Rachel Perkins
Blackfella Films
10 Cecil St.
Paddington 2021 30th Jan 2013
Dear
Rachel
Sometime this week my blog will
receive its 20,000th page view. Whilst my most visited post used to be “WHY MY
COMPLAINT ABOUT SCREEN AUSTRALIA IS RELEVANT TO ANYONE BUT MYSELF”, now it
is my 15th Oct letter to you written from the foyer of Screen Australia on the day of
my first arrest:
http://jamesricketson.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/for-rachel-perkins-from-screen.html
751 people have viewed this post
and, I presume (hope!), that 751 fellow filmmakers (curious onlookers!?) wonder
why it is that you have never answered any of the questions I asked in this or
any of my previous (or subsequent) letters to you.
On 16th June last year
you expressed your ‘concern’ and told me that you would look into my complaint
that I had been banned without being provided with any evidence of the crimes
for which I had been found guilty. For eight months now, since the May 10th
ban, you have been in a position to present me (and the 751 readers of my
letter to you) with evidence that I have
intimidated or placed at risk members of Screen Australia’s staff. You
have not done so. Why? What kind of
risk? Intimidated who? When? Evidence!? Such questions are not rhetorical,
though you will not answer them. Why? Because no matter how hard you might try,
no matter how loosely you interpret or define ‘intimidate’ and ‘place at risk’,
there is not one sentence, one phrase or even one word in any of my
correspondence that qualifies as evidence of the charges laid against me. You
have been complicit in an exercise in character assassination. How could you do
this, Rachel? Mind you, the same question applies to Claudia Karvan and Richard
Keddie and the rest of the Board – all of you, for reasons I can only
conjecture at, prepared to implement a ban and engage in character
assassination based on what you all know to be a lie.
I do not expect that the ban will
be lifted for as long as the current regime is in power – a regime that
includes yourself. However, having been making films for more than 40 years, I
see Screen Australia’s ban as simply another in a long line of hurdles, challenges,
to be overcome – as is the case, as you know, for most committed filmmakers in
the industry fro the long haul. I will continue to make films despite Screen
Australia’s clear desire to make this as difficult as possible. One of my
screenplays that Screen Australia refuses to read and assess on the grounds
that in so doing members of SA staff would be placed at risk (I shake my head
and smile as I write this) has been picked up for development in the US.
As for HONEY, (see HONEY
#1 on my blog) this is a project that was effectively banned by Screen
Australia back in 2009 when SA decided, since I was not a ‘proven producer’
(despite the evidence to the contrary, on top of close to 40 years filmmaking
experience) that no application could be accepted from me by Screen Australia
for script development!
best wishes
James Ricketson
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