I must share something that has touched my heart today and brought me great hope. It’s this video with the relatively innocuous title, “PHILOXENIA Episode 3 MANUS”, but there’s more to this production that the title suggests!
In November 2017 I travelled to Manus Island, accompanied by Jarrod McKenna and Olivia Rousset (who was the genius behind my Compass documentary back in October 2014). I was greatly disappointed though afterwards as hardly any of the footage taken by Olivia on Manus Island was made public. This was due to concerns expressed by the lawyers who felt that screening the footage might jeopardize the futures of some of the men we interviewed.
Some footage made it into the story done by ABC Lateline, and more of it was shared in a compilation that we screened last April when our church did a Manus Island fundraiser. Even so, my fear was that most of that excellent material – footage that so well exhibited the character of the men in captivity on Manus Island – would never reach the public eye. Thanks to documentary film-maker, Angus McDonald, it now has!
This documentary only goes for 13 minutes and 40 seconds, but it is well worth watching. Indeed, it is well worth sharing. I am excited to think that we may finally have something here that could be a force in the cause of freedom.
