form y separately published work icon Letters to Ali single work   film/TV  
Issue Details: First known date: 2004... 2004 Letters to Ali
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

An 'average' Australian family decides to help in a small way by writing to Ali, a fifteen-year-old Afghan boy detained at Port Hedland, unaccompanied by any relatives. This letter would prove to be the catalyst for a three-year on-going battle with Australian authorities to get Ali, then a minor, out of detention. Filmmakers Clara Law and Eddie Fong contacted Trish in September 2002 after reading the newspaper story and decided to make a film about Ali's case.

Exhibitions

Notes

  • Special features: Q & A at Melbourne International Film Festival with Clara Law, Julian Burnside (QC, Refugee rights advocate), Ian MacPhee (Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs 1979-82), Trish Kerbi, and James Hewison; additional scenes and extended interviews, including the Malcolm Fraser interview; the newspaper article that inspired the film; where is Ali now?; resource web links.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Filming One's Way Home : Clara Law's Letters to Oz Shiao-Ying Shen , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Chinese Women's Cinema : Transnational Contexts 2011; (p. 347-367)
y separately published work icon Witnessing Australian Stories : History, Testimony and Memory in Contemporary Culture Kelly Jean Butler , Melbourne : 2010 6037495 2010 single work thesis

'This book is about how Australians have responded to stories about suffering and injustice in Australia, presented in a range of public media, including literature, history, films, and television. Those who have responded are both ordinary and prominent Australians–politicians, writers, and scholars. All have sought to come to terms with Australia's history by responding empathetically to stories of its marginalized citizens.

'Drawing upon international scholarship on collective memory, public history, testimony, and witnessing, this book represents a cultural history of contemporary Australia. It examines the forms of witnessing that dominated Australian public culture at the turn of the millennium. Since the late 1980s, witnessing has developed in Australia in response to the increasingly audible voices of indigenous peoples, migrants, and more recently, asylum seekers. As these voices became public, they posed a challenge not only to scholars and politicians, but also, most importantly, to ordinary citizens.

'When former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered his historic apology to Australia's indigenous peoples in February 2008, he performed an act of collective witnessing that affirmed the testimony and experiences of Aboriginal Australians. The phenomenon of witnessing became crucial, not only to the recognition and reparation of past injustices, but to efforts to create a more cosmopolitan Australia in the present. This is a vital addition to Transactions critically acclaimed Memory and Narrative series.' (Publisher's blurb)

Travelling towards Ourselves : Rights and Recognition in Clara Law's 'Letters to Ali' Bernadette Brennan , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Just Words? : Australian Authors Writing for Justice 2008; (p. 137-151) Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 3 no. 1 2009; (p. 15-28)
Unsettling Whiteness : The Slippage of Race and Nation in Clara Law's Letters to Ali Meg Johnston , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 2 no. 2 2008; (p. 103-119)
Hong Kong-Australian Imaginaries : Three Australian Films by Clara Law Tony Mitchell , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Hong Kong Film, Hollywood, and the New Global Cinema : No Film Is an Island 2007; (p. 91-106)
Travelling towards Ourselves : Rights and Recognition in Clara Law's 'Letters to Ali' Bernadette Brennan , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Just Words? : Australian Authors Writing for Justice 2008; (p. 137-151) Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 3 no. 1 2009; (p. 15-28)
y separately published work icon Witnessing Australian Stories : History, Testimony and Memory in Contemporary Culture Kelly Jean Butler , Melbourne : 2010 6037495 2010 single work thesis

'This book is about how Australians have responded to stories about suffering and injustice in Australia, presented in a range of public media, including literature, history, films, and television. Those who have responded are both ordinary and prominent Australians–politicians, writers, and scholars. All have sought to come to terms with Australia's history by responding empathetically to stories of its marginalized citizens.

'Drawing upon international scholarship on collective memory, public history, testimony, and witnessing, this book represents a cultural history of contemporary Australia. It examines the forms of witnessing that dominated Australian public culture at the turn of the millennium. Since the late 1980s, witnessing has developed in Australia in response to the increasingly audible voices of indigenous peoples, migrants, and more recently, asylum seekers. As these voices became public, they posed a challenge not only to scholars and politicians, but also, most importantly, to ordinary citizens.

'When former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered his historic apology to Australia's indigenous peoples in February 2008, he performed an act of collective witnessing that affirmed the testimony and experiences of Aboriginal Australians. The phenomenon of witnessing became crucial, not only to the recognition and reparation of past injustices, but to efforts to create a more cosmopolitan Australia in the present. This is a vital addition to Transactions critically acclaimed Memory and Narrative series.' (Publisher's blurb)

Unsettling Whiteness : The Slippage of Race and Nation in Clara Law's Letters to Ali Meg Johnston , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 2 no. 2 2008; (p. 103-119)
Hong Kong-Australian Imaginaries : Three Australian Films by Clara Law Tony Mitchell , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Hong Kong Film, Hollywood, and the New Global Cinema : No Film Is an Island 2007; (p. 91-106)
Filming One's Way Home : Clara Law's Letters to Oz Shiao-Ying Shen , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Chinese Women's Cinema : Transnational Contexts 2011; (p. 347-367)
Last amended 24 Sep 2010 15:51:09
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  • Port Hedland, Pilbara area, North Western Australia, Western Australia,
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