RIDE ON

Owner, 2023, 126 minutes, Colour.

Jackie Chan.

Directed by Larry Yang.

High entertainment for Jackie Chan fans. If this had been his last film, it would have been a popular summing up of his life and career. However, it is far from his last, and, while this was made when Jackie Chan was in his late 60s, he is still continuing into his 70s.

Here Jackie Chan plays an ageing stunt double and stuntman, with a particular skill in acting and writing with his horse, Red. But, the requests are not coming in. He has some good connections with producers and actors in the past and he is offered some opportunities. With some he is successful. But, at the end, he fails in a spectacular stunt. So, some sad aspects of ageing and losing one’s skills and powers.

However, the filmmakers continue to delight the audience by inserting quite a range of clips from Jackie Chan films and some spectacular fights, stunts, enjoyable memories – and that throughout the film.

Jackie Chan is a strong screen presence, always has been. He can deal with the action, no problem. And, in most of his films, he is genial, sympathetic, as he is here.

However, there is a strong back story, concerning the horse, concerning his daughter.

Flashbacks show the difficult birth of the foal, Jackie Chan caring for it, the immediate bonding, a kind of psychic and spiritual bonding which continues throughout their life together, Red are being all of his master’s commands, sensing what should be done, even at times going down on his knees and bowing to him. Those who enjoy movies with horses will enjoy this aspect, so strong throughout.

But, the stuntman has neglected his family, especially his daughter who resents him, comes to challenge him. However, they do begin to bond and she is very supportive of him and his horse.

The other aspect of the film focuses on money, some complications from a company and its executives who send legal representatives to take back Red, quoting all kinds of legal and financial documentation. The stuntman asks help from his daughter. She asks help from her boyfriend, rather timid even when the stuntman tries to teach him some martial arts moves. They are rather amateur and they have difficulty in helping the stuntman to keep his horse.

The film seems to be ending when the big stunt fails and Red is reclaimed.

But the film does go on, sad with the sacrifice the stuntman makes as read is taken from him, the farewell, the horse chasing the vehicle, not wanting the master to leave, going into decline and pining.

Common sense, practicality and sentiment all take over at the end – and, as we would wish, happy reconciliation all round.

A pleasing and entertaining testimony to the film genius, presence and stunt work of Jackie Chan.

MSC Australia, 2023, the year that was. Publishing and Media Report.

For the General Administration, Analecta. The tradition has been to name the books and further publications of the province. However, worldwide readership of books has been diminishing, greater reliance on social media. This is reflected in the life of the province.

BOOKS.

Brian Gallagher

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS: REFLECTIONS ON A RUBY ANNIVERSARY, (Editor), Heart of Life Centre for Spiritual and Pastoral Formation, Melbourne, 2023, pp.79.

GRACE AND GRATITUDE: A WAY OF LIFE, Coventry Press, Bayswater, 2023, pp. 58.

James Littleton

MANY BLESSINGS, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Coogee, 2023, pp. 75.

Peter Malone

DEAR MORE DEAR MOVIES, Coventry Press, 2023, pp. 266.

HEART OF LIFE SPIRITUALITY CENTRE. A History (continued) 2016-2022, Heart of Life Centre for Spiritual and Pastoral Formation. 2023, pp. 43.

WORDS TO IMAGES TO DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS, MSC AUSTRALIA, Ebook, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, 2023, pp. 112.

CINEMA: TYPEWATCHING AT THE CINEMA. Ebook,  British Association for Psychological Type/ BAPT, 2023, pp.95.

Magazines

Quarterly, Be on Earth the Heart of God, from Treand House. Glossy paper, colour photos, original articles as well as downloads from the Province website. This has continued through 2023.

Articles

Michael Fallon

THE SWAG, Quarterly magazine of the National Council of Priests of Australia.

Homosexuality in the Scriptures. Autumn 2033.

Brian Gallagher

A monthly contribution of spirituality and reflection for the Heart of Life site and Facebook page.

Peter Malone

THE SWAG, Quarterly magazine of the National Council of Priests of Australia.

