John Pilger, esteemed journalist, cage-rattling intellectual and Bafta- and Emmy-winning documentarian, has a new film. Like his 2007 exposé about Washington’s role in influencing Latin American politics (The War on Democracy) and his 2011 investigation into media war reportage (The War You Don’t See), Pilger’s upcoming documentary, Utopia, is certain to pull no punches.
This time the subject is Australia and its treatment of Indigenous people. Utopia takes its name from the Northern Territory region believed to be the poorest place on Earth. Pilger follows a “trail of tears and betrayal and resistance”. His conclusion: that apartheid is well and truly alive in the lucky country.
It’s an important indictment of this nation. But not one that Australians will be immediately able to watch or react to, legally at least. Pilger’s website describes Utopia as “one of the most extraordinary films about Australia”. But that’s just the first half of the sentence. The second reads: “soon to be released in the UK”.
Hang on – what? Surely, Pilger couldn't be promising the mother of all non-fiction Australian films and premiering it overseas, could he?
In addition to stomaching Utopia's offshore curtain call – it opens in Britain on Friday – 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.
In July, clad in a sky-blue safari suit, Steve Coogan visited Norwich, England, the town where his film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa is based, to walk the red carpet for the premiere, before a ritzier event in London. While Alpha Papa is worlds apart from Pilger's documentary, in terms of subject and tone, the logic in choosing Norwich as the location for its premiere reflects what was lacking in Utopia's release strategy: a show of respect for a place, and a community, that is fundamental to the subject.
Then again, Alpha Papa only premiered in Norwich because of a concerted effort to bring it there. A Twitter campaign dubbed Anglia Square Not Leicester Square was successful in its mission to return Partridge to the town. Maybe a social media push is what Utopia's premiere needed.
But why is a campaign really necessary? Fair crack of the whip, Mr Pilger. If the conversation is about Australia, let us be part of it.
