Con’s Score: 4.5 Swans
Following the impact of The Final Quarter (TFQ) and the discussion it generated, I thought there was no need for another Adam Goodes documentary. I baulked at the thought of putting myself through the anger of watching it all again. Then the reports of an emotional standing ovation at the Melbourne Film Festival, Stan Grant as the writer and a pulsating trailer, whet my appetite and made me hope there were new insights. There certainly were.
British award winning Daniel Gordon uses a more conventional documentary approach. Where TFQ started with the round Goodes missed, this took a more linear timeline. Gordon uses music, clever lighting and shots to bring up the emotion and illustrate the impact on Goodes. Whereas TFQ had no talking heads, this was full of them. This time he and Stan Grant are front of Centre. This time, it’s personal.
It starts with a youthful Goodes and the context is established by Nicky Winmar and John Longmire. They tell of the disgraceful abuse and booing they copped in that fateful game for being black. Novas Paris Kneebone recounts being told to “Pass the salt, n****r” by a fellow Australian male athlete at a games village. His defence was that he thought it was normal. This is first time it’s been publicised. (You think Australia wasn’t racist?)
We also see what a brilliant player Goodes was at 18, how he struggled under a taskmaster like Eades, yet flourished under Paul Roos, who was more encouraging. We start to realise Goodes is a confidence player, and many of the finest are. Soon he was winning Brownlow medals and grand finals with a ruptured PCL. He was a champion player, with a real gritty streak. And when the Swans encouraged him to do an Indigenous studies course, he learned more about the tragedies of his people.
Then came that game. On the 20th anniversary of Winmar baring his black skin, a 13 year old girl called him an ape. And we are not spared the racists’ outrage. It is vile.
Then there was the war dance. Why this offended AFL fans is beyond me. The world stops to watch the Haka, and some of the best rugby union and league players were Indigenous. I love watching Goodes’ war dance. The Wallabies should adopt it. AFL fans really are immature, but this debate consumed Australia.
Throughout this Grant adds his own perspective. He is just as eloquent as Goodes and it gives this more depth. While the apologists say “She was only 13, how dare you!”, the Indigenous say, “She is only 13, and she calls Adam an ape? During an Indigenous round? How could she! We already cop it every other day.”
Eddie Maguire tells his story to camera but the Gorilla comments are played raw. Goodes apparently told him “You’re no friend.” Maguire’s mea culpas reeked then, and still do today. It was no slip of the tongue. It was how he probably speaks when the cameras aren’t on.
Even Andrew Bolt is given his fair say to camera. Maybe that young girl wasn’t the face of racism, but a condescending middle aged white male surely is. He’s given lots of screen time and sticks up for the 13 year old girl. (Pity this documentary was filmed before he bullied one himself. Greta Thunberg anyone? But that’s the sort of hypocrites the shock jocks are.)
No matter where you stand in this debate, it helps to hear both sides, and we are taken into the psyche of a Goodes, Grant and all of the Indigenous athletes and how deeply it all cuts.
This is the perfect companion piece to TFQ – It showed the events in a clinical fashion. The Australian Dream reveals the background and the emotions that underlie it, for the victims of racism. I once again felt outraged by Australia’s racism.
As sports journalist Tracey Holmes says, Australians don’t really know what racism is. As an ethnic I grew up with it, but it was never as deep as what these people experienced. I’ve never heard one Australian admit they are. Maybe if they’re confronted by the victims of racism, they might realise it is defined by the victims, not the perpetrators. I dare anyone who thought it alright to boo Goodes to watch this and not walk out changed. This is just as compelling as its predecessor. It’s a debate we still need to have, or the racist booers will win, and no one goes out to watch them.
Con Nats – On The Screen