 The Pope’s Exorcist. Winter 2023.

 The New Boy. Spring 2023.

2023… The Year of cinema exorcists. Summer, 2023.

TYPEFACE, British Association for Psychological Type.

Typewatching at the Cinema:  Living – Mr Williams, ISTJ, and a move to Individuation. Summer 2023.

Film reviews.  While monthly reviews appear on Peter Malone's website (on the misacor site), the reviews appear for Jesuit Communications on the Australian Catholics website. There is a monthly Visio Divina post on the Heart of Life Facebook page and a weekly Radio Broadcast on Radio Maria, Film and Faith review.

Podcast

MSC Mission Office

From the MSC Mission office, Roger Purcell does a daily podcast talk, around six minutes, sometimes inviting other MSC, Colin Sinclair, Greg McCann, and OLSH sisters.  This has continued through 2023.

Websites and Facebook pages.

The Province Website, MISACOR. au, established in 2006, in its present form since 2010, has six postings per week. And, automatically, the posting appears on the province’s Facebook Page. This has continued through 2023

Trieu Nguyen and Hoa Tran manage MSC Vocation Australia  Facebook page with daily postings on vocation themes from the MSC congregation and stories and photos promoting vocations. Established in 2021, the page has developed strongly through 2023.

MSC parishes and colleges all have websites as well as Facebook pages. The same for The Chevalier Institute and Heart of Life. Heart of Life shares many of the MSC posts.

Provincial Secretary, Peter Hendriks, reaches most of the province with up-to-date news and information through email.

Many of the members of the province have their personal Facebook pages. Prominent among these is that for Claude Mostowik and the Justice and Peace office.

John Walker has an active Facebook page, often posting photos and memories of Sydney’s past

Khoi and Thang have sites/Facebook pages in Vietnamese.

General Council, Chris Chaplin MSC

Over the coming weeks we will be posting thumbnail sketches of each of the five men appointed to our General Council.

Chris Chaplin MSC

Chris has served a six year term as a General Assistant to Superior General, Abzalon Alvaredo Tovar MSC. Abzalon has asked him to continue for a second term.

Chris is to be First Councillor

Looking back at Chris’s life and ministry, we can see a providential journey of preparation. He is from Adelaide, Henley Beach parish, formerly and MSC parish. He joined the MSC in 1980, studied at YTU, had a pastoral year’s experience in Melbourne’s Yarraville parish before entering the Novitiate in 1983, making profession in 1984. He was a member of the foundation community at Navarre House, Drummoyne, when the student house moved to Sydney in 1986.

Experience as a deacon in Nightcliff parish, Darwin, ordination in 1988, returning to Nightcliff and becoming parish priest. He has had a wide range of appointments over the decades, a member of the travelling religious education team, member of the Provincial Council, some years in Fiji, Director of the Retreat House at Douglas Park, hermit life on the NSW central coast and at Shoreham, Victoria, spiritual director, on the staff of the Heart of Life Centre, qualifications in Breathwork, Reflexology and Certificates in Emotional Release Counselling.

He has been drawing on all this experience in his work on the General Council and especially Formation work in the Asian provinces and regions.

Chris and an Argentinian friend.

MSC pioneers in Aboriginal ministry, Menindee-Wilcannia, NSW.

Some weeks ago we posted Pat Austin MSC’s parish supply in Balranald. He mentioned MSCs in the 1930s and 1940s in the Broken Hill diocese.  We Googled and found a summary which turned out to have been written by Martin Wilson MSC in his magazine, Nelen Yubu, in 1982. So, thanks to Martin and Google.

Martin writes (and photo-information from Jim Littleton's obituaries:

Between founding the missions on Palm Is. and Alice Springs, Fr Moloney was asked in 1934

by Bishop Fox of Wilcannia-Forbes to give a mission at the black settlement conducted at

Menindee on the Darling, 625 miles west of Sydney, by the Government Aborigines’ Welfare

Board. Fr Carmine used to come to Menindee every second month to say Mass. but that was

not much, even though it was all that was possible. Fr Moloney gave the blacks a fortnight’s

mission, and at the end baptised 129. Bishop Fox was delighted. Fr Moloney stayed for a short

time and then had to go on to found Alice Springs mission.

