Screening: Scattered People
By Terry Yang and Thuhi Mathu-Ragupathy, Year 12 students
Music can heal and transform on a personal and community level, but can it build a bridge between middle Australia and some of the world's most vulnerable people?
We warmly invite the Radford community to consider this question at a screening of the film Scattered People from 5-7 pm on Friday, 24 March in the Heath Lecture Theatre.
Scattered People is a film about two Iranian musicians who discover the healing power of music, bringing together people, cultures and countries while exploring Australians' attitudes towards people seeking asylum. Prominent Australian musicians such as Missy Higgins, Archie Roach and Baker Boy also feature, collaborating with Saha, Mas and other asylum seekers to show how music can unify people and bring hope around the world.
The screening is being held as a pre-event to Dirrum Dirrum, a festival annually run by Year 12 students that includes a wide variety of speakers who talk about how they’re making a difference to their community locally, nationally and globally. Key speakers over the years have included Akram Azimi, Gillian Triggs, Peter Greste, Professor Tom Calma AO and Professor John Minns. This year, the festival is being held on 12 August.
The theme for this year’s Dirrum Dirrum Festival is 'Sonder', defined as the realisation that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. By watching this film, we hope to embody this theme in our own lives, and we’d love for the Radford community to join us in watching this insightful film. Dr Barlow, one of our history teachers, has kindly agreed to introduce the film on the day, drawing on her expert knowledge of the Iranian women’s movement.
At the conclusion of the film, we’ll be interviewing Professor John Minns of the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, whose research interests include international relations and the politics of asylum. We will be talking to him about how the world has changed since the release of the film in 2021, as well as cases that have garnered recent media attention.
At 4:30 pm on the day, there will also be a sausage sizzle run by RAS. All profits and donations on the day will go towards the Refugee Action Campaign. Furthermore, the senior band Illitrat will be performing.
As a candid exploration of some deeply troubling issues regarding asylum, the film does contain some disturbing content and is rated M. We would recommend keeping this in mind if you’re interested in coming.
We hope to see you there!