinn (1970, p.54) The Advertiser, 30 September 1903, page 5 Introduction As activists, we tend to turn our film-making practice towards the present. We make films promoting a particular struggle or a particular