A priest came regularly from Broken Hill to say Mass, and the blacks remained remarkably

faithful, in spite of the efforts of the parson, a well meaning man, to get them back. After

Bishop Fox’s repeated requests, we agreed to send a permanent man there: first of all Fr

Ormonde in 1936. In Menindee township he added two sacristies to the church, and worked

amongst the whites of the town and district, soon multiplying the number of Catholics there

(three) by ten. At the blacks’ camp about eleven miles from town he built a temporary church

out of wool-packs. There were at a maximum 300 Aborigines in the camp, dissociated from

their tribes and tribal life, helping in the upkeep of the camp by their work on the stations and

orchards around Mildura.

Two OLSH nuns arrived 1941 and used to go out regularly to the camp from Menindee and

give catechetical instruction. 1942 Fr V. Dwyer replaced Fr Ormonde. During Fr Dwyer’s time

a galvanised iron church took the place of the one out of wool-packs.

1943 Fr Dwyer was succeeded by Fr A. Guest, and Fr Guest in 1946 by Fr Toohey. Any real progress was held up

until the government decided about the transfer that was projected. The camp was moved

finally to just outside Wilcannia 1949, Fr Toohey still in charge. The nuns go out to the camp

each day to teach in the church-school, and Fr Toohey says Mass in it on Sundays.

From our Cameroun MSC confrere, Jonas Mouchi Hassan.

Many will remember Jonas from his time studying in Sydney in 2017 and his visit to the NT. He returned to Formation Ministry in the French African MSC Union. He has worked in Congo in recent years.

Jonas at Wadeye

He recently visited his family in northern Cameroun and he has sad experiences.

“I would like to present you my best wishes for 2024.

In fact, I am just back from holidays in my home country for two months. I spent time in my village in the far north region and the rest in the south of the country. I came back safe but psychologically marked by what I experienced in the village where the psychosis due to sporadic attacks has remained alive in the minds already for five years. People almost fled the village even through a good part of the time I stayed. Life seems normal during the day, but in the middle of the afternoon everyone is wanting to leave their house to take refuge in the mountains and hills to come back the next day.

This is been made unpredictable because after the weakening of the Islamist terrorist sect properly, a band of bandits now running the villages to steal or even to kill peaceful citizens.

I carry this in prayer because this situation has unsuspected ramifications including the political sphere.

So, a hello from Kimwenza where life continues its normal course.

I am considering putting the parents to shelter in Mora in the chief place of the county where others have temporarily taken refuge but the distance and lack of means block me but I’m thinking about it and I will be obliged. (Mora is a town in northern Cameroon. Mora has a population of 55,216 making it the 5th biggest city in Far North.

The German fort of Mora was the last German fort in Cameroun to surrender during World War I.)

Salutations to all.    

Jonas.”

2023, the MSC year that was…

Each year we post the overview of the province requested by the General Administration – an opportunity to look back at some of the highlights of the year.  For a weekend read...

On the world stage, 2023 was a very sad year – wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Gaza and the Middle East. There could be no 2023 Nativity celebrations in Bethlehem.

On the other hand, 2023 was a very positive year for the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. General Chapter, Provincial Chapter.

April saw the Provincial Chapter held at the Josephite Centre at Baulkham Hills, Sydney. There were 65 voting participants, nine from Vietnam. The students in pre-novitiate and in temporary vows were present staffing the chapter, an opportunity to appreciate something of the life of the province and hopes for the future.

Andre Claessens from the General Administration was the delegate at the chapter. Not only were the MSC present, but quite a number of lay women and men involved in the life of the province, at provincial administration, secretarial, finance, safeguarding, education, aged care, Chevalier Institute, Heart of Life Centre.

