ERC Deportations Research - A Well-Founded Fear - Endorsements

A Well-Founded Fear -- National Screening: SBS-TV 8.30pm, Wednesday, 19th Nov 2008

What's been said about the truths unveiled in A Well Founded Fear?

Everyone should watch this documentary. It explains how harshly people seeking asylum have been treated and how Australian Governments have too often returned, what they regard as failed asylum seekers, to situations of very real danger. When will we again find our humanity?

Malcolm Fraser, former Australian Prime Minister

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Every Australian should see this film and face what our government did in our name. There is no escaping our collective responsibility for the terrible official actions that led to the destruction of life and hope for those who asked us for help and were rejected. Phil Glendenning says, at some time you have to take human rights seriously. This stark, powerful and truthful film should convince Australia that now is that time.

Susan Ryan AO, Chair, Human Rights Act for Australia Campaign.

A Well Founded Fear confronts us with the knowledge that the effects of the Tampa and the Pacific Solution are still blighting the lives of the people who sought asylum on our shores. Cutting through the complex tangles of bureaucratic artifice which cast them out, the film compassionately exposes the real life and death consequences of these decisions for so many people whose sin was to ask for help.

Dr Carmen Lawrence, former Federal MP and Minister, Professorial Fellow, University of Western Australia

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Thousands of Australians refuse to be complicit in this nation's denial of it's responsibilities to provide sanctuary to the politically oppressed and work for justice and compassion for those seeking refuge at our door. This documentary movingly tells part of the story of the thousands who valued their rights and responsibilities as global citizens above the political expediency of an intolerant government.

Pat Dodson, Yawuru elder, former Chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and Paul Lane, Lingiari Foundation

Tragic and avoidable, these awful events demonstrate the former Howard Government’s utter contempt for human rights, the extent of its deception, and its failure to guide on critical social issues.But for the courage of the victims and the persistence and bravery of Phil Glendenning and the ERC to reveal the truth, these profound injustices would not have come to light. As a nation largely indifferent to the fate of those seeking asylum on her shores, Australia should hang its head in shame.

Bryan Dawe, Actor and Author

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This heartbreaking film shows not only the extreme callousness of what Australia did, but also the strength and the human decency of those we turned away. I urge all Australians to see this disturbing film and to reflect on what it reveals about the recent history of their country.

Robert Manne, Professor La Trobe University

The Australian government says it is not responsible for the safety of rejected asylum seekers when they are returned home. Some, rejected after being processed under the Howard government’s Pacific Solution, have been returned to places like Afghanistan or been sent to places like Syria. They have faced grave threats, even death. In A Well Founded Fear, individual Australian citizens have taken up the responsibility, seeking out those returned to danger. These ambassadors of hope meet the human face of abandonment and provide us with credible information to assess harsh policy and to take action so that we might never again place in harm’s way those with a legitimate claim on our compassion.

Fr Frank Brennan SJ. Author of TAMPERING WITH ASYLUM 

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Sometimes I feel ashamed to be an Australian. Watching A Well Founded Fear is surely one of those times. How could we have allowed this to happen? We all bear an immense personal responsibility, moral and legal, but no one so much as those who lead our nation in these inhuman policies. This documentary should lead us to two commitments. First, in spite of the policy changes under the Rudd government, we have not yet begun to make up for the profound harm we have caused. We must do that. Second, we must never allow this to happen again. Never, never, never.

Chris Sidoti, Former Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner

Sometimes as you watch a film you ask why is this storyteller making this journey. Phil Glendenning, the narrator who takes us to Afghanistan to meet some unforgettable strangers, burns with a desire for us to know the truth. His great empathy allows us to get to know these human beings and the cold realities of their lives. He knows when to take his finger-prints off the film and let the misery and the fear say it all. Our country's policy towards refugees has been unjust and inhumane for too long. Glendenning will not allow us to turn away and forget.

Jeff McMullen author and journalist

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What's been said about A Well Founded Fear as a film ?

I cannot remember watching a film and feeling so ANGRY at the moral travesty, the heartless, indifferent cruelty, of the Howard government's illegal immigration policy … It is exactly what Australian documentarians should be making - a painstaking and forensic examination of the consequences of those ten blighted years. It is quite devastating.

Bob Connolly, Producer / Director, RATS IN THE RANK, BLACK HARVEST, FIRST CONTACT, etc.

A powerful and important film. A Well Founded Fear is just what is needed … to make people aware that we need to begin to redress some of the wrongs that have been done in our name.

Curtis Levy, Producer / Director, THE PRESIDENT vs DAVID HICKS, etc.

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A Well Founded Fear joins the ranks of Australian documentaries which changed the way I saw the world … [it] has the potential to influence government policy on deporting failed asylum seekers. Voters seeing this film will be contacting their representative in Canberra and asking difficult questions.

Sara Bennett, Editor, THE NIGHT THE PROWLER, THE WINDS OF JARRAH, etc.

A Well Founded Fear tells the side of the story we so rarely get to see. It is a sobering and heartrending account of what has happened to some of Australia's deportees. Phil Glendenning's dedication and his passion for social justice is exemplary!

Pat Fiske, Producer / Director, FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE, BUSINESS BEHIND BARS, DOC, ROCKING THE FOUNDATIONS, etc.

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Great film, I certainly had a few tears in my eyes.

Benjamin Gilmour, Director SON OF A LION.

How we treat people less fortunate than ourselves is essential to the fabric of our character – and this includes the character of our Nation as much as it's individual peoples … Hopefully documentaries like this will help us and our children to be the compassionate, fair go country we once thought we were …. [and] our citizens will also realise they are citizens of the world, not living in a state, a world apart.

Rebel Penfold-Russell, Producer / Arts Patron

This is the most important film I commissioned in my three years at SBS. A program like this represents the true values of SBS.