The Tall Man – life and death on Palm Island | 2SER 107.3
Image courtesy of Hopscotch Films
In 2004, Aboriginal man Cameron Doomadgee swore at a police officer in the street. 45 minutes later, he was dead in a police cell, having sustained injuries more typical seen in high-speed car crashes.
The man accused of killing him, Chris Hurley, was a police officer in Cameron’s hometown of Palm Island, a seemingly idyllic island off the coast of Queensland with one of the highest rates of crime and violence in Australia.
The investigation into Cameron’s death was politically charged as two very different elements of Australian society clashed over the tragedy of what had happened.
Journalist Chloe Hooper’s award-winning book on the case, The Tall Man, has been adapted into a documentary.
I spoke with the film’s producer about making a film when one of the main characters is dead and the other won’t talk.
Listen to our chat or read the transcript after the jump.
DARREN DALE: I think Palm is such an interesting and contradictory place. It’s a place of great natural beauty, it’s set on the Great Barrier Reef, its 60km from Townsville, it’s very beautiful and the images would bear that out. And then in stark contrast, there’s violence on the island, you’ve got suicide levels that are unacceptable, and you see when you visit people’s homes, there’s 350 houses for a population of 3500 people, so there’s overcrowding in houses. But at the same time there’s a sense of freedom that young kids have, and I remember back to my childhood, kids were out in the street, you could ride bikes around and roam the streets. On Palm, kids get to live that life. It’s a place of real contradictions, I think.
I’d read the book, and I was curious to know how it was that you first come to be involved in the making of the Tall Man.
I’ve read the book as well and was overcome by this very insightful and lucid account of these events and the death of Cameron Doomadgee in that police cell in 2004. And I think Chloe had written a really fascinating book. And for the first time I felt there was a level of objectivity and a level of insight that was brought to these events that wasn’t just the normal retelling of saying, you know, “this was a good black man and this was a bad white guy”. I thought the complexity in her book made for a compelling read.
And it was really one of those chance meetings where, when we met, Chloe said, “oh, I’ve really wanted to meet you guys, and would you be interested in doing something with the book?” and we said, “well, it’s really great to meet you, because we thought the book was amazing,” so that was kind of the genesis of us being involved.
At the time we thought it would be great as a dramatic retelling, but when those rights weren’t available, and in hindsight I’m glad they weren’t, all that was available was to make a documentary. And ultimately that was the best choice, because hearing direct testimony from people involved is such a strong and engaging manner to tell this story, that I think any other telling would have been second fiddle, in a way.
What do you think you would have lost by doing a dramatic retelling?
I think drama by its nature, you would have had to have had one character, or tell it through Chloe’s eyes, and have all the twists and turns drama imposes on a story, following one character’s journey, and I think the film would have been potentially limited in scope. And I think the great strength of doing a documentary, you get to hear the story from many different people and you get to hear it in their own words, and that sort of raw emotion and power of people telling their truth is I think incredibly compelling and engaging for an audience. This material is complex, and that’s what good films need. They need complexity of humans, and flaws and strengths, and certainly this story has that in abundance.
How did you go about approaching the community in Palm Island about filming? I imagine they might have been media weary at that point.
I think you’re right, there would have been some fatigue around this story because it had been in the media for such a long time. Being indigenous filmmakers, it’s really important we have the permission and consent of the people whose story we’re telling. So we did two or three trips where we didn’t take cameras to the island, and spent time sitting down with people in their homes, talking to the council, that process, we’re lucky enough we were funded we were able to spend that time, make those trips, and that makes much better storytwelling, so when you do bring cameras out, expecting people to talk about events that are still raw for a lot of people.
Were you able to build more trust coming as Blackfella Films rather than another production company?
I don’t know whether you can say that with any certainty, but I think people had an awareness that we tell indigenous sotries, and I think that connection of being blackfellas is one that’s important for people, and helped us win their trust a little quicker. But at the end of the day it comes down to how people interact with each other. Some people were less trusting of us and it took a longer period of time. But I guess you’d have to say yes, it was easier for us coming into those situations, especially a story so loaded with anger and grief and tragedy. People were very happy to talk to us in the end.
And respect is respect, regardless of where you’re coming from, and if you’re respecting their story I’m sure they’d be able to see that authenticity coming through.
Yeah, I agree.
How did you find the Palm Islanders different in the retelling of this story when it came to the official experience of it? How do you go about piecing together a story when one key party in the case when they won’t speak to you?
That was one of the great challenges of making this film. Two of our central characters, one had passed away and the film was based on his death, the events emanate from his death, but on the other hand we had real opposition from the Queensland police service. At one point they had clearly said to us, and we engaged with them in a similar process to the community on Palm Island, going to meet with the police, telling them what we wanted to make, and they had agreed to give interviews, but a week into filming on Palm Island we had a letter from the Queensland police saying they couldn’t give an interview, and wouldn’t and no further correspondence would be entered into. And I think that’s really a great shame.
Why do you think they intiailly agreed and renenged?
I have no idea. We were told we’d definitely get interviews with officers that were stationed on the island during the riots, they said we could speak to the senior sergeant on the island, Paul James, and those interviews were confirmed, and then they decided they wouldn’t go ahead with those interviews. The official reason was they said investigations were pending.
In the absence of their voice, you did manage to get your hands on a lot of footage. You had access to footage the police had taken themselves during the riots when they were locked inside the police compound.
A lot of that material was tendered at the coronial inquest, and we met with the State Coroner, Michael Barnes, and it was through a process of approval getting that through, and that was key for us, even hearing Chris Hurley’s voice in the film. We managed to secure getting that evidence from the Sttate Coroner’s Office, and they decided that that stuff was in the public domain, one of their functions was to give answers to the community and on that basis the State Coroner thought it was important and that access should be given to that material, and certainly we were grateful to be able to include that, because you get Chris Hurley’s voice and his take on events, and it’s much better to have that included.
Particularly in the way the film goes to great lengths to stress stress that the death of Cameron Doomadgee was not an overtly racist act in itself. And this stresson objectivity, to give both sides of the story.
Yeah that was important for us. We didn’t see the film as being an investigative piece, it wasn’t the 7.30 report where we were out to find new information. What we wanted to do was present these events and have the people talking about the event, almot like a re-examining of the events rather than a reinvestigation.
How do you think this story fits into the wider landscape of stories about the collision of black and white Australia?
The nation is probably ready as a whole to engage with indigenous stories, and we’ve seen that in the past with films like Samson and Delilah and Bran Nu Dae, and there’s a real preparedness and an appetite now to engage with indigenous stories and this is an important story because it speaks about justice and it speaks about racial tension and politics in our country. So I think in terms of stories we choose to tell, it’s an important one. Documentary shines a spotlight onto worlds and things we don’t normally get to view and this is an important story.
This interview was first broadcast by 2ser FM’s film show, Celluloid Dreams.