There was an atmosphere of Communal Discernment, days opening with prayer and reflection, a range of celebrants for the daily Eucharist, the Eucharist and meal with Bishop Vincent Long OFM.Conv, Bishop of Parramatta, the diocese where the Chapter took place.

There were formal presentations but much of the discussion took place in groups made up of the cross-section of the province, findings formulated, coordinated by the secretarial group, worked on for final statements by the Resolutions Committee. Amongst the key issues were support for the Indigenous Voice, issues of Senior Living, Laudato si, safeguarding, the future of St Mary's Towers, administration in Japan, Vietnam. The agenda came from the report from Provincial, Chris McPhee.

Delegates were elected for the General chapter: John Mulrooney, Peter Carroll, substitutes Peter Hendriks, Chris McPhee.

Stephen Hackett was elected the new Provincial Superior. He later appointed as his council: KimI Venivesilevu, First Councillor, Phil Hicks, Dominic Gleeson, Pat Mara, Thoi Tran and Peter Hendriks as Provincial Secretary.

The Australian presence at the General Chapter: Stephen Hackett, Provincial Superior, delegates, John Mulrooney, Peter Carroll, General Councillor, Chris Chaplin, responsible for Safeguarding, Tim Brennan.

There were three deaths in the province in 2023: Tony Young who died in Eastern Papua aged 87 and was buried there; John Conroy who died at the Little Sisters of the Poor, Randwick, aged 88;

 and the senior member of the province, Albert Yelds, 53 years professed, 70 years ordained, aged 98, a veteran promoter of Devotion to the Sacred Heart, missionary in India, missionary decades in Kiribati.

Much the 17^th saw the ordination to the diaconate of Kenji Konda at Kensington monastery. December 2nd saw the making of Final Profession by Trieu Nguyen and Daniel Magadia at St Thomas’, Blackburn.

After some time living in the community at Blackburn, Nang Dinh Vu and Van Long Tran began their pre-novitiate training at Douglas Park, under the direction of Dominic Gleeson.

2023 was also the year of celebration of 25 years of the MSC Australian Mission Office, under the direction of Roger Purcell, Sean Donovan member of the office for many years. Celebrations included a Mass at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, presided over by Cardinal John Ribat, with the presence of a number of international delegates from Asia and the Pacific who had come for the Mission Office conference and formal meetings. There were items in the Mission Office Newsletter (in print and on-line), a booklet on the 25 years, and many episodes of the daily podcast, Mission Alive.

As regards missions and the Australian MSC presence, there are now only three Australian MSC in Japan, in their 80s, Brian Taylor, John Graham, Keith Humphreys. With the death of Tony Young and Russell Anderson and Paul Guy coming south, there are only two Australian MSC in PNG, Joe Ensing in Eastern Papua, Brian Cahill at Tarpini. With the SVD coming to the Tiwi Islands and Peter Huan moving from Daly River, the MSC in the Northern Territory are: Malcolm Fyfe, vicar general, resigning in September after many years, John Kelliher, parish priest of Nightcliff, Leo Wearden, parish priest of Wadeye, and Peter Huan at The Ranch. Colin Sinclair is in Fiji.

The MSC spirit in the Colleges is very strong, witnessed, for instance, by the significant celebrations for the Feast of the Sacred Heart and Chevalier Day. Mark McGinnitty is representative for MSC education. The Chevalier Institute, under the direction of Anne McAtomney, runs programs for our schools and staffs. There are College Board meetings, MSC Education Board meetings. For some years, interrupted by Covid, there have been MSC Education pilgrimage tours in Issoudun.

The MSC presence in colleges: Downlands, Vince Carroll; Chevalier, John Mulrooney, (John Franzmann transferring to Kensington); Ted McCormack in retirement at Monivae; chaplaincy at Daramalan with Kimi Venivesilevu, parish priest of Kippax.

With the diminishment in numbers in the province, the MSC withdrew from Henley Beach at the end of 2022, from Kings Meadow, Launceston, at the beginning of 2024. Our Indian confrere, Bartha, is parish priest of Moonah. Our other Indian confrere, Michael Nithan, is on the staff at Randwick parish. Thang Nhu Nguyen, Chaplain at the Prince of Wales Hospital, moved from Coogee to Randwick. We continue to serve the four parishes in Sydney. Our other southern parishes are in the ACT, Kippax, and in Victoria, Blackburn.

One of the key challenges to the province is the future of St Mary’s Towers, Douglas Park. Situations have changed, especially since Covid, with those coming to make retreats, diminishing numbers. Consultants offered some plans for consideration at the Provincial Chapter. A committee will consider options, possibilities, plans during 2024.

Most of the Australian MSC are located in New South Wales, especially at Kensington monastery which includes the Chevalier Resource Centre as well as St Joseph’s Home for aged care, as well as at Douglas Park. Key to the care of those at Kensington, is the presence of Catherine Molihan, responsible for aged care in the province. There is a significant increase in the numbers of men in the province who have Aged Care packages of government support. There are also 20 MSC in the Victoria-Tasmania community, most in Melbourne, six in their 80s, and, students and formator, five in their 30s. And some in between.

A highlight of 2023 was the celebration of 40 years of the Heart of Life Centre, renamed in 2017 the Heart of Life Centre for Spiritual and Pastoral Formation. MSC on staff are Peter Malone and Khoi Nguyen. Robyn Reynolds OLSH finished years of lecturing and, sadly, died in October.

There were several special events and special programs offered. However, the main celebration took place on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, a large gathering of former participants in programs, the staff, an MSC presence including Provincial Superior, Chris McPhee, and, guest of honour, the founder of Heart of Life, Brian Gallagher. Chris McPhee provided at the Eucharist, a book of testimonies to the impact of Heart of Life and, especially, of Siloam, the Spiritual Directors Program, Celebrating 40 Years: Reflections on a Ruby Anniversary, edited by Brian Gallagher, was launched, as was the continuation of the previous History of Heart of Life, by Peter Malone.

In the 40 years of Heart of Life, the centre has rented premises from different religious congregations. In the latter part of 2023, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart bought the Croydon property (where priests at the Scholasticate celebrated daily masses) of the Family Care Sisters, popularly known as the Great Sisters. Their farewell Mass was celebrated at Croydon Parish Church which is the former Chapel of the Scholasticate, enlarged. And, the 2023 graduation ceremonies were held there as well.

This means that Heart of Life now has a permanent home, owned by the MSC. The move from the previous premises, Kildara, Malvern, took place in December after finalising of the sale on December 1st. At year’s end, some repairs and renovations are underway, the academic year 2024 beginning at Kewn Kreestha, name of the property, the Rest of Christ, the Family Care Sisters’ name for their home for care for mothers.

This is the Australian report. There is a separate report on the MSC Vietnam, written there.

Albert Yelds MSC, Mission Letters – a Podcast

Recently, the MSC Mission Office received a donation of a cache of letters written by the late Albert Yelds MSC. Albert died last year at the age of 98, the doyen of the Australian Province, someone who was ill when young and not expected to live so long.

In recent decades, before retiring to Kensington, Albert spent many years in Kiribati.

Director of the MSC Mission Office, Roger Purcell, has been pioneering podcasts with the daily Mission Alive talks with a range of mission speakers.

Now, Letters from the Missions, A Memoir of Faith and Adventure, is a series available on Youtube, the texts of the letters are spoken by longtime member of the Mission Office staff, Sean Donovan. 

There are seven episodes.

Simply Google:Youtube Letters from the Missions.

THE WORLD UNDER THE BOMBS – FROM GUERNICA TO HIROSHIMA/ LE MONDE SOUS LES BOMBES - GUERNICA TO HIROSHIMA.

France, 2016, 140 minutes, Colour and Black-and-white.

Directed by Fabrice Salinie, Emanuel Blanchard.

A significant documentary to be seen widely. As the title indicates, there is a focus on bombs, the dropping of bombs, their effect, especially in the decade between the bombing of Guernica and Hiroshima, 1936-1945.

This is a French documentary screened on television in two parts, also made available on Australian streaming.

The underlying perspective of the documentary is that the dropping of bombs is horrendous.

The early part of the film shows the development of flight, the incorporation of developments in weapons making, creation of larger and deadlier bombs, used in World War I. There were developments during the 1920s but, especially in the 1930s, in the context of the Spanish Civil War, the testing of the devastation of bombs and destruction of population with the bombing of Guernica.

The commentary highlights that with technological development, there were no limits to the developments of bombs, heightened by the rise of national socialism in Germany, the ambitions of Hitler, the participation of Germany in the Spanish Civil War. The commentary also highlights the taking for granted that the development of bomb warfare was necessary, for some even good.

There are various interviews with military authorities, scientists, and a telling comment from Curtis Lemay about the effect of bombings.

The film also shows the development of creation of bombs in the UK, the bombing of London and the consequences for the population, sending the children to the country, the shelters in the Underground, the devastation of the buildings – and the response of Winston Churchill, interactions with the Americans once they entered the war, with Eisenhower, the different philosophies of victory by bombing, especially with Britain’s Sir Arthur Harris, and Eisenhower and other Americans with their victory by sea and land invasion.

There is a great deal of footage of bombing, of blitzed cities like London, the destruction in Coventry, the move to bombing of Hamburg, Berlin, the famous bombing of Dresden.

And, as the end of the war moves to the Pacific, the bombing of Tokyo, the flammability of its buildings, Eisenhower, Truman, Trinity and Los Alamos, the decisions – and Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The documentary and its bomb themes continued, the room or development of bombings in the Indochinese wars, napalm, and, in 2023-2024, Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

Harrowing and recommended.

INSEPARABLES

Argentina, 2016, 108 minutes, Colour.

Oscar Martinez, Roderigo de la Serna, Alejandro Flechner, Carla Peterson.

Directed by Marcos Carnevale.

This film was based on an original story, the care for a wealthy quadriplegic ‘n is French-Algerian carer. Originally, there was a documentary, 2003,A la vie, a la mort.

However, the story became a worldwide celebration with the French version of the film, Les Intouchables, many nominations many awards, including the best actor for Omar Sy. He played the carer and veteran French actor, François Cluezet, played the quadriplegic. The two actors work very well off each other, the comedy, the serious aspects, the interdependence.

There have been a number of remakes, an Indian version, Oopari, an American version, The Upside, with Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston as the two, and with Nicole Kidman. The present film is the Argentinian version, the same story but with a strong Latin flavour.

Veteran actor, Oscar Martinez, plays Felipe, the quadriplegic, often very serious, but with very many sequences of him grinning and laughing. The carer, this time an Argentinian, with a background of bank robbery and prison, is played by Roderigo do la Serna (the associate of Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries, and, surprisingly after seeing him here, playing the young Jorge Bergoglio, and Pope Francis, in the 2016 drama of his life, They Call me Francis.)

The film follows the original in some detail, the crankiness of the quadriplegic and his search for carers, his whim in taking on the carer, here called Tito, listening to his views of music in his frankness and demands, teaching him something about art and personal response, a sequence with chamber music in a wide range of classics and Tito’s response to their application but his turning the occasion into a Latin rumba, the chamber Orchestra joining in.

Key to the film are Felipe’s loyal assistant and secretary, Yvonne, the gardener, and the secretary, Veronica, who becomes the subject of Tito’s amorous attentions – but who thwarts him at the end with her personal relationships.

Each version had a touch of the rowdy, especially through the characters who played the carer. At first, some audiences might find Tito rather irritating but, in his attention to Felipe, the bond between them, some comic sequences, he becomes more likeable.

1. Based on a true story, the original documentary, the original French film, Intouchables, the American remake, Upside, the Indian remake, Oopari? Comparisons?
2. The true story of the quadriplegic wealthy man, Felipe, his need for an assistant, his observations of Tito, Tito is feisty with the gardener, feisty about his pay, Felipe liking him, offering him the job?
3. The character of Felipe, background, accident, widower, his daughter and her wilfulness and problems, quadriplegic, confined to his chair, in need of help, Yvonne as his loyal assistant, members of the household, the gardener, Veronica?
4. The character of Tito, background, robbery, jail, his mother and her criticisms, his visit, her ousting him, the glimpse of the rest of the family? Getting a job, concerned about money? Carefree attitudes, the true story of his parents, his mother’s death, his aunt bring him up, his younger brother and his criminal life? Drugs? Lack of responsibility?
5. The opening, the speed, the police, the bets, to hospital, the joke? The flashback?
6. Felipe and the effect of having Tito, humour, continually laughing, the correspondence with the attractive woman, the photo, her cards, the date and its awkwardness? The domestic scenes, the bath, clothing…? Felipe and his dependence? Tito, the response, friendship, jokey, making Felipe laugh? The scenes about the paintings and their costs, his criticism, the $11,000? The musical evening, the range of chamber music, Tito and his comments about what each evoked, his taking over with the rumba music, the dancing, the chamber orchestra joining in?
7. Tito and his flirting with Veronica, the scenes between them, his asking Eve on about Veronica talking? And the final revelation of Veronica and her relationship?
8. Tito, likeable, Felipe liking him, but wanting him to have a further career, letting him go, the interviews with the prospective carers, their behaviour, inadequacies, his nightmares, waking, Yvonne helping, Tito returning?
9. Tito in the setting up of the beach, the date?
10. Tito and his brother, care, telling the truth to Felipe? Helping the family?
11. A cheerful look at a serious subject?

LOST IN THE WOODS

Australia, 2023, 80 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Daniel Clarke.

Daniel Clarke was named South Australia’s journalist of the year, 2023. He has brought his investigative journalist talents to this documentary, spending time with the inhabitants of Kangaroo Island, off the South Australian coast.

The documentary is an investigation, offering the audience a variety of opinions, voices, locals, parliamentarians, business representatives, farmer. It is over to the audience to evaluate the credibility of each of the speakers, appreciate their particular perspective, note the contrasts in perspectives, political decisions, economic decisions.

Kangaroo Island has been a centre for the development of farming, with some land clearing, in the first part of the 20^th century. With its wildlife, it is also a centre for tourism. This film highlights the farming and agricultural aspects of the 20^th century, the change of policy in planting thousands and thousands of blue gums in the early 2000s but their rapid growth, many seeing them as a weed, a pest, with toxic leaves, leading to rapid growth, farmers selling some of their land for profit for the extension of these trees.

There were discussions about the timber industry, but the island has no port and there were many discussions about two locations, the economics, the suitability, distance from the timber and logging, aspects and the holiday homes of the wealthy and politicians. There are fiery exchanges through the commentators throughout the film, especially concerning the Deputy Premier of South Australia, her decisions, her resignation.

Needless to say, the farmers are down-to-earth, earthy in their comments, their memories, the regrets. The main representative of business is a very smooth talker, saying that he is seeking the truth, sometimes casually dismissive of the comments of the locals. There is the editor of the local paper, a local media politician, mutual criticisms. And, more lately, environmentalists, the issue of clearing the logging, the preservation of animals, the status of koalas and their being considered the rabbits of the trees…

What brought all this to a head was a lightning strike in late 2019, coinciding with the devastating spate of bushfires all over Australia, and extraordinary destruction. The tree plantations went up in smoke and the consequent discussions about clearing the land, the unsuitability of the blue gums (except, as one says, the need of toilet paper during the pandemic), the role of the companies who bought the land and their responsibilities in clearing or not.

Throughout the film, informative aspects and statistics are provided, the amount of land burnt, the number of trees, only two people killed in the fire, surprisingly, the eventual statements by the company he declined to take part in the film about intentions for clearing the land.

A significant documentary for an Australian audience, for international audiences especially in the context of climate change, consideration of land use, carbon emissions, logging, environmental issues, in danger, the culling of koalas